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	Pennsylvania: Convention Calls on Bishop to Leave Episcopal Life November 8, 2010 http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_125629_ENG_HTM.htm [Episcopal News Service] The 227th annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, by a vote of 341-134, has asked Bishop Charles Bennison Jr. to "resign immediately." A resolution containing the request also said that Bennison "does not have the trust of the people and clergy of the Diocese of Pennsylvania to continue to serve as their bishop." Bennison made no comment on the resolution after it passed. Passage of the resolution came hours after Bishop Paul Marshall of the neighboring Diocese of Bethlehem wrote to Bennison and the convention, calling on him to resign and suggesting that convention participants urge Bennison to leave. "You need to realize, I humbly submit, that you are the premier diocese of the Episcopal Church in this Commonwealth, and arguably (along with Connecticut) the mother diocese of our church in this country," Marshall wrote. "It matters to the rest of us, and to the world, how you get along. It is not a confession of sin to admit that things have not worked out well, but it is surely a matter of empirical evidence." Marshall also suggested that the diocesan leadership "examine with humility and contrition the extent to which they have mirrored attitudes and actions that they profess to reject," noting that "the concept of systemic change is harder to assess than that of mere personnel change." Prior to the beginning of the convention, the Rev. Timothy Safford, rector of historic Christ Church in Philadelphia, announced that the parish would refuse to pay its contribution to the $1.4 million diocesan Episcopate Budget for 2011, thus willingly giving up its representation at the convention. Acknowledging what he called "this act of ecclesial disobedience," Safford said that the parish would increase its contribution to the diocese's 2011 Program Budget of $2.2 million by the amount of its Episcopate Budget assessment. Safford said the vestry believes that Bennison's continuing presence threatens the program budget and that to pay its assessment to the episcopate budget "is to agree to and support Charles Bennison's decision to remain as diocesan bishop, and we cannot do so." 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. During it Sept. 16-21 fall gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, members of the House of Bishops said in a lengthy and strongly worded "mind of the house" resolution that 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 declined to honor that request.
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