Former Inter-Faith director charged with theft from his church

The former head of Wichita’s Inter-Faith Ministries has been charged with felony theft from his church, Unity of Wichita.

The church announced in April that a member had embezzled more than $100,000 in church funds.

The district attorney’s office confirmed Wednesday that Garland Egerton was charged in July. He is scheduled to appear in court later this month for a preliminary hearing.

According to a cached version of the church’s website, Garland Egerton (his name is misspelled Edgerton) was the church’s business manager. The complaint against Egerton says the theft occurred from 2013 to 2018.

Egerton’s employment with Inter-Faith Ministries, where he was executive director, ended April 18, just before the church announced its embezzlement in a news release.

LaTasha St. Arnault, Inter-Faith’s new executive director, would not say why Egerton was no longer with the organization, which serves people struggling with homelessness, poverty and hunger.

Inter-Faith Ministries has an annual audit and internal reviews, she said, and there are no concerns about its finances. St. Arnault was named executive director of Inter-Faith in late July.

Egerton became executive director of Inter-Faith Ministries in November 2016, after serving in the role as an interim.

The Rev. Daybree Thoms, pastor at Unity of Wichita, said the person responsible for the embezzlement was deeply trusted by church members. That has resulted in a feeling of betrayal and grief, she said.

“When we were betrayed or think we’ve been hurt, all sorts of stuff comes up in us from the past that we thought we healed,” Thoms said shortly after the embezzlement. “You have to let people go through the process and heal. Otherwise it’s just like a beach ball you push under water. It’s going to come back up.”

About $120,000 was embezzled, Thoms said.

Thoms said that some in the church were wrestling with how to forgive, while others were wrestling with how forgiveness can come alongside with reporting someone to the police. The church held a forgiveness workshop in early June and has since been focusing on gratitude.

“Forgiveness is not without boundaries,” Thoms said. “Forgiveness does not mean condoning behavior (or) that there aren’t real consequences of our actions.”

Thoms’ original start date at the church, which is a member of Unity Worldwide Ministries, was May 1. She and her husband had begun settling in their new home in Wichita when she was asked to start two weeks early after the embezzlement was discovered.

The church discovered $120,000 was missing after Thoms requested a financial audit before accepting the position as pastor. She told The Eagle that there were questions about finances that the board couldn’t answer during her interviews.

She hopes that all churches and nonprofits will learn from their story and have regular audits.

The person who embezzled the $120,000 has not been back to Sunday services, Thoms said. He had begun to distance himself from the church prior to the audit, which also prompted him to give a written confession to church officials, she said.

“Forgiveness is not a destination, but an on-going process of healing,” Thoms said in an email Wednesday. “When we are betrayed, all of our un-forgiveness comes to the surface as our ego attempts to protect us. This community has chosen to forgive and to not remain frozen in judgment and criticism, which is where our human selves want to dwell.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2018 at 2:19 PM.