Diocese of Pennsylvania: Rector loses fraud suit against Episcopal bishop

Sat, Oct. 25, 2008
By David O'Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer

In a verdict based on a narrow legal question, a Montgomery County Court jury found yesterday that Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. did not commit fraud in the process that led to the defrocking of a priest in the Pennsylvania Diocese.

In a potentially precedent-setting civil case, the Rev. David Moyer, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, alleged that Bennison, head of the five-county diocese, fraudulently removed him from the priesthood in 2002. Moyer's lawsuit asked for unspecified damages for loss of employment and mental suffering.

Moyer v. Bennison attracted international attention, especially in the theologically fractured Anglican Communion, to which the two-million-member Episcopal Church USA belongs. the rest