[Heather] Cook and [Mark] Hansen attended General Theological Seminary in New York at the same time in the 1980s, according to the school’s website, and Hansen participated in Cook’s consecration ceremony last September.
Hansen, who lives in Millington on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, is a lay pastor at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Kent County. He is also executive director of the St. Paul’s Cathedral Trust in America, a nonprofit that supports the London cathedral.
Cook, who served on the Eastern Shore for 10 years, is listed on the St. Paul’s Cathedral Trust website as a donor who gave more than $1,000.
A spokeswoman for the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland described Hansen as a friend of Cook’s. Spokeswoman Sharon Tillman said the church was not involved in the bail payment but was “grateful that she’ll now be able to resume treatment.”
Other sources state that he divorced his wife a few years ago in order to begin a relationship with Heather Cook. Hence the “steady companion” designation. This too, apparently was known by church authorities and not considered a problem.
#1, if that is true (if!), then this is scandal on top of scandal that the diocese left her on the slate of candidates.
#1, can you say what the sources are for this story?
It was a comment on another site. I have no idea if it’s true however, according Heather Cook’s statement, the two dated in seminary (they had two overlapping years there). You can confirm by googling that Hansen was married to a woman named Celia and then, according to Cook, she and Hansen “found each other” a few years ago and he is now her “steady companion.” So I don’t think this is like a big scandalous secret. It seems to have been quite out in the open.
The calendar year 2012 IRS Form-990 filed by St. Paul’s Cathedral Trust shows Hanson as the only remunerated employee, paid $75,000. There was also a $15,000 “management fee” paid to Pegasus Philanthropic Partners, of which Hanson is the “founder.” The trust’s travel expenses were $17,000. Direct expenses for a “Gala” were $82,000.
Sounds like a nice little one-man enterprise, except that year-end Net Assets (i.e. Equity) was a negative $46,000 after an excess of Expenses over Revenue of $218,000 for 2011 and 2012 combined.
Hansen isn’t “a” Lay Pastor at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, he’s “the” Lay Pastor, surely paid directly by the Easton diocese for handling a tiny mission church. Such remuneration could include the diocesan benefits package.
A pretty nice combined gig for a defrocked priest.
Typically mission clergy are paid by the congregation. Sometimes the diocese provides a subsidy to the parish. The parochial statistics are on line.
St. Clement’s income about 8,000 average attendance 12 – down from 35 10 years ago.
#5, Pete Haynsworth, how much did they send to St. Paul’s Cathedral on that activity for 2012?
> #8: $211,000
Thank you, Pete Haynsworth. Salary and expenses almost as large as program expenditures sounds high to me.
It now appears that perhaps Ms. Cook played some role in getting Mark Hansen his current position. And that he moved in with her shortly after his divorce. I think the financials of the situation might prove interesting. Follow the money, as they say.
What an increasingly strange story this is becoming, hardly believable.
According to Conger, the vetting of Bishop Cook was undertaken by the national church and 815 while the majority of the selection committee were kept in the dark about the identity of the person with a DUI conviction; which put me in mind of that other error by the Presiding Bishop, the licensing of child abuser, Bede Parry to a position in charge of a choir of under-age children, while she kept the parish in ignorance of his background.
Then there is the strange story of Mr Hansen, once one of the Connecticut 6, whose church, St John’s was ‘visited’ by burgling Bishop Smith along with bolt cutters, security guards and computer hackers while he was on sabbatical, who disappeared from sight but has now re-emerged as the extraordinarily and disproportionately remunerated fundraiser for one of the most liberal cathedrals in England, when its cash registers are not ringing extracting large sums from anyone who wishes to visit it.
As for Bishop Cook, I am not inclined to cast stones at her alcoholism. I have seen too many talented professionals succumb in a culture which says that social drinking is expected but also expects it to have no impact upon their work, indeed heaven help them if it does. I have seen what started for them as a sociable and enjoyable cocktail party turn into a moribund drinking session, and in several cases, when partners gave up on them, families and marriages were broken, and in two cases hospitalisation and a funeral wake followed, a terminal mistake. But when drinking has become established, the brain cells destroyed, and the will to change has been lost, only a huge jolt and considerable will power and support can change things, just as is the case of other substance abuse. I have in a few cases seen God heal. So I do pray for Bishop Cook and those who care for her.
But most of all, I am just heartbroken for the family of the man killed for no greater offence than deciding to ride his bike one day, and his wish to keep fit. An innocent victim, calously and carelessly put at risk. God bless them and support them.
If I am really angry at anything it is at a culture that considers drinking, and heavy drinking at that, not only acceptable, but even a rite of passage.
Lots more info here in a detailed back-story piece:
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2015/01/27/a-spiritual-leaders-fall-from-grace/
She shared a house with Hansen. Apparently quite a few people are interested in tracking down where the money came from as well.
Really scary though is the audio tape of her 2010 SUI hearing.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/sun-investigates/bs-md-bishop-cook-prior-dui-case-20150131-story.html#page=1
She admits she’s an alcoholic and says this is a “major wake up call’ to change, her lawyer says she’s in treatment and has put a voluntary “ignition control” device on her car to keep her from drinking and driving, judge is compassionate and compares alcoholism to diabetes, and everybody sings kumbayah. I can only imagine what the judge is going through now.
Meanwhile, there is no follow-up to insure that she actually stops drinking (or even keeps the ignition control device on the car). The “investigation” into her background prior to making her a bishop concludes the DUI was a “one-time thing” notwithstanding that it’s in the court records that she’s a long-time alcoholic with a serious problem and there is zero evidence that said problem ever went away.
Thanks very much for that update, Catholic Mom. It does not say, however, that she shared a house with Hansen. She has a house, where she lived for ten years when she worked for that Diocese, and Hansen has a rented home elsewhere on the Eastern Shore. The article suggests that her family may have put up the money for bail; they are close-knit, and their father was an alcoholic.
Bishop Sutton of Maryland says that the Diocese of Easton did all the “vetting” of Cook and did not say Cook was an alcoholic. That’s awfully trusting, considering the details of the 2010 DUI arrest were readily available to anyone with an internet connection.
I am sorry, you are right. The article says “also the home of” Mark Hansen but it is talking about the area, not the house per se. My bad.
The details of the 2010 case make it clear that she is to receive “treatment” including going to AA meetings. Somebody who just randomly happened to get drunk once in their life (as at some celebratory blow out) and got caught driving would not be attending AA meetings. There is also the little question of the marijuana in the car. She might have presented herself as a recovered alcoholic but there is no way anyone who investigated the matter in the slightest could have perceived her as other than, at the very least, a *former* alcoholic. However, another very interesting thing that came out at the first DUI hearing was how many people stated that they did not know she drank to excess. So she wasn’t doing it in front of a lot of people. Maybe she wasn’t doing it in front of anybody. But if that was clearly the case in 2010, how much more would you then investigate in 2014 when the people you contacted said “we see no problem.” You can be sure some people knew though. The steady companion for one.
Catholic Mom, apparently there are some people who are able to drink tremendous amounts of alcohol and appear to be functional. Alcoholics whose testimony I trust say they are never “former” alcoholics, but always “recovering,” not “recovered.” According to the story you linked, she was “on her way home” to the Eastern Shore, a two-hour drive, when she hit Palermo. Possibly she drinks alone. But yes, somebody knew.
Catholic Mom, check Stand Firm for a link to a [i]Washington Post[/i] report which says that Bishop Sutton, Maryland, and Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori were aware that Cook was drunk before and during her consecration.
Geez.
You know…we have a drinking culture at my place of work (big parties always involve alcohol) and I’ve been continually trying to alert my boss (who isn’t one of the drinkers) to the enormous financial risk that we are exposing ourselves to. We also face the moral risk of being responsible for someone’s death. Frankly my boss is afraid to speak up since upper management enthusiastically approves (and participates). But…one would like to think that a church had slightly higher standards. Sigh.
Perhaps your boss could be persuaded to launch a designated driver program for the parties, CM. The liability could be enormous if something awful happens.
The interesting thing is that this has already been litigated many times and its clear what companies need to do to reduce their liability. For example — no corporate event at which alcohol is served should be mandatory. Employees should be discouraged from having “after-party parties” etc. We manage to miss almost every single one! (For example, our EVP not only does not discourage after-party parties, he attends them and buys rounds of drinks for people!) It’s just amazing the blind spot that so many people have for this subject.
If your employer is a corporation, sell your stock!
Privately held. We just got a new CEO. We had a big kick-off rah-rah meeting in NY two weeks ago to generate excitement about all the wonderful new things we’re gong to do. No alcohol served, but the new CEO *two* times (in an attempt to be folksy and “just-one-of-you) mentioned celebrating big breakthroughs/achievements with “a shot of tequila.” I’m thinking — does it even enter this guy’s mind that somebody sitting there could be a recovering alcoholic? How is this remotely appropriate?
The Diocese of Maryland may escape legal liability for Palermo’s death, since reportedly Cook was not on duty that day. If she had left a church reception drunk and killed someone the Diocese would be cleaned out financially. If someone leaves a company party drunk and plows into a pedestrian, you’d better believe the lawsuit will hurt the company. And some of those social drinkers may be alcoholics. Even if they don’t kill, the condition can cause severe distress and failures in their personal and professional lives. Ignoring the risk is stupid, with respect for your new CEO.
My job is to write online corporate training for clients, primarily in the area of compliance. I do not have to stretch my creativity to come up with scenarios to illustrate my points. Smart people are just phenomenally stupid. They will do the most amazing things and then send each other emails about it. Our biggest clients are those in Corporate Integrity Agreements with the Department of Justice. (These agreements mandate x amount of training over y number of years to avoid prosecution.) I will never be unemployed because people will never stop being stupid. And of course the irony is that that goes for my own company.
The patron saint of corporate compliance, of course, is Eliot “never write when you can speak, never speak when you can nod, never nod when you can wink and never write emails” Spitzer who kept detailed financial records of his interactions with prostitutes while Governor of New York. You can’t make this stuff up and thankfully I don’t have to.
I should have said “Smart people CAN BE just phenomenally stupid” of course. *Some* of them are actually smart almost all the time. 🙂