The Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church has suspended a clergy member over her past work for the late child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The conference said it “became aware of a past working relationship between one of its ordained clergy and Jeffrey Epstein from 2018 to 2019” and that the clergy member would be suspended for 90 days starting March 12 while the matter is investigated.
The Rev. Stephanie Remington worked as Epstein’s administrative assistant from August to December 2018, and then as a property manager on Little Saint James, Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, from January to May 2019, according to UM News, the United Methodist Church’s official news agency.
In the Justice Department’s online registry of files relating to Epstein, Ms. Remington’s name appears 1,863 times. She has not been charged with any crimes relating to her work for Epstein.
Ms. Remington told UM News “I never saw anything” and never saw Epstein or anyone else commit abuses on the island, adding that she “knew him for the last nine months of his life, well after he served time for the things that he was accused of doing.”
Epstein was arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors in July 2019; he died in his cell in August 2019 from what authorities deemed a suicide.
Ms. Remington put her work with Epstein in religious terms, telling UM News that “Jesus got into a lot of trouble for the company he kept, but he didn’t let that trouble pressure him into rejecting the people who, by their standards, did not deserve to be human. … Of course he didn’t deserve a second chance. None of us do. But that’s not how grace works.”
Conference officials said, “Clergy are called to uphold the highest standards of spiritual and moral leadership. Concerns of this nature are taken seriously and require careful review. We recognize the deep harm connected to Mr. Epstein’s crimes. … Because this is an active matter, the Missouri Conference will not comment further while the supervisory response process is underway.”
