KINGSTON, Jamaica — President of the Moravian Church in Jamaica Dr Paul Gardner and Vice-President Jermaine Gibson have stepped down.

The two reportedly resigned from their respective posts today.

Their resignations come amid a deepening sex scandal that has rocked the Moravian Church, with allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of one of its ministers.

The accused minister, Reverend Rupert Clarke, was recently charged by the police with having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

The police said that about 9:00 pm on December 28, a motorised police patrol in the deep-rural community of Austin in Myersville, south-east St Elizabeth, close to the Alpart plant in Nain, came upon a parked car in a secluded area. Further inspection revealed the pastor and the 15-year-old in what the police described as a “compromising position”.

Clarke was last week released on an J$800,000 bail bond after appearing in the St Elizabeth Parish Court.

This week, a former minister of the church, Dr Canute Thompson, accused the church leadership of applying double standards in relation to allegations of sexual misconduct against the embattled pastor.

Thompson called on Gardner to state whether he had fulfilled a promise made in early 2014 to investigate allegations against 64-year-old Clarke.

Reacting to reports that Gardner and Gibson resigned today, Thompson told OBSERVER ONLINE that it is now a time for “deep contemplation”.

“It’s a time for deep contemplation and reflection,” Thompson said Thursday afternoon. “The situation in which we find ourselves has been brewing with us for some time.

“What we are facing now is not related to the recent development with Rev Clarke; what we are facing is a deeper issue related to how we lead, how we make decisions, how we manage conflicts and crises, and how we relate to each other,” he said.