He was a celebrity pastor at one of Canada’s biggest megachurches. Inside the sexual abuse allegations that brought down Bruxy Cavey, the Star’s religion reporter watched him try to repair his damaged reputation with help from the community he loved — and saw him stumble in the process.
A short while ago in Toronto, pastor Bruxy Cavey was in a world of trouble. A few months ago, after his name became synonymous with sexual abuse in the church, he was facing more than 100 charges that included sexual assault, forcible confinement and unlawful confinement.
What’s more, an internal church review had found he had “engaged in serious misconduct in the church,” as church officials put their findings in a letter to him last week.
He was a celebrity pastor at a prominent Toronto megachurch, an evangelical community, the church’s most senior pastor. He’d been a beloved figure for years.
Inside the chaos, however, were allegations that he had engaged in sexual abuse against his own congregation. A woman claimed she’d endured six sessions of abuse over a period of a few months.
Even more, more than 20 staff members in the church told the Star they were horrified to report the allegations to church leaders.
And that’s on top of a mountain of evidence of other clergy abusing children in the church.
For all the headlines, however, the fallout was far more complicated.
Cavey — who’d been preaching for more than 40 years — had spent the past few months trying to repair his reputation while enduring the pain of the fallout.
He was struggling to get his message of love and forgiveness across in the wake of allegations of sexual abuse in his church. And, he was making a concerted attempt to rebuild his reputation as pastor, while also hoping to move forward with his life.
But he’d been battling accusations from members of his own church, and from the public, all along. His reputation and his own church