By Jerry Hames
Episcopal Life
November 5, 2007
http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_91607_ENG_HTM.htm
[Episcopal News Service] It was "business as usual" at the convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on November 3, just hours before the inhibition of its bishop, Charles E. Bennison, took effect.
In the only direct reference from the podium at Philadelphia Cathedral to Bennison's suspension, diocesan Chancellor William Bullitt told clergy and lay delegates that as of 12:01 a.m. November 4 Bennison was barred from all canonical, episcopal and ministerial functions indefinitely. In his brief statement, Bullitt said the diocesan standing committee would become the ecclesiastical authority on November 4 and that it will appoint a bishop to conduct future ordinations, confirmations and parish visitations until the Court for the Trial of a Bishop determines Bennison's fate.
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Standing committee president Glenn Matis (right) and William Wood, a committee member, listen to Bishop Charles E. Bennison. Photo by Charles Penniman |
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori announced the inhibition, with the concurrence of the standing committee, on October 31 after an investigation concluded there was ample evidence for a trial to proceed.
Bennison is accused of covering up sexual misconduct by his married brother, John, with a 14-year-old female 37 years ago. Bennison, then a priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles, had hired his brother as a youth worker. The presentment also says Bennison acted "passively and self-protectively," while his brother was ordained in Los Angeles, deposed over misconduct in another matter, then re-ordained and transferred to another diocese. He renounced his orders again in 2006.
The presentment of charges against the bishop is available here, and the text of the inhibition is available here.
One year ago, Bennison apologized to the diocese for "lack of action on my part" after the abuse became public.
The result of a second complaint against the bishop has yet to be announced. The diocesan standing committee has sought Bennison's removal for nearly two years on the ground that he misused diocesan assets. Last November, it filed a unanimous complaint with the Presiding Bishop's office asking that Bennison face trial for depleting millions of dollars in diocesan assets without proper authorization in order to create a summer camp and retreat center in Maryland.
Peter Wilmerding, chair of the finance and property committee, reported to convention November 3 that about $8 million has been used for the camp and retreat center -- $3 million initially for the property, a $3 million investment in buildings and $2 million to operate the camp. A month ago the four full-time and four part-time staff were dismissed because funds had been depleted.
The 10-member standing committee has said it believes at least $11.6 million has been spent from diocesan trust funds without its approval and that endowment funds were used that previously provided income for on-going ministries.
The Very Rev. Richard Giles, cathedral dean, welcomed the convention and set the tone for debate when he said the task was "to do ordinary things extraordinarily well and to execute them with humility and grace."
"Our task at this convention is not to dwell on the past or worry about the future, but to pour us into the present moment and to experience God in the here and now," he said.
At intervals throughout the convention, Bennison presented certificates of recognition to staff who have been laid off in the past year and to those with extraordinary years of service.
Actions by the convention included approving an increase in clergy compensation, delaying the closing of urban churches serving people of color until an urban mission strategy for the diocese has been approved, and commending more than 115 leaders who have completed antiracism training.
Convention also approved a $1 million program budget for 2008 which committee vice-chair George Whitfield said was "the result of continued thinking of frugality, transparency and faithful management of increasingly scarcer resources."
Following convention, the standing committee met and reelected the Rev. Glenn M. Matis as president; Diane-Louise Wormley, first vice president; William Powell, second vice president; and Arlene McGurk, secretary. Matis arrived early at the diocese's Church House on November 5 to begin the transfer of ecclesiastical responsibility to the standing committee.
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