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	Abuses Are Possible in Charismatic Communities, Author Contends By Ann Rodgers Pittsburgh Post-Gazette May 31, 2010 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10151/1062034-44.stm As a young religion journalist 25 years ago in Houston, Julia Duin joined an Episcopal charismatic community that was repairing ruined buildings and ruined lives. But, after following the Community of Celebration to Beaver County, where she attended Trinity School for Ministry, she became disenchanted. Her 1992 master's thesis documented abuse of authority within the community, and the role of its founder, the Rev. Graham Pulkingham, in spreading a highly authoritarian theology to other charismatic communities nationwide. Months later she amended it to include evidence of sexual misconduct by Father Pulkingham, who was under suspension from ministry when he died suddenly in 1993. Now Ms. Duin has written a book, "Days of Fire and Glory" (Crossland Press $24.95) which weaves a tale both soaring and sordid of the community's rise and fall. She will speak Sunday at 9:30 a.m. in St. Thomas-in-the-Field Church (Anglican), in Richland. "I'm not trashing [the idea of] community," said Ms. Duin, who covers religion for The Washington Times. "But I would like the book to be a template so that if people do try to live out the New Testament vision of community again, they don't repeat the same mistakes." Father Pulkingham achieved national prominence after reviving a dying Houston parish in 1963. An early leader of the charismatic movement, which brought Pentecostal practices such as speaking in tongues into liturgical worship, he began taking in street people who became the nucleus of the Community of Celebration. At its height it had 400 resident members, who lived together and shared resources. They founded a medical clinic and other neighborhood programs. Its traveling music ministry, Fisherfolk, achieved international acclaim. But, by Ms. Duin's account, Father Pulkingham also carried the seeds of the charismatic communities' near-destruction. Part of it may have been rooted in his own pathology as a conflicted, closeted gay man, married to renowned hymn writer Betty Carr Pulkingham. He developed a theology that marginalized women and downplayed the importance of marriage. "He taught that the basic family unit in the Bible isn't husband and wife, but father and son," Ms. Duin said. He was a popular speaker at retreats and at similar Christian communities, spreading a theology that undermined marriages, she said. Ms. Duin, who is single, wasn't directly affected. She says she had been healed of depression at a Christian community in Oregon. So when she moved to Houston in 1986 she sought out the Community of Celebration and remained faithful while internal woes led many others to quit. Father Pulkingham had moved away. In 1985, former Bishop Alden Hathaway of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh offered him a struggling parish in the financially devastated steel town of Aliquippa. More than 30 community members moved into row houses to begin ministry there. When Ms. Duin lost her job in Houston, she followed. In August 1992, Father Pulkingham was removed from ministry, pending the outcome of a diocesan investigation into reports that he had had sexual relations with men who were parishioners or subordinates in several dioceses, according to diocesan statements the following year. He was never given a final verdict. While visiting North Carolina in April 1993, a gunman shot several people in a supermarket where he and his wife were shopping. He suffered a heart attack and died at age 66. The Community of Celebration continues its ministry in Aliquippa, though it is down to six resident members. Bill Farra, the community's primary guardian, said he hadn't read Ms. Duin's book and had no comment on it. "The community is doing well. We're happy and content," he said. The community is chartered by the Episcopal Church, but is also a mission partner of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, which left the Episcopal Church in 2008. It co-sponsors Uncommon Grounds Cafe. The community also works with evangelical college students to tutor and mentor children from housing projects. Row houses that are no longer needed for community members are rented to low-income families. Though the Community of Celebration and others like it have declined since the 1970s, Ms. Duin believes that new ones will arise. "There is a craving for community and intimacy people aren't seeing in churches these days," she said. "I'm trying to warn people that even with the most brilliant Christians and well-meaning people, abuse can happen."
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