Governance news posted Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Hearing set on Bishop Bennison's request for modified sentence
by Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] An ecclesiastical court will convene November 12 in Philadelphia to consider a request from inhibited Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. that it modify its call for Bennison to be deposed.
The Episcopal Church’s nine-member Court for the Trial of a Bishop, which spent four days in June hearing the case against Bennison, determined later in the month that the bishop had engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. The court ruled September 30 that deposition was appropriate “in recognition of the nature of the offense and because [Bennison] has failed to demonstrate that he comprehends and takes responsibility for the harm that he has caused.”
Bennison had 30 days to ask for a modification of the court’s sentence and the court was required to hold a hearing on his request, according to Canon IV.5.30(b).
According to an order from the court, Bennison will have two hours to make his case to the court and his attorneys may call witnesses during the presentation. The court refused Bennison’s claim that the Episcopal Church should not be allowed to respond to his request for sentence modification.
The court also warned both sides that their presentations must be limited to the issue of sentence modification. “The hearing is not an opportunity to reargue or dispute the facts underlying the Court’s judgment that [Bennison] engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy,” the court said in its order. “Similarly, the hearing is not an opportunity to introduce alleged misconduct that was not charged in the presentment or to seek to have charges preferred against others.”
Bennison, 64, has been inhibited from all ordained ministry since October 30, 2007 when Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori acted after the Episcopal Church’s Title IV Review Committee issued the two-count presentment, the church’s equivalent of an indictment against him. The Standing Committee of the diocese consented to the inhibition, as is required by Canon IV.1.6.
The first count of the presentment that formed the basis of the June trial said that 35 years ago when Bennison, as rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Upland, California, failed to respond properly after learning that his brother, John Bennison, a 24-year-old newly-ordained deacon whom he had hired as youth minister, was “engaged in a sexually abusive and sexually exploitive relationship” with a 14-year-old parishioner. The abuse lasted for more than three years.
The presentment also said Charles Bennison failed to discharge his pastoral obligations to the girl, the members of her family, and the members of the parish youth group after he learned of his brother’s behavior.
The second count accused him of suppressing the information about his brother until 2006 when he disclosed publicly what he knew. John Bennison, having once renounced his orders, later successfully sought reinstatement as a priest. He was forced again to renounce his orders in 2006 when knowledge of the abuse became public.
On June 25, the nine-member Court for the Trial of a Bishop unanimously convicted Bennison on the first count and six of the members voted to convict him on the second count. Canon IV.5.25 of the church’s Constitution and Canons requires an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members of the court.
Following the court’s ruling on Bennison’s request, he will receive what is known as the final judgment. Bennison can appeal within 30 days to the Court of Review of the Trial of a Bishop, a different court made up of nine bishops elected by the House of Bishops. Canon IV.6 outlines the appeal process.
The Court for the Trial of a Bishop consists of five bishops, two priests and two adult lay communicants: Bishop Andrew Smith of Connecticut (Chair); Bishop Bruce Caldwell of Wyoming; Bishop Gordon Scruton of Western Massachusetts; Bishop George Wayne Smith of Missouri; Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis; the Rev. Marjorie Menaul, Diocese of Central Pennsylvania; the Rev. Karen Anita Brown Montagno, Diocese of Massachusetts; Maria Campbell, Birmingham, Alabama; and Jane R. Freeman, Akron, Ohio.
The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for Episcopal Church governance, structure, and trends.
