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“Sarah York’s important book should be required reading in every seminary. It is a brilliantly written cautionary tale telling how a congregation becomes a toxic house of worship when its spiritual leader commits acts of sexual abuse and the obstacles an ethical and skilled minister  faces in her attempts to bind up the traumatic wounds her predecessor has left behind.”  —Rabbi James Rudin, KSG, DD, Senior Interreligious Adviser, The American Jewish Committee

Trouble in Paradise:

A Story of Ministry in the Aftermath of Clergy Misconduct by Sarah York

Apollo Ranch Institute Press • Pub Date: August 18, 2026

Rev. Sarah York was aware that she would face challenges as an “afterpastor,” a minister who leads a church where their predecessor engaged in malfeasance. As it turned out, she learned that serving a congregation after clergy misconduct means facing impossible expectations, buried truths, and systemic resistance to change.

Trouble in Paradise chronicles the story of York’s eight-year ministry as the senior minister of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, a congregation harmed by the behavior of her predecessor, who sexually exploited over twenty women in the congregation. The Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, an active congregation of 600 members, was unaware of the scandal that would take center stage when they initiated the ministerial search that culminated in Sarah taking the job of senior minister—only the second woman in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) tradition to become senior minister in a large church.

When a beloved minister is exposed for sexual misconduct, the damage does not end with his departure. It lingers—quietly shaping decisions, distorting relationships, and setting the stage for further harm. York describes a system that tolerated misconduct, and was thus vulnerable to the charms and manipulations of narcissistic clergy. The perpetrators, Sarah’s predecessor, and later,  a clergyman hired as church administrator who had not disclosed his own record of misconduct, were “people of the charm,” a term coined by congregational systems expert Peter Steinke to describe charismatic leaders with unclear boundaries and excessive ego needs. 

York endured a season of skirmishes and machinations in a church rife with boundary confusion, secret alliances, and gaslighting. After a first year that went relatively smoothly, she became the target of a small group of disgruntled members. She was unprepared for the onslaught of nitpicking, complaints, and rumors, culminating in a direct assault on her ministry and financial sabotage on the church. 

It has taken York twenty-five years to write this book. “When I attempted to get my story on paper, old wounds were opened and I needed to tend to them before I could continue.” She was motivated to finish writing it, hoping her story would help others. “My story is not unique,” she says. “From 2010-2022, I worked as a consultant for ethics and safety for the UUA processing misconduct complaints. I became acutely aware that too many congregations have been wounded by clergy misconduct, including bullying, financial malfeasance, and other forms of unethical behavior, as well as sexual misconduct.”

York refers to her book as a “reflective memoir,” written from the perspective of family systems theory, following the approach of Rabbi Edwin H. Friedman, who mentored York through the congregational distrust she encountered in her first years leading the Santa Barbara church, and the work of Peter Steinke, a Lutheran minister and psychologist who was a mentee of Rabbi Friedman’s.With candor, compassion and hard-won insight, she reveals how secrecy, misplaced loyalty, and unresolved trauma can quietly sabotage a faith community. Blending memoir and organizational wisdom, Trouble in Paradise is both a gripping personal story and a cautionary tale for religious institutions of every tradition.

About the Author

Sarah York is an author, spiritual director, and retired minister. She holds degrees from Wake Forest College (B.A.), Duke University (M.A.T.), Harvard Divinity School (M.Div), and an honorary doctorate from Meadville-Lombard Theological School, along with a certificate in spiritual direction from the Haden Institute. She has authored or contributed to several books, including Remembering Well: Rituals for Celebrating Life and Mourning Death, Pilgrim Heart: The Inner Journey Home, and Into the Wilderness. She lives in Asheville, NC.

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 Trouble in Paradise:

A Story of Ministry in the Aftermath of Clergy Misconduct

Apollo Ranch Institute Press

ISBN: 978-0-967-9058-2-2

Softcover, $18.00

PUB DATE: August 18, 2026