ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Tim O'Neil
Of the Post-Dispatch
Friday, Jan. 28 2005
A former Protestant bishop was sentenced Friday to at least 120 days in prison
for committing sodomy with a teenage boy who belonged to his congregation in
St. Louis.
"I know the words 'I'm sorry' are inadequate," Shelby E. Shannon, 61, told a
crowded courtroom. "I will live with this for the rest of my life in shame for
what I have done."
Shannon, former bishop in three states for the Church of the Living God,
pleaded guilty Dec. 13 of two counts of sodomy. He was arrested one year
earlier after the boy, now 18, alleged that Shannon abused him beginning in
December 2002.
Shannon was pastor of two Church of the Living God CCWF congregations in the
St. Louis area and was bishop in Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin for the
Cincinnati-based denomination, which was founded by a former slave in 1889. His
churches were in Cool Valley and at 1034 South Kingshighway.