ADELAIDE, Australia, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The head of the Anglican Church of Australia has officially approved the removal of a bishop accused being a bully, church officials said Monday.
Murray Diocese Bishop Ross Davies' conduct with parishioners in the South Australia diocese was the subject of a church tribunal hearing in Adelaide in September. That hearing found Davies guilty of eight of nine church charges brought against him, including protecting an archdeacon accused of sexual misconduct.
Davies resigned as bishop in September and tried to quit from Holy Orders as well, a spokesman for Archbishop Jeffrey Driver in Adelaide had told UPI at the time.
Driver and Bishop of Willochra Garry Weatherill brought the charges against Davies following complaints from several lay members of Davies' diocese that he had bullied them and others, charges the tribunal accepted.
The office of the Rev. Phillip Aspinall, the church's primate for Australia, said Davies had accepted the tribunal's findings but it could not confirm reports he had now joined the Catholic Church, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
