DALLAS: Second stockbroker-priest on leave pending investigation
Episcopal News Service. September 11, 2009 [091109-04]
Pat McCaughan
A second stockbroker-priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas has taken a leave of absence from ministry at least temporarily pending a diocesan investigation into alleged financial improprieties involving parishioners.
The Rev. Raymond E. Jennison Jr., owner of First Canterbury Securities in northeast Dallas, stepped down voluntarily September 10 but said he expects to resume his part-time position at St. David's Episcopal Church in Garland, Texas.
"I want to go back, and I fully expect to go back,"Jennison told the Dallas Morning News on September 10. "I expect exoneration." Jennison did not respond to an Episcopal News Service request for an interview September 11.
Bishop Suffragan Paul Lambert said in a telephone interview September 11 that, after a meeting with diocesan bishops as well as his attorney, Jennison "agreed to accept a 90-day leave of absence" from St. David's.
"We are looking into any financial relationships that may have been established by Ray Jennison and Canterbury Securities within the diocese, with congregations or individuals," Lambert said. "We have asked him to disengage from those kinds of relationships, and he is complying."
Lambert said he believed Jennison had such relationships with "two or three congregations at the most. As far as individuals, there probably weren't more than 15 or so," he added.
Complaints against him emerged after the Rev. William Warnky, another Dallas area stockbroker-priest who worked with Jennison's First Canterbury Services, was permanently barred from the securities industry in August.
Financial regulators said that Warnkywas suspended because he ignored orders to pay a $50,000 settlement to D.R. Marshall, a parishioner who complained Warnkydefrauded him.
Warnky, who had served as part-time priest-in-charge of Good Samaritan Church near White Rock Lake, "has since renounced his vows and resigned his ministry. He is no longer a priest in good standing in the church and cannot function as such," Lambert said. "He chose to do so for the good of the whole church and the bishop and congregations and people of this diocese," he added.
Warnky could not be reached for comment.
His former parishioner, Marshall, had complained to financial regulators in 2007 that Jennison had failed to supervise Warnky. Jennison made a counterclaim, accusing Marshall of defamation. Those matters were settled confidentially.
Jennison, meanwhile, is considered a trader in good standing, according to the national financial regulator FINRA, which indicated that any complaints against him had been resolved.
Another parishioner had also complained to diocesan officials that Warnky made unauthorized trades on her account in late 2008, even though Jennison said Warnky had not worked with him in at least three years.
Jeanette Prasifka said that when she sought to close a First Canterbury account Warnky managed for her, Jennison falsely claimed that there would be "serious tax consequences" and yelled at her. Jennison has denied any wrongdoing. He did not return calls from Episcopal News Service.
Jennison's leave of absence was effective immediately, Lambert said. "We are hopeful Ray will use this time wisely in his consideration of this situation," he said in a statement to the media.
On September 3, diocesan officials announced new clergy conduct and accountability policies. The stronger guidelines, posted on the diocesan website, specifically bar clergy from "soliciting, providing or selling secular products or services to parishioners" including sales of stocks, financial services and other investments.
Lambert said the incident has raised the diocese's, and perhaps the entire church's awareness of the need for more clarity of relationships in "the new world we're coming into" with bi-vocational and part-time clergy. "It has not only to do with financial people, like stockbrokers and insurance agents" but a variety of vocations, he said.
"There's nothing in the canons that deal with this, other than conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy," he said. "We don't want members of our congregations to be put at risk. We're doing this so they can have confidence in the integrity of their relationship with the priest as their spiritual and pastoral caregiver," he said.
The new policy went into effect immediately.
"We have good and faithful clergy in our diocese who care deeply for their people, and we want our clergy to focus on the spiritual and pastoral needs of their congregations," said Diocesan Bishop James Stanton in a statement to the media.
"This new policy is designed to eliminate any conflicts of interest, and we hope these changes will raise the level of confidence in our clergy and that of the people under their care," Stanton added.
The new policy is an expansion of a long-standing one that provides that members of the clergy with other clergy and the laity "must be of the highest moral and professional character," Lambert said.
Clergy are also required to undergo "Safeguarding God's People" every five years. The program focuses on issues regarding relationships between clergy and those under their care. Failure to comply will result in suspension of all spiritual duties until retraining is completed.