TLC: Calm Prevailed on Eve of Bishop Bennison’s Inhibition
11/05/2007

Clergy and deputies of the Diocese of Pennsylvania met in an eerily calm convention Nov. 3, even as their bishop counted down the hours before his inhibition from all duties of ordained ministry.

The Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., called the convention to order with only 14 hours left before his inhibition took effect, as ordered by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The inhibition remains in force until a church court rules on charges brought against Bishop Bennison by the Title IV Review Committee, the ecclesiastical equivalent of a grand jury.

The charges concern how Bishop Bennison responded, as a rector in California in the mid-1970s, when his brother, John, an employee at the parish, became sexually involved with a 14-year-old female parishioner. His brother resigned from the ministry in June 2006. the rest