Minister loses pair of pulpits

Author: CYNTHIA DI PASQUALE, Daily Dispatch Writer

The Rev. Thomas Denny, who was recently asked to stop preaching at Spring Valley United Methodist Church, will not be reassigned to Gillburg United Methodist Church or any other church in North Carolina come July.

Spring Valley's pastor-parish relations committee asked Denny to stop preaching in March after meeting to discuss a scandal surrounding his 14-year-old adopted daughter.

"We gave him a chance to explain," church board member Tom Buchanan said. "We had an open meeting, and some things that were brought up we didn't go along with."

Denny and his wife, Susan, adopted a daughter in 1997, but by January 2001 they placed her in the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford.

She developed a relationship with a volunteer at the orphanage, James Matthew McDaniel-Webb, and in November 2001 the Dennys gave him legal custody of their daughter.

In February this year, McDaniel-Webb, 46, was arrested on charges of statutory rape and child pornography. He is being held in federal custody without bond. No trial date has been set.

Raleigh's News & Observer first reported on McDaniel-Webb's case in March.

"I knew he had an adopted daughter that he had problems with and that she was in an orphanage, but I didn't know anything else until the News & Observer article," Buchanan said.

At the time, Denny was working at the Spring Valley and Gillburg churches.

Spring Valley asked him to leave about one week after the N&O article was printed, Buchanan said.

In that article, Denny acknowledged receiving money from McDaniel-Webb several times. The Dennys had filed for bankruptcy a few months before giving McDaniel-Webb custody.

The Wake County District Attorney's Office would not comment on any matters relating to the Dennys.

Thomas Denny would not answer questions for this article.

"We were strong on getting him out of the pulpit," Buchanan said. "The total congregation of Spring Valley wanted him out."

Buchanan confirmed that Denny remains on the payroll at Spring Valley, but the church pays another minister to preach on Sundays.

The North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church appoints ministers to churches for one-year assignments, effective July 1. Denny continues to fulfill his pastoral duties at Spring Valley and Gillburg until that time, UMC District Superintendent Judi Johnson Smith said.

The state conference makes clergy appointments based on a profile submitted by individual churches to the district superintendent, said state UMC conference communications director Bill Norton. The profile describes the church's vision for itself and what kind of minister it needs.

Additionally, the church submits an advisory to the bishop stating whether it wants a pastor to return. The pastor also submits an advisory stating his preference.

Although Denny continues to preach at Gillburg, Smith confirmed that he will not be reassigned to that or any other church in North Carolina.

Smith would not comment on why Denny is permitted to preach in one church but not another.

"That's a personnel matter," she said. "It's a matter that pertains only to the church, to the PPR (parish-pastor relations) committee and the pastor in charge."

The conference has not investigated the minister, as no legal charges have been filed against him, Smith said.

"If such occasion arose, the appropriate boards and committees would deal with the pastor in question," she said.

The writer can be reached at mailto:cdipasquale@hendersondispatch.com.