The resignation came two months after Pastor Peter James gave a public sermon about the effects of DeVries’s actions and apologized to the young women who were lured into sexual contact between 2001 and 2005. James has said he and others failed to adequately address the abuse and allowed the issue to fester for years, even as more victims came forward.
A Washington Post investigation published in April found at least five victims of abuse, and church officials have estimated there are as many as a dozen linked to DeVries. In an interview with the Post, DeVries acknowledged that he had inappropriate relationships with several girls and said he regretted any harm he caused.
Eagan’s departure is one part of a series of changes underway at Vienna Presbyterian as it strives to become a “model safe church” that works to prevent abuse and embrace those who have suffered as a result of it, James said. The church has instituted training, security and awareness programs, and church leaders have been trying to identify those who were abused so they can offer healing and support.
“We’re working really, really hard, but it’s not without some blood on the floor,” James said. “We have the chance now to be a safe place, not just physically but spiritually and emotionally. It has that potential. It’s still tender. It’s still new. We’re pedaling as fast as we can.”
Eagan, 63 and a member of the church for 25 years, said in an interview that he agrees that the church needs new leadership. He said he believes the church needs to find someone who can offer pastoral care as well as run an organization with a $5 million annual budget.
A career organizational developer who was asked to take the job on an interim basis, Eagan said he was shocked to learn of the abuse then and did not know how to handle it.
“I knew nothing about the dynamics or how complex the problem was,” Eagan said. “Where I missed it was the sensitivity. We knew what we knew when we knew it, and we did the best we could do.”
Eagan said that he came to terms just last year with the breadth of the problem and that he is angered and frustrated by what DeVries’s alleged actions have done to the church.
“We were all in the same boat together,” Eagan said. “I was lied to, I was manipulated, just like everyone else. It was all horrible.”
Eagan, according to some of the young women interviewed by the Post and others within the church, appeared to suppress reports of abuse and, at times, appeared to be blaming the girls for what happened.
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