Charles Bennison

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**The Rt Rev Charles Ellsworth Bennison, Jr.**


Denomination	The Episcopal Church
Senior posting
See	Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania
Title	Bishop of Pennsylvania
Period in office	1997 —
Predecessor	Allen Lyman Bartlett, Jr.
Successor	Incumbent
Religious career
Priestly ordination	1969
Previous bishoprics	none
Previous post	Rector, St Luke's, Atlanta, Georgia
Personal
Date of birth	30 November 1943
Place of birth	Minneapolis, Minnesota

Charles Ellsworth Bennison, Jr. is the 15th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

1 Education and Family
2 Early Career
3 Child Sexual Abuse Scandal
4 Later Career
5 Bishop of Pennsylvania
6 References
7 Publications
8 External Links

[edit] Education and Family

Bishop Bennison was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 30, 1943, and was baptized at St. Luke’s in Hastings, Minnesota, on December 24, 1943. He received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1965. In 1965-66, he studied at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and then attended Harvard Divinity School, where he received a B.D., in 1968 and a Th.M. in 1970. He earned his M.A. from the Claremont Graduate School in 1977, and S.T.M. from Union Theological Seminary in 1992. He was honored with a D.Div. from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1997.

Married to the former Joan Kathryn Reahard, the bishop has two daughters, Sarah and Kathryn.

[edit] Early Career

Ordained a deacon in 1968 and a priest in 1969, Bishop Bennison began his full-time ministry in 1971 as rector of St. Mark’s Church in Upland, California, where he was founder of St. Mark’s Episcopal School, St. Mark’s Homeless Shelter, and new congregations in Rancho Cucamonga and Chino, California.

In the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, he chaired the Program Group on Social Relations and the Standing Committee, served as president of the Corporation of the Diocese, taught at the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, and was a frequent reader of the General Ordination Examinations. He served as a member of Venture in Mission Board, the Los Angeles Jewish-Christian-Muslim Trialogue, the Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission, and numerous other bodies. In 1987, he was recognized by the Pomona Valley Council of Churches for outstanding leadership in ecumenical affairs.

[edit] Child Sexual Abuse Scandal

During Bennison's time as rector of St Mark's Church, he became aware of the child sexual abuse of a teenage girl by his brother, John. At the time, John Bennison was an ordinand in training for the Episcopal priesthood, whom Charles had hired to serve as the youth minister of St Mark's.^[1] For many years, Bennison maintained that he had not been aware of his brother's misconduct until informed by the victim's mother.^[2] The victim's mother^[3] and the victim deny this; the victim has stated that "she and John Bennison were twice interrupted during sex by Charles Bennison's arrival at his brother's apartment."^[4] Later revelations of Charles Bennison's role in the scandal prompted public protests. ^[5] ^[6] Bishop Bennison has since apologized for what he called "my failure to forward to civil or ecclesiastical authorities a report of my brother John's sexual abuse of a teenage parishioner." He recalled the events in an address to the 223rd meeting of the Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania^[7] once the scandal had become public in 2006:

"[I]t was probably the senior warden, not the girl's mother, who in 1975 reported John's abuse, after which I immediately told him to leave the parish, and that in order to maintain the confidentiality of both John and the girl, I did not tell the parents ... My efforts to maintain confidentiality and prevent scandal were very misguided ... I have pondered the extent to which [sic] my failure in the 1970's to act more assertively with regard to my brother, his victims, and the church." ^[8]

To protect himself and his brother, Charles Bennison wrote a letter to John's first wife in 1979, urging her to conceal her knowledge of the abuse. He wrote, “a public scandal here... could cost me my job.” ^[9] Charles instructed her to keep the abuse secret, writing that "by ... coming into Upland ... your very presence very much threatens me ... questions would be raised and all hell break loose in this parish."^[10]

[edit] Later Career

In 1988-91, he was rector of St. Luke’s Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where he substantially raised stewardship giving, broadened the participation of laity in the governance of the parish, and initiated a process leading to the acquisition of significant real estate holdings. His role in the John Bennison abuse scandal surfaced toward the end of his tenure at St Luke's. In a 1992 letter, Bennison refers to how his brother's "well-known troubles ... bolster[ed] the negative opinions about me on the part of some of my antagonists in Atlanta ... possibly contributory to ... my involuntary termination there."^[11]

Bishop Bennison has been a fellow of the College of Preachers and a Masland fellow at Union Theological Seminary. In 1992, he was elected to the faculty of Episcopal Divinity School, where he served as associate professor of Pastoral Theology and founded the program in Congregational Studies. He has published articles in Anglican Theological Review.

[edit] Bishop of Pennsylvania

He was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania at a special convention held on October 19, 1996, at the Cathedral Church of the Savior in Philadelphia. He was consecrated on February 27, 1997, at the Deliverance Evangelistic church in Philadelphia.

On January 24, 2006, the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania voted unanimously to request Bishop Bennison's resignation, alleging the misappropriation of approximately $11.6 million from diocesan trust funds. ^[12] Bennison rejected the committee's request. The Committee voted a second time to request Bennison's resignation on April 21, 2006 after a further drawdown of $350,000 in Unrestricted Net Assets. ^[13] This drawdown had occurred sometime in March, after Bishop Bennison had previously been apprised of the Standing Committee's concerns over financial transparency. ^[14] Bennison again declined the Standing Committee's request to resign, which prompted the escalation of the dispute.

On November 6, 2006, the Standing Committee filed a complaint against Bishop Bennison, alleging misconduct in violation of the canons of both the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Diocese of Pennsylvania, as well as conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. ^[15] This complaint alleged that

"Beginning at least as early as 2000, Bishop Bennison has repeatedly usurped the canonical prerogatives and authority of the Standing Committee ... and misappropriated and expended assets of the Diocese, without canonical authority ... to date in excess of $10 million of unrestricted net assets. ... Bishop Bennison has systematically dismantled independent controls and oversight of financial matters; has withheld important information from those having canonical responsibilities; and has refused to consult with others on major decisions which affect the welfare of the Diocese. ... The improper actions of Bishop Bennison ... have created a total breakdown of trust within the Diocese. The consequences of these improper actions threaten the present and future financial stability of all the ministries of the Diocese of Pennsylvania." ^[16]

The complaint concluded by requesting that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church refer these concerns to the Review Committee for investigation and Presentment, i.e., an ecclesiastical trial. ^[17] The charges were approved by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on March 14, 2007 and forwarded to the Title IV Review Committee.^[18]