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	Bishop, Ex-Priest Spar at Trial By David O'Reilly Philadelphia Inquirer October 22, 2008 http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20081022_Bishop__ex-priest_spar_at_trial.html Taking turns yesterday on the witness stand, the Rev. David Moyer and Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. each sought to present himself as the more pastoral, principled clergyman in their unusual civil trial. Moyer, conservative rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, is suing Bennison, the suspended bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, on grounds that the more liberal Bennison improperly defrocked him as a priest six years ago. He seeks unspecified damages, saying that Bennison improperly denied him a church trial and appeals process that could have vindicated him and kept him a diocesan priest. The trial, which began Monday in Montgomery County Court, could establish a precedent for clergy in hierarchical religious institutions to settle certain personnel matters in civil courts. Bennison spent the morning and part of the afternoon as the day's first witness. He said that he had suspended and later defrocked Moyer in 2002 only after making numerous attempts to resolve their differences, and that he had made "very minimal" demands on the rector despite the priest's harsh public criticism of the bishop and repeated defiance of his authority. Removing a priest from office is the "hardest thing" a bishop ever has to do, Bennison told the court. "One does it very reluctantly." He insisted that Moyer, a church conservative who had repeatedly barred Bennison from making pastoral visits to his Main Line parish, had left him no choice. Moyer's attorney, John Lewis, focused not on Bennison's right to defrock Moyer, but on his method. Lewis said Bennison had not removed Moyer under the usual Episcopal Church law that calls for a trial in such situations. Instead, he said, Bennison had invoked a relatively obscure church law that allows a bishop to remove a priest without a trial if he has "abandoned the communion of the church." That law, or canon, is normally applied only when a priest has left the Episcopal Church USA "to become a Buddhist or a Roman Catholic," according to Lewis, who said Moyer had never left the Episcopal Church. Bennison later said he had hoped that Moyer, suspended and threatened with removal, would back off and allow him to make parish visits, easing their standoff. When Moyer refused, Bennison said he decided against a church trial because he thought doing so would be less demanding emotionally on Moyer and his family. Moyer took the stand shortly before 2:30 p.m. and testified that he was "shocked" by Bennison's March 2002 order to suspend him for six months if he did not allow the bishop to make pastoral visits. He said that as far as he was concerned, Bennison's liberal views on homosexuality and the authority of Scripture, and his statements that Christianity was only one path to salvation, made him unfit to preach in Moyer's parish. Allowing Bennison to do so, Moyer said, "would violate the vows I took at ordination" to "banish all strange and erroneous doctrine" from the church. Throughout his suspension, Moyer said, he had continued to bar Bennison from pastoral visits because Bennison had told him he would be given a church trial. Moyer said he felt certain he would be vindicated at such a trial. Moyer testified he had "no idea" that Bennison would instead declare that he had "abandoned communion" with the institution into which he had been ordained in 1977. "I was trying to make it very clear," he said, "that I was a loyal son of the Episcopal Church." Contact staff writer David O'Reilly at 215-854-5723 or doreilly@phillynews.com.
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