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‘ISF should be more open’ says former vice president
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 INTERNATIONAL. When Garth Willey resigned as vice president of the International Spiritualist Federation (ISF) – see our previous stories – it was largely over the Executive Committee’s handling of the Mervyn Johnson case. Johnson, a former president, is now in prison in Sweden having been found guilty of child rape. But there are other issues that are troubling him.
Willey (left), who is based in Australia, gave his reasons for stepping down in an “Open Letter of Resignation” dated 11 February which he sent to his fellow Executive Committee members.
Since it was an open letter, one of those members sent a copy to us and we published the story on 20 February. A few days later we carried a response from Bill Parkins, ISF treasurer, disassociating the federation from Willey’s personal views. It also announced that Parkins had been appointed as vice president, in place of Willey.
That should have been the end of the matter. But the April edition of ISF’s publication, Yours Fraternally, edited by Lionel Owen, claims that Willey sent his resignation letter to Psychic News, the weekly Spiritualist newspaper, prior to Parkins issuing the ISF statement.
This, says Garth Willey, is a “blatantly untrue statement” which is repeated in the magazine’s Editorial. He therefore gives this account of what happened in a letter to the Editor, which he has copied to various ISF members:
The facts of the matter are:
1. I did not seek press publicity at any stage and, indeed, rejected an early request from one member if he may forward my 11th February resignation letter on to the press. I advised him that I wished to maintain the high ground.
2. On 18th Feb, I received an email from Roy Stemman, publisher of www.Paranormal Review.com, advising, “I’ve been made aware of your letter of resignation as ISF vice president” and giving me the courtesy of seeing the story he was running on it on his website.
3. On 24th Feb, I received a further courtesy email from Roy Stemman advising me that he had received an email from Bill Parkins taking him to task for “printing an article from Garth Willey” and advising that “the ISF EC will be issueing (sic) a statement through the PN news concerning this matter”. Roy disclosed this email to me along with his response to Bill Parkins:
“I should make you aware immediately that I did not receive Garth Willey’s Open Letter to the ISF EC from him. It was forwarded to me by someone else who received it and who felt – given my previous coverage of the Mervyn Johnson case – that I would be interested to know of this development. Which, of course, I was.
I have to say I am somewhat surprised by your reaction to his decision to resign and the reasons for it. He clearly is a man of principle who feels very strongly that his ISF colleagues have made the wrong decision. So strongly, in fact, that he has resigned and produced a letter of explanation.
If you are suggesting that he should not have voiced his reasons, that’s not something I would agree with. Rumours fly when people “go quietly”. Far better that everyone knows the reason and makes their own decision about the rights or wrongs of it. Clearly, there are others who share Garth’s view. Yet others are joining ISF, as you point out. We live in a democracy thank God, and so we must expect differences of opinion to arise – even in Spiritualism!
Naturally, I would like to receive the statement that is to be issued by the ISF. I would also hope that the ISF wasn’t planning to limit the circulation of the statement to PN , or view PN as its one and only “mouthpiece”. There are a number of additional avenues open to you for putting your point across – Psychic World, Two Worlds, Psychic Gazette, etc – as well as my own website, and I would hope you wouldn’t favour one above the others.
I wish you well in taking over as vice-president at what is clearly a difficult time. Do keep in touch and keep me informed of any developments that you feel deserve the attention of a wider audience.
Kind regards
Roy”
In other words, Yours Fraternally had no excuse for publishing and commenting on a statement that was untrue.
Now this might seem like nothing more than a storm in a teacup, but Garth Willey sees it as symptomatic of the ISF’s style of management of which he disapproves.
In his letter to Lionel Owen, he goes on to explain:
“These are the facts and you can seek verification of them if you wish from Roy Stemman and/or with the Editor of PN.
 “Clearly, Bill Parkins [right] made a big error of judgement when he sent the ‘PN Statement’ to www.ParanormalReview.com and to PN [Psychic News]; and now he, or whoever wrote the accusation on page 31 of YF [Yours Fraternally], seeks to cover up by accusing me of being the one to take the matter to PN !!!
“A big mystery which may have been perceived by those with a sharp eye is: ‘Why was the “PN Statement” signed by Bill Parkins instead of by the General Secretary or the President?’
“And, ‘Why was the “PN Statement” signed on behalf of the Officers and not on behalf of the Executive Committee?’ – particularly since it also contained advice of his own appointment to VP by ‘a majority vote’ of the EC. Why? Because not all members of the EC were invited to vote! – I am informed. And this, sad to say, has been the way the ISF EC has operated when it suits those in key positions – even to the exclusion of myself when I was acting President and the senior Officer.
“This leads me to answer your other criticism, Lionel, that I circulated my letter of resignation to all Liaison Officers. Why? Because on EC track record I believed that my reason for resigning would never have been disclosed to members. Rather, a simple statement would have been put out to the effect that I had resigned for personal reasons; and I would have sacrificed all my endeavours to bring about a change for the better in the running of the ISF – for nothing but ignominy as someone who found the going too tough.
“I feel that a cloak of secrecy and confidentiality has hung over the ISF’s affairs for far too long. Some things need to be kept confidential until they are resolved, but other things need to be disclosed and addressed. Precedent actions and attitudes have clouded the EC’s proper moral understanding as to how the Johnson situation should have been handled, and dealt with.
“While I am at it, I would like to take this opportunity to give to members a major example of non-disclosure by the EC. When I arrived at Eastbourne in November, 2006 (as VP, but found myself acting President due to Johnson’s arrest) I discovered that the EC had resolved at Portorosa in 2005 to exempt themselves 100% from future registration costs of weeks/weekends – unless anyone’s conscience dictated that they should contribute something. (Previously, they had enjoyed a 25% discount.)
“Only Eleanor Landreau [France] had voted against this, bless her. Whether or not it was/is fair and reasonable considering the amount of work and sacrifices most of the Committee members put in justifies this (I sincerely believe it does) is one aspect, and whether or not this benefit available to EC members should have been made known to all ISF members (or more properly, should have been a matter for members to vote on at a General Meeting) is another aspect.
“I certainly believe that, at the least, the voting of a benefit to themselves should morally have been made known to all members at the time – and I, along with the other newcomer to committee, Matthias Güldenstein [Switzerland], argued at that November 2006 meeting that it should then be made known to all members ASAP: to no avail. Again we brought the subject up in Rochester [New York]: again to no avail.
“One of the justifications the EC leaders put forward in defence of the exemption from registration costs was that no member should feel barred from standing for committee on the financial grounds of being unable to attend meetings. But when I put the proposition that this was all the more reason to disclose it to the general membership before the current election nominations were invited, it again fell on stony ground. And I am ashamed that I did not speak out publicly at that time.
“In conclusion, I see the blatant accusation that I took my resignation case to the press as typical unscrupulous behaviour. I won’t be writing to the EC to complain about it because I know it will simply get deferred for consideration at the next EC Meeting in June – after voting in the current elections has been concluded. It may already be too late for members to take these words of mine into consideration in their voting. But for any members getting to read this letter prior to casting their votes, I appeal to you to consider your vote carefully. The ISF needs new blood on its Executive Committee.
“Lionel, I now ask that you seek independent verification of my above statements from Roy Stemman and PN (and PW for that matter) and that you then write an informed retraction of your misguided Editorial comments for the July Editorial of Yours Fraternally.”
Since receiving a copy of the above letter from Garth Willey, Matthias Güldenstein has also copied us in on a letter of support he has sent to Willey. It reads:
“Thank you for this clear and elucidating letter to Lionel. Since you have mentioned me as well in your letter I would like to affirm everything you have said about our attempts to bring the matter of privileges for the EC before the members.
“I also have tried several times to convince my colleagues of the EC that there are certain matters which have to be discussed openly and should not be swept and kept under the carpet, also to no avail. I do hope that the majority of our members may see that there is a ‘majority’ in the EC who just does what they want, without even asking the other members, as typically in the case of the ‘majority vote’ for Bill Parkins. This has to change – otherwise the ISF will become a private club of this ‘majority’.”
Garth Willey, in a covering e-mail to Lionel Owen, explains that he has copied the ISF Executive Committee, liaison officers, ambassadors and publicity officers in on his letter, as well as other individuals he believes to be ISF members, adding:
“Yes, I consider the allegations to be that serious – and this response to be of urgent necessity.”
He concludes: “I certainly do not want to cause the ISF any harm by this action since, as those who know me know that I stand strong and tall for its ideals, its objects and its reasons for being. Rather, I seek to cure it of a woefully misguided management faction; and, of course, to defend my own integrity.”
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Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Category: Spiritualism
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