Bishop Bennison’s Attorney Decries ‘Avenging Court’

From the Living Church-

The defense attorney for the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., has expressed exasperation with the Episcopal Church’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop as he prepares to appeal his client’s conviction and sentencing.

Most recently the court rejected the bishop’s request for a new trial based on 200 personal letters, which his attorney, James Pabarue of Philadelphia, said conflicted with testimony given in court.

Mr. Pabarue believes the court misapplied Canon IV.14.4 because the case involved Bishop Bennison’s response to sexual misconduct by his brother and not any sexual misconduct by the bishop.

“The church has a way of playing more games than do secular courts,” Pabarue told The LivingChurch.

The court has engaged in “no discussion of remission of sins, absolution of sins or forgiveness,” he said. “This has been sort of an avenging court.”

The court found Bishop Bennison guilty in 2008 on two counts of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. It recommended that Bishop Bennison be deposed.

The court found that Bishop Bennison failed to report that his brother, the Rev. John Bennison, had engaged in sexual relations with a female member of the youth group at St. Mark’s Church, Upland, Calif., when Charles Bennison was rector there in the early 1970s. The court also found that he failed to protect the young woman from further sexual advances by his brother, or to provide adequate pastoral care to the young woman or her family.

“This isn’t just about his name,” Mr. Pabarue said in explaining Bishop Bennison’s repeated challenges of the court’s ruling. “He really believes in his calling, and he believes he’s being wrongly deprived of his calling.”

All that remains for the Court for the Trial of a Bishop is to complete a certified report of its findings and all briefs and evidence presented to the court. That certified report proceeds to the nine-member Court of Review of the Trial of a Bishop.

Unlike the initial court, which includes two priests and two laywomen, the review court consists entirely of bishops. The review-court judges are bishops Michael Curry, North Carolina; Clifton Daniel, East Carolina, the presiding judge; Duncan Gray III, Mississippi; Mary Gray-Reeves, El Camino Real, Don Johnson, West Tennessee; Chilton Knudsen, Maine, resigned; Bruce MacPherson, Western Louisiana; Todd Ousley, Eastern Michigan; and Wayne Wright, Delaware.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/10/13/bishop-bennisons-attorney-decries-avenging-court