(CP) – A Florida church is now grappling with “shock” and loss after their former senior pastor, the Rev. Bryan Fulwider, who was facing allegations that he repeatedly raped a teenage girl while he was her pastor, killed himself at home on Sunday. “Our church family is in shock and we are trying to absorb the impact of all the events that have transpired in recent weeks.
For now, all we can do is pray for Bryan’s family and for the victim and at some point, find a path to healing,” said Shawn Garvey, senior minister at First Congregational Church of Winter Park where Fulwider last served, in a statement shared with The Christian Post on Tuesday. Emergency crews were called to Fulwider’s Altamonte Springs home at about 11:50 p.m.
Sunday where he was pronounced dead, ASPD spokeswoman Michelle Sosa told the Tampa Bay Times. The Medical Examiner’s Office for Seminole County has since ruled the death a suicide. Fulwider, 59, who also co-founded a weekly radio show in 2012 called “Friends Talking Faith With the Three Wise Guys,” was arrested and charged earlier this month with 30 counts of sexual battery of a person younger than 18, between 2005 and 2010, according to an arrest warrant issued by the Winter Park Police Department, the Orlando Weekly reported. READ MORE
