The church trial of Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison, accused with concealing his brother’s abuse of a minor, resumed today in Philadelphia with further testimony by the adult victim.
Bishop Bennison, 64, is charged with failing to protect the victim when she was a teenager in his Upland, Calif., parish in the 1970s.
John Bennison, 59, was the parish’s youth minister. Charles Bennison was the rector of the parish.
Martha Alexis, 50, said that Charles Bennison took no steps to protect her from his brother after twice walking in on them while they were having sex on church property.
The church trial, called a Court for the Trial for a Bishop, is being held at the Philadelphia Marriott hotel in Center City.
Bennison has served as the bishop of the five-county Diocese of Pennsylvania for 10 years. He was suspended in October after a special church committee concluded that he had inappropriately protected his brother to further his career.
from the [i]Epsicopal Life[/i] coverage[url=http://www.episcopal-life.org/79901_97730_ENG_HTM.htm] here[/url]:
[blockquote]June Alexis … said Bennison told her there was a “confidentiality agreement†in the youth group that nothing that occurred or was said in the youth group would be reported.[/blockquote]
Episcopal church youth group meetings as incompetently/predatorily-led group therapy sessions survive.
J. Edward “Ed†Putnam was (finally, in 2007) removed from the priesthood up in the Finger Lakes area of New York apparently for thoughts/actions coaxed out of youngsters during such “anything goes/what-happens-here-stays-here†gatherings.
If this happened today, the more appropriate forum would be in a high secular court. Not pre-judging the outcome, but these allegations are extremely serious and should have been referred to civil authorities at the time they were made.
Word is that the victim wrote a detailed letter of the abuse to Edmund Browning while he was PB. Four years after sending the letter, Browning presided at the consecration of this bishop. She should SUE the Episcopal Church in a civil court until they are bankrupt.
Obviously, and she should be encouraged to do it. I’d dearly LOVE to see them taken to the cleaners!
WOW, midwesternorwegian, if what you write is true, she should GOFORIT!!! Where can we contribute to her ‘defense fund’?
A letter was indeed written to Browning according to testimony and Browning was Bennison’s chief consecrator. One gets the feeling, though, that the hurts here go far deeper than money can reach. It is hard for me to see how Bennison can come through this intact, especially for what claims to be a “justice” church.