Charges Against Bishop Frank Vest of Southern Virginia Dismissed
Episcopal News Service. March 7, 1997 [97-1709E]
(ENS) Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning has dismissed charges brought against Bishop Frank H. Vest, Jr., of the Diocese of Southern Virginia by members of a parish in Vest's diocese. In a letter sent to Browning on February 25, a panel of five bishops appointed to review the charges reported that they had concluded that none of the charges, if proven, would constitute an offense under the disciplinary canons governing clergy. Members of Christ Church, Danville, Virginia, and two priests of the diocese had lodged a complaint claiming that Vest violated the canons by refusing to accept the parish's call to the Rev. Dr. Peter Toon to serve as the parish's rector. The panel determined that Vest "is required to satisfy himself that Dr. Toon is a duly qualified priest," but was unable to do so because Toon refused to submit to a medical or psychological examination, or to divulge the circumstances of his leaving an earlier place of employment. The review panel included Bishops John C. Buchanan of West Missouri, James M. Coleman of West Tennessee, C Christopher Epting of Iowa, Russell E. Jacobus of Fond du Lac, and Larry E. Maze of Arkansas.