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	Pennsylvania: Letter from Standing Committee Continues Debate with Bennison By Mary Frances Episcopal Life October 1, 2010 http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_124848_ENG_HTM.htm The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania Standing Committee continued Sept. 29 its contentious public debate with recently returned Bishop Charles Bennison via a letter that accused him of inconsistency between his words and his actions. The Standing Committee also termed as "shocking" a report it said it had received indicating that the bishop had told a Sept. 25 meeting of the Diocesan Council that "'it is known now that all the witnesses at my trial intentionally perjured themselves.'" The committee members said that Bennison had "managed to ignore or discount the opinions and conclusions of three courts, two Presiding Bishops, the House of Bishops, and untold numbers of lay and clergy in the diocese of Pennsylvania, and now all the witnesses at your trial." "We find it amazing that you are able to think that this is in any way normal behavior," the letter said. The letter included examples of why the Standing Committee believes the bishop was pursuing an agenda that runs contrary to the work the committee says it has done in his absence to begin a visioning process for the diocese and deal with financial problems it has said were caused at least in part by earlier decisions made by Bennison. Those concerns surround the level of his support of the work of a Diocesan Mission Planning Commission paired with the committee's belief that Bennison is investigating possible real estate transactions involving the diocese's camp and cathedral, and what the committee says is the bishop's intention to spend $70,000 from a trust fund to publish a history of the diocese for which $133,000 has already been spent. "We are extremely concerned that your apparent insistence on putting everything back the way it was before you left will cause a large number of parishes to hold back funding to the diocese, both assessments and pledges," the committee said in the letter. The diocese is due to meet Nov. 6 in its annual convention and a narrative report on the 2011 program budget refers to "our ever shrinking base of pledged parish support" and notes that 2010 income from congregations "fell well short of the goal." The Standing Committee's letter comes a week after Bennison said that he would not honor a House of Bishops request that he resign his position. The House of Bishops announced their request at the end of their Sept. 16-21 fall gathering in Phoenix, Arizona. In a lengthy and strongly worded "mind of the house" resolution, they said they were "profoundly troubled by the outcome of the disciplinary action" against Bennison, and had concluded that his "capacity to exercise the ministry of pastoral oversight is irretrievably damaged." Bennison, 66, resumed his role as diocesan bishop Aug. 16, some 11 days after the church's Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop overturned a lower church court's finding that he ought to be deposed (removed) from ordained ministry because he had engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. The review court agreed with one of the lower court's two findings of misconduct, but said that Bennison could not be deposed because the charge was barred by the church's statute of limitations. The lower court, the Court for the Trial of a Bishop, had called for Bennison's deposition after it found that 35 years ago when he was rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Upland, California, he failed to respond properly after learning that his brother, John Bennison, was "engaged in a sexually abusive and sexually exploitive relationship" with a minor parishioner. At the time, John Bennison was a 24-year-old newly ordained deacon (later priest) whom Charles Bennison had hired as youth minister. The abuse allegedly lasted for more than three years from the time the minor was 14 years old. Charles Bennison was found to have failed to discharge his pastoral obligations to the girl, the members of her family, and the members of the parish youth group as well as church authorities after he learned of his brother's behavior. The court said that he suppressed the information about his brother until 2006, when he disclosed publicly what he knew. Episcopal Church canons have no time limit for bringing claims arising out of physical violence, sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a person younger than 21 years (Canon IV.19.4(a) and (b). The statute of limitations on other offenses committed by clergy is 10 years, with certain exceptions extending the time period by a small number of additional years. Bennison had been inhibited (prevented) from exercising his ordained ministry since the fall of 2007 when the disciplinary action began. The ban expired with the review court's decision.
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