Shalom Dear Friends:

The Tikkun Senior Advisory Team released a statement on Friday that has caused quite a bit of pain and confusion. This was especially true for  those involved in the IHOPKC investigation—victims, advocates, and many others. We apologize for creating this confusion, and since then have been in long meetings to reflect on how we could have communicated better.

We sincerely apologize to those victims and witnesses who trusted us and came forward and are now feeling betrayed. We know that coming forward took tremendous courage for many of you who have been wounded by leaders.

We are consulting with Rachael Denhollander, as we have communicated in previous updates, in relationship to the IHOPKC Investigation. She was not involved in the statement released on Friday and we are engaging with her this week before we put out a further statement. We value her experience and are in a posture of humble learning related to many of these issues.

We wish to clarify a few quick areas of confusion that we inadvertently created:

1. As pledged from the beginning, the final, full, unredacted Firefly investigative report into IHOPKC will be posted publicly in its entirety as soon as it is finished. The word “summary” in our statement was referring to what Firefly calls their “executive summary,” which is synonymous with the final, full, unredacted report.  We apologize for this confusion.

2. There have been no changes in process, intent, or “staff” of the Tikkun IHOPKC Investigation Coordination Team. From the beginning this team has been dedicated to a full process of embracing alleged victims, their advocates and the accused; followed by a professional, third-party investigation; and finally the evaluation of a qualified Pastoral Recommendation Team (PRT), including both pastors and experts in sexual abuse. The Coordination Team is made up of five people: Asher Intrater, Dan Juster, Ron Cantor, Richard Cleary, and Melva Phelps. Asher is the team leader, and Ron is the spokesperson. Ron is still fulfilling in this role. He was—and is—the primary one interacting with survivors and advocates over the past several months, building trust and goodwill. In one poorly worded email, we regret that we have damaged that trust. It should be noted that every statement that comes from the IHOPKC Investigation Coordination Team is vetted by, and agreed upon, by all members. The recently released statement was not from this team.     

3. In our email last Friday, we spoke of Ron no longer being a part of our Senior Advisory Team. Honestly, that was a mutual decision and not a disciplinary action. We see Ron as a crucial team member and have asked him to return, and he has agreed. Ron has been a part of our community for 37 years and we greatly value him.

4. In the statement on January 10th, we tried to communicate some complex organizational dynamics involving multiple entities, leaders, roles, and relationships. We did so in a tone that, unfortunately, seemed to be overly disciplinary and corrective. We were wrong in trying to communicate multiple messages to different constituencies, which caused understandable concern. Hopefully, as needed, we can communicate this better in the days to come.

Finally, let us speak directly to those who have come forward to testify in this present investigation. We deeply value your participation. We have tried hard to win your trust over the past many months, but we failed you last week. Please forgive us. Without your involvement, there is no investigation, accountability, or discipline. In just a few weeks, the full, unredacted report will be public. We can’t thank you enough for coming forward and sharing your stories. As for us, we are still learning in this space of advocacy. It’s new to us. But our ears are open as well as our hearts.

In our Messiah,

The TG Senior Advisory Team

Asher Intrater, Dan Juster, Paul Wilbur, Eitan Shishkoff, Ron Cantor, Ariel Blumenthal