PENNSYLVANIA: Standing Committee says diocese is 'reeling with emotions'
Episcopal News Service. September 16, 2010 [091610-04]
The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania's Standing Committee has told House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson that "the diocese is reeling with emotions" and that what it calls Bishop Charles Bennison's "refusal to confront the truth" about disciplinary hearings concerning his past behavior "continues to confuse and confound us."
The Standing Committee wrote to Anderson Sept. 16 to thank her for a letter she'd written earlier in the month about the concerns raised when Bennison resumed his role as diocesan bishop Aug. 16. His return came 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 decision by the Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop is here.
In their letter to Anderson, the Standing Committee members object to what they call Bennison's "oft-quoted remarks that he 'has been vindicated' in the Review Court process.
"We will continue to respond to public statements made by Bishop Bennison that do not represent the truth but attempt to create an alternate reality," the members said.