Bishops from dioceses throughout the Episcopal Church joined with Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning Feb. 22 to lay hands on the Rev. Charles Ellsworth Bennison, Jr., making him Bishop Coadjutor of Pennsylvania. Bishop Bennison, 54, will lead the diocese when the Rt. Rev. Allen Bartlett retires as diocesan bishop sometime in 1998.

The two-hour-plus service was attended by some 3,500 people in Deliverance Evangelistic Church, a modern structure in North Philadelphia which was chosen primarily because it can hold many more worshipers than any diocesan building. It is also symbolic of diocesan commitment to the city.

Commitment to the city was a dominant theme in the sermon by the Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts. Both praising and challenging her home diocese of Pennsylvania, she urged the congregation not to lose heart in the face of "seemingly insurmountable problems of all kinds rampant in our society." She asked Bishop Bennison not to "demur from urging us out of the comfortable pew and challenging us to seek the welfare of the city."

A 170-member choir from some 60 congregations and a brass ensemble led the singing of hymns from The Hymnal 1982 and Lift Every Voice and Sing II.

Among those presenting the bishop-elect for consecration were friends from parishes he served in Upland, Calif., and Atlanta, Ga.; faculty and trustees of the Episcopal Divinity School, where Bishop Bennison was teaching when he was elected last October; and representatives of the diocesan Episcopal Church Women and the Youth Council. The oblation bearers included Bishop Bennison's daughters, Sarah and Kate.

Co-consecrating bishops included the new bishop's father, the Rt. Rev. Charles Bennison, Sr., retired Bishop of Western Michigan, and the Rt. Rev. Franklin Turner, Suffragan Bishop of Pennsylvania.