A.S.Haley: Is +Bennison Disqualified from Serving Further?

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The following correspondence was emailed to me anonymously. I cannot vouch for its authenticity, but it makes for highly interesting reading:

Memorandum to: Mary Kostel, Esq., Special Assistant to the Presiding Bishop for Litigation
From: Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx
Date: August 13, 2010
Re: Problem with Inconsistent Positions in Pennsylvania, San Joaquin and Fort Worth

Attached please find a copy of the Second Amended Original Petition and Third-Party Defendants' Counterclaims we are filing today in the Fort Worth litigation in Tarrant County District Court. One of our summer associates pointed out a potentially harmful inconsistency between the position we are taking in this pleading, and the position the Presiding Bishop is taking with regard to Bishop Bennison in Pennsylvania.

ENS has announced that the judgment of the Court of Review operated to dissolve the inhibition placed upon Bishop Bennison by the Presiding Bishop, and to allow him to resume the duties of his office. (You will recall that the Court of Review, although finding Bishop Bennison guilty of "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy", found that the statute of limitations had run on that offense.) The Presiding Bishop did not try to keep Bishop Bennison from taking up the duties of his office as of August 16, and there has been considerable outcry from the Standing Committee and individual members of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
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