Perhaps Pamela Chinnis summed it up best. "Since the first of January, it's really been a very traumatic time for the Episcopal Church," the House of Deputies president told the Associated Press.

Bishop C. Christopher Epting of Iowa tried an understatement. "It has not been our finest year," he said.

For most Episcopalians, 1995 was a year they'd like to forget. Such stories as the embezzlement of $2.2 million by former national church treasurer Ellen Cooke, the suicide of the Rt. Rev. David Johnson, Bishop of Massachusetts, and the presentment against Bishop Walter Righter were addressed by the national secular media, often in less-than-complimentary articles.

The Ellen Cooke scandal became known in February in Providence, R.I., when Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning announced, first to the Executive Council, then to members of the media, that he had received evidence to "indicate misuse of church funds" by the former treasurer.

Mrs. Cooke, who had been treasurer for nine years, resigned Jan. 6, apparently to move to Virginia with her husband, the Rev. Nicholas Cooke, who had been named rector of St. John's Church, McLean. Later it was learned Bishop Browning had asked her to resign in December 1994, because "her working style did not well serve our common mission." She remained at the Episcopal Church Center for a time as a consultant, but left later in January.

Six weeks later, Bishop Browning announced that the amount of church funds diverted was about $2.2 million. Mrs. Cooke and her husband used a portion of that for the purchase and improvement of real estate in New Jersey and Virginia. Charges on a corporate credit card by Mrs. Cooke indicated such items as non-business travel, meals, hotels and entertainment, jewelry, clothing, gifts and limousine service.

An auditing firm found Mrs. Cooke had moved about $1.5 million that was to have been deposited in church accounts at a bank and brokerage house to personal accounts she maintained at the same institutions. It was learned she wrote checks from a church account for nonchurch purposes, and spent more than $300,000 on corporate credit cards.

In a letter addressed to Executive Council members, Mrs. Cooke said she experienced "a breakdown precipitated by many factors external to me and to the workplace" and that she underwent a series of extensive psychiatric exams. She also wrote of "the pain, abuse and powerlessness I have felt during the years I worked as a lay woman" at church headquarters.

As of mid-December, the matter was still not settled. Bishop Browning said he expects a criminal indictment or a plea bargain to take place. He also said the church's bonding company agreed "in principle" to pay the church the full amount of the fidelity bond, $1 million.

While the investigation centered on Mrs. Cooke, Bishop Browning has been under fire as well. "I must bear responsibility for what has happened," he said in May. "The buck stops with me."

The standing committee of the Diocese of South Carolina produced a list of concerns, but did not call for the Presiding Bishop's resignation. Later, the conservative organization Episcopalians United did ask Bishop Browning to resign. In a public response, Bishop Browning refused.

Soon after the disclosure of the embezzlement, assistant treasurer Donald Burchell of Alexandria, Va., was named to succeed Mrs. Cooke. He remained in office until June, when he resigned, citing a desire to return to Virginia. Stephen Duggan, a New Jersey certified public accountant with 33 years experience, was named treasurer on Oct. 31.

Another new face at the Episcopal Church Center was the Rt. Rev. Charlie McNutt, who recently retired as Bishop of Central Pennsylvania. Bishop McNutt was named chief operating officer, a new position.

The scandal in the treasurer's office also brought down Mrs. Cooke's husband, Nicholas. Less than six months after being called as rector of St. John's, McLean, he resigned in May, and later resigned from the priesthood.

The suicide of Bishop Johnson was equally shocking. The 61-year-old bishop was found dead Jan. 15 in his apartment of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Bishop Johnson and his wife, Jodie, had purchased a retirement home in Kansas, and they were only months away from moving there.

Following the bishop's death, several women said they had been in extra-marital relationships with him at different times throughout his years of ministry as both priest and bishop. Officials of the Diocese of Massachusetts later said Bishop Johnson "had struggled with depression over the years and made at least one previous attempt at taking his own life."

Another major story without a conclusion is the presentment against Bishop Righter. In January, 10 diocesan bishops filed a presentment charge against the retired Bishop of Iowa, claiming he had violated his ordination vows and had taught false doctrine when he ordained a practicing homosexual to the diaconate in 1990. At the time, Bishop Righter was assisting with episcopal ministry in the Diocese of Newark.

In order for a presentment to advance to a trial, consent of one fourth of the House of Bishops is needed. Before bishops were asked whether they would consent, Bishop Browning told the House of Bishops that the presentment "was not the way to go," and said he would not consent to the trial. In September, Bishop Browning announced the consents had been obtained and that the matter would go to trial. It was scheduled for Jan. 3-5, 1996, in Chicago, but was then rescheduled for Feb. 27-29 in Hartford, Conn., and later moved to Wilmington, Del. The case will be heard by an ecclesiastical court of nine judges, who are bishops from each of the nine provinces of the church.

While several bishops have ordained non-celibate homosexuals in recent years, Bishop Righter's ordination of the Rev. Barry Stopfel was chosen as the "test case" because the five-year statute of limitation of such charges was about to expire. The presenting bishops have said if Bishop Righter is convicted, they will bring similar charges against others who have ordained active homosexuals.

In a separate case, presentment charges were filed against the Rt. Rev. Allen Bartlett, Bishop of Pennsylvania, for ordaining a non-celibate homosexual. That case will not be addressed until the presentment against Bishop Righter has been decided.

Bishop Righter has maintained his innocence, and has been strengthened by the support of many active and retired bishops, and affirmed by resolutions in the dioceses of Newark and Iowa.

"There isn't anything in the church's canons or traditions that says you can't ordain gay people," he said.

"I believe this is not just a question about human sexuality, but is really about authority and doctrine and how they are defined and function in the Episcopal Church," said the Rt. Rev. Bertram Herlong, Bishop of Tennessee, in an interview with the Nashville Banner.

One of the major stories of 1995 had nothing to do with scandal. It was the adoption of a "mind of the house" resolution by the House of Bishops at its meeting in September which will go before General Convention in 1997. If adopted then, the resolution will make mandatory the ministry of female priests in every diocese. At present there are four diocesan bishops who have said they will not ordain women.

The resolution adopted by the bishops came from a committee appointed following the 1994 General Convention which called for dialogue on how women could exercise a priestly ministry in every diocese. The committee, which became known as the Committee on Canon III.8.1, met twice, then presented a resolution to the bishops at their meeting in Portland, Ore. Following a long debate, the bishops voted 122 in favor, 17 against and 18 abstentions to adopt the committee's report as a "mind of the house" resolution. The resolution also was discussed and affirmed by Executive Council at its November meeting in Birmingham, Ala.

Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire, one of the four bishops who do not ordain women because of theological objections, said he would resign if General Convention adopts the resolution. "This will force priests, deacons and lay persons out of the church," he said.

"We can respect one another in our theological differences," noted Bishop Frank Allan of Atlanta, "but the notion of conscience has all too often been used to circumvent what we believe."

At the same meeting of the House of Bishops, the issue of mean spiritedness in the church was addressed by Bishop Browning and others.

"We have to name that there is a mean spirit abroad in the church," Bishop Browning said. "I believe this spirit is intolerable." Bishops discussed the problem in small groups and many shared the concern "back home" in their dioceses.

The Rt. Rev. Clarence C. Pope, retired Bishop of Fort Worth, returned to the Episcopal Church less than a year after he left it to become a Roman Catholic.

"I experienced a growing sense that I had abandoned a large section of traditional Episcopalians and felt very guilty for doing so," Bishop Pope said.

In September, the Most Rev. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, was one of an impressive list of speakers at the G-Code Evangelism Conference at Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina. More than 400 persons participated in the event which marked the halfway point of the Decade of Evangelism.

"Never has there been a greater need or a greater thirst for a courageous and faithful telling of the gospel," the archbishop said.

Many of the church's leaders gathered in Minneapolis in October as most of the interim bodies of General Convention met there. Plenary sessions also were held, and committees and commissions had opportunities to share their work.

In another large conference, 11 dioceses organized the Global Episcopal Mission Network (GEM) at a meeting in April in Cincinnati.

Natural disasters were felt in several dioceses during 1995, with Hurricane Marilyn causing the most damage as it roared across the Virgin Islands in October. All Saints' Cathedral, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, sustained heavy damage when its roof caved in. Hurricane Opal did some structural damage to some churches in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, and floods were a problem for many in the dioceses of Virginia and Southwestern Virginia.

A disaster of a different kind hit Oklahoma City April 19 when a bomb destroyed the federal building there. St. Paul's Cathedral, a few blocks away, sustained structural damage, and its church is still unusable.

The Appalachian People's Service Organization, composed of 15 dioceses, became Episcopal Appalachian Ministries and continues to serve persons in the Appalachian region.

Another change occurred at Seabury- Western Theological Seminary. The Evanston, Ill., school announced it was switching its focus to emphasize evangelism, leadership and congregational development.

In other seminary news, two theological schools appointed new deans. Donn Morgan, a lay person who has been dean of academic affairs, was named dean of Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and the Rev. Peter Moore, rector of Little Trinity Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, became dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.

A new music program designed for small congregations was unveiled at the Leadership Program for Musicians Serving Small Congregations, at Virginia Theological Seminary. The ongoing program will work through representatives in the dioceses.

The church's newest diocese, Eastern Michigan, held its first convention and heard of progress toward the election of its first bishop.

The departure of congregations from the Episcopal Church seemed smaller than in recent years. The rector and most of the members of St. Thomas' Church, a 900-member parish in Long Island, left for the Charismatic Episcopal Church, and the rector and a majority of members of Holy Trinity, Spokane, were chrismated into the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

The Rt. Rev. Arthur Williams, Suffragan Bishop of Ohio, was elected vice president of the House of Bishops.

Other bishops made news by being elected: David C. Jones, Virginia, suffragan; Leo Alard, Texas, suffragan; Robert Ihloff, Maryland; Michael Creighton, Central Pennsylvania; Catherine Roskam, New York, suffragan; William Skilton, South Carolina, suffragan; Geralyn Wolf, Rhode Island; Robert Hibbs, West Texas, suffragan; Andrew D. Smith, Connecticut, suffragan; John B. Lipscomb, Southwest Florida, coadjutor; Carolyn Tanner Irish, Utah; Paul Marshall, Bethlehem; and Robert Duncan, Pittsburgh, coadjutor.

Several dioceses mourned the deaths of bishops: Robert Denig, Western Massachusetts; Christoph Keller, Arkansas, retired; David Thornberry, Wyoming, retired; John Krumm, Southern Ohio, retired; and George Rath, Newark, retired.