Death of defrocked pastor puts new twist in AME sex abuse case

Los Angeles Wave - October 16, 2008

By BETTY PLEASANT, Contributing EditorThe passing of Sylvester Laudermill Jr. comes as case involving defrocked pastor goes to trial.

Funeral services were held Wednesday for Sylvester Laudermill Jr., the defrocked former pastor of Ward AME Church, who died just as a sexual molestation lawsuit against him was scheduled for trial.

Laudermill, 50, died Oct. 9 in a local hospice of complications from cancer treatments. According to a Ward AME spokesperson, Laudermill had been afflicted with cancer for several years, which had gone into and out of remission at least twice.

Laudermill, who was transferred from St. Louis to Los Angeles’ Ward AME Church in 2004, was accused in 2006 of sexually molesting minor boys in both cities and forced out of Ward’s pulpit.

Civil authorities here and in St. Louis investigated the accusations and declined to file criminal charges against Laudermill, but two internal church investigations of the molestation allegations found Laudermill had committed “child sexual abuse” in both cities and he was defrocked.

On May 4, 2007, the allegedly molested Ward AME minor and his guardian filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Laudermill; his wife, Pamela Powell Laudermill; the AME Church Inc.; Bishop John Richard Bryant, St. Peter’s AME Church in St. Louis and Ward AME contending that they all played a role in the minor’s molestation. The case is scheduled for trial next Tuesday.

The complaint alleges that the child, who was involved in the choir, was molested by Laudermill, who sent text messages to the boy and his mother. The mother is alleged to have reported those messages to Mrs. Laudermill, who “turned a blind eye” to her husband’s activities, hence her inclusion among the defendants, the complaint states.

The lawsuit also claims Laudermill had a history of abusing children in at least two St. Louis AME churches, about which Bishop Bryant was well informed.

“Instead of firing him, Bryant transferred him,” the suit states. The suit contends Bryant knew about sexual abuse accusations against Laudermill when he was sent to St. Peter’s in St. Louis and that the bishop colluded with St. Peter’s to get rid of him by sending him to Los Angeles.

“Plaintiff is informed, believes and thereon further alleges that defendants District, Bryant, St. Peter’s and PA AME engaged in intentional conduct expressly aimed at California and knew its conduct would cause harm in this state,” the complaint reads.

A St. Peter’s teenager filed sexual molestation charges against Laudermill, and the victim settled with the church in 2005.

A 1976 graduate of Manual Arts High School, Laudermill marshaled the forces of his Ward congregation to fill and send six 18-wheeler trucks loaded with goods for distribution to families affected by Hurricane Katrina in three states.

According to St. Louis published reports, Laudermill, who served as vice president of the St. Louis Clergy Coalition, was an activist pastor during his 10-year tenure at St. Peter’s. He led numerous St. Louis clergy-activist groups, including Congregations Allied for Community Improvement, Clergy and Citizens United for Safety and Justice and Metropolitan Congregations United.

He pushed for a vocational education high school in St. Louis, as well as for land-use legislation designed to stop urban sprawl and for more spending on highway improvements in North St. Louis County.

Laudermill is survived by his wife, daughter, Talisha; granddaughter, brother, Kevin Laudermill, and several aunts, uncles and cousins.

This article was found at:

http://www.wavenewspapers.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=71&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=10681&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1019&hn=wavenewspapers&he=.com


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Episcopal court rules to defrock Pennsylvania bishop

Philadelphia Inquirer - Octorber 4, 2008

By David O'Reilly | Inquirer Staff Writer

A special court of the Episcopal Church has ruled unanimously that Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. should be removed as head of the Diocese of Pennsylvania and defrocked as a priest for concealing his brother's sexual abuse of a minor decades ago.
"The court finds that [Bennison] should no longer serve as a member of the clergy of the church," the nine-judge panel declared in its sentence, which it handed down on Monday and made public yesterday.
Bennison, 64, was not available yesterday for comment, but his attorney said he would appeal.
The appeals process will likely take months, said diocesan chancellor Edward Rehill, during which time Bennison will retain his status as an ordained clergyman and suspended bishop of the 53,000-member diocese, composed of Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester Counties.
Bennison has been suspended or "inhibited" as a bishop since last October, when the church ordered his trial.
In June, the Court for the Trial of a Bishop met for four days in Philadelphia. In July, the panel found Bennison guilty on two charges of "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy" for failing to protect a teenage minor girl in his California parish in the 1970s from the predations of his brother, John, the parish youth minister.
The court, composed of five bishops, two priests and two lay persons, could have reprimanded or suspended Bennison, but imposed the most severe sentence possible: permanent removal from all holy orders in the Episcopal Church USA.
"The damages caused by [Bennison's] offenses is severe," the judges said, noting that "from his testimony at trial and subsequent submissions to the court" he "has not accepted responsibility and repented for his conduct. . . ."
In a statement, his attorney, James A. Pabarue, said he was "extremely disappointed" by the "utterly immoral" and "completely wrong" verdict.
The family of John Bennison's victim yesterday called the sentence "proportional and fair," and said it "sends a welcome signal that the church doesn't tolerate the kinds of misconduct that were described so compellingly at trial."
The family also said it was "saddened that Bishop Bennison's long period of service to the church ends on this note."
Bennison's church career is not necessarily ended by the verdict, however.
He has the right to petition the trial court for a modification of its sentence. If it declines, the case will go to a church appeals court composed of nine bishops.
That court has the right to reverse either or both of the guilty verdicts against Bennison handed down by the trial court. It may also sustain those verdicts but reduce his sentence.
Those reductions could include a reprimand, under which he would return to his duties as bishop. The appeals court could also suspend him permanently as head of the diocese, in which case he would nonetheless retain the title of bishop. A limited suspension would allow him to return as diocesan bishop at a prescribed date.
His suspension remains in effect throughout the appeal, during which he may not exercise any bishop's functions.
Bennison's predecessor, Bishop Allen Bartlett, who has been serving as interim bishop for liturgical and ceremonial purposes, announced this week that he would stay on in that role through June.
The 10-member diocesan standing committee, which has functioned as the office of bishop since Bennison's inhibition, will continue in that role through the appeal, according to the Rev. Bill Wood, its past president.
Speaking for the committee, Wood yesterday said, "Our prayers go out to the Bennsion family and to the diocese."
The standing committee has feuded with Bennison over a variety of issues, including his decision to appropriate millions of dollars of diocesan endowment funds to build a summer camp and retreat center.
Two years ago, it called unanimously for his resignation - Bennison refused - and last year petitioned the presiding bishop to initiate a church trial to remove him.
Starting Oct. 20, Bennison will also be defendant in a separate civil trial.
The Rev. David Moyer, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, is suing the bishop for damages in Montgomery County Court on the ground that Bennison "fraudulently" defrocked him as a priest without a required church trial.
This article was found at:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20081004_Episcopal_court_rules_to_defrock_Pa__bishop.html

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Death of defrocked pastor puts new twist in AME sex abuse case

Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. should be removed from church office, according to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA

The Philadelphia Inquirer - August 13, 2008

Episcopalians speak for and against Pa. bishop

By David O'Reilly | Inquirer Staff Writer

Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. should be removed from church office, according to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA and the victim of Bennison's brother's sexual abuse.
But a special church court - which in June found Bennison guilty of failing to protect a girl in his parish from his brother John's sexual abuse decades ago - has also received dozens of letters from Bennison's admirers asking that he be allowed to continue to lead the five-county Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania he has headed since 1998.
"His ministry is a gift the Episcopal Church so desperately needs," wrote one.
In October, the Episcopal Church suspended Bennison, 62, on two charges of "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy" and called for a trial.
The nine-member Court for the Trial of a Bishop, which heard testimony here in mid-June, found him guilty days later by a unanimous vote. It will soon decide whether to reprimand Bennison, extend his suspension, or permanently "depose" him from ministry.
"Bishop Bennison should not be permitted to resume his episcopate in the Diocese of Pennsylvania under any circumstances," Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori wrote the court in late July.
"His credibility and lack of appropriate pastoral sensitivity . . . demonstrate he could not effectively lead the Diocese" or any other diocese "now or in the future," Schori argued.
Martha Alexis, who was a 14-year-old member of Bennison's Upland, Calif., parish when John Bennison began a five-year sexual relationship with her, also asked the court to depose Charles Bennison.
In a lengthy letter to the court that echoed her trial testimony, Alexis argued that Bennison's failure to intervene in his brother's abuse or minister to her afterward were nearly as damaging as the abuse itself.
"I trusted him to be my pastor, and he abandoned me," she wrote. "John distorted and perverted my understanding of God, but Charles stole the Church from me."
Alexis' widowed mother has also written the court, saying that while she and her late husband had "loved" Bennison, the trial forced her to recognize that he had "put his career [and] fear of scandal" ahead of their daughter.
"The value of one soul outweighs the many good works of the Bishop," she wrote in a nine-page victim impact statement. Bennison "should not be permitted to remain as a Bishop in the Episcopal Church."
The 10-member diocesan standing committee, which has feuded with Bennison over issues of trust and diocesan finances for several years, urged the court to bar Bennison from ever again serving as a member of the clergy.
Bennison's admirers have also weighed in on his behalf, sending at least 29 letters to the court urging clemency.
One woman described how, as a young pastor in California, Bennison's "faith and strength bolstered us" when their baby son died suddenly. She called Bennison a "godly man" and noted he had created a prison ministry, a homeless shelter, and a grammar school for the parish.
The Rev. Richard C. Alton, former rector of St. Mark's parish in Center City, wrote to say that his own sexual abuse in childhood had made him acutely sensitive to abuse issues. He said he was confident Bennison strove to "keep all the people of the diocese of Pennsylvania safe from harm."
"There are, frankly, not very many people who possess Charles' unique combination of intellectual, personal, pastoral and spiritual gifts," wrote the Rev. Gary R. Hall, dean and president of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. He urged the judges, five of whom are bishops, to allow Bennison to continue serving as a bishop.
Bennison's lead attorney, James A.A. Pabarue, has petitioned the court to conduct a sentencing hearing that will allow him to present the recommendations of about five Bennison supporters. The court has not announced if it will do so.
In a July 30 memorandum to the court, Pabarue urged the judges not to impose any further punishment on Bennison.
Noting that John Bennison was forced to resign as a parish priest in 2006 when a San Francisco TV station exposed his abuse, Pabarue argued that it was unfair to impose the same sentence on someone who was not the abuser.
Pabarue also reasoned that Bennison's nine-month suspension, his costly public trial, his long service to the church, his remorse, and his assertions that he would handle a similar abuse situation differently today all warranted "an excuse of any sentence."
But Larry White, the Center City attorney representing the Episcopal Church, argued in his memorandum that Bennison had "prolonged and intensified" Alexis' suffering by failing to minister to her.
"Bishop Bennison's misconduct reflected fundamental aspects of his character that render him unfit to serve as a member of the clergy," White concluded. "The appropriate sentence . . . is deposition."
Bennison may appeal the court's guilty verdict and any sentence it imposes.
This article was found at:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20080813_Episcopalians_speak_for_
and_against_Pa__bishop.html

Episcopal Church convicts Philadelphia bishop of cover-up

The Associated Press - June 26, 2008

by Joann Loviglio

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An Episcopal bishop was found guilty by a church panel of covering up his brother's assaults of a teenage girl in the 1970s.
Charles E. Bennison Jr., 64, was convicted of two counts of engaging in conduct unbecoming of a member of the clergy, according to his attorneys and the church verdict, dated Tuesday and released Thursday. He could be reprimanded, suspended or ousted from the church.
"We are proud of the Episcopal Church for holding Bishop Bennison accountable, and for using an open and transparent process that allowed the truth to come to light," church attorney Lawrence White said in a statement Thursday.
It was not immediately clear when the sentence would be handed down for Bennison, bishop of the nation's fifth-largest Episcopal diocese. The special Court for the Trial of a Bishop must wait at least 30 days before handing down a sentence, and Bennison's attorneys said they will request a hearing before sentencing.
The victim, now 50, testified during a four-day ecclesiastical trial this month that the abuse by the bishop's brother, John Bennison, happened three to four times a week for several years. She testified that an encounter in a Sunday school classroom and another in a church office in 1973 were witnessed by Charles Bennison, who "opened the door, took a look at us, turned around and walked out."
At the time, Charles Bennison was rector of St. Mark's Church in Upland, Calif., in the Diocese of Los Angeles, and his brother was a married lay minister there.
The Associated Press generally does not disclose the names of sexual abuse victims.
The bishop testified that he heard rumors of sexual impropriety and confronted his brother, who was about to leave the California parish where he was a youth counselor. Bishop Bennison said he kept quiet to protect the girl and the church from scandal, and because he didn't know the rumor to be fact until years later.
Attorneys for the church suggested that Bennison kept quiet to advance his career. They accused him of "selective amnesia" and other psychological phenomena that he described in his own 1997 book on the effects of harboring secrets about clergy sex abuse.
Charles Bennison's legal team, led by attorney James Pabarue, declined to comment on the verdict but said in a statement that it would appeal.
"The appropriateness of his actions is reflected by the actions of numerous Episcopal bishops, priests, officials and lay members who knew of Bishop Bennison's conduct as early as 1979 and who for 28 years never felt that his conduct was improper (or) warranted charges being brought against him during that time," the statement read.
Pabarue has said the young rector handled the situation as best he could with his limited experience and a lack of church guidelines, particularly in an era when views about sexual abuse were not as enlightened as today.
Bennison was ordered to cease all church duties in November.
A church indictment, called a presentment, charged that Bennison failed to investigate his brother's actions and protect the victim. The presentment also charged that Bennison knew about the abuse but didn't halt the 1974 ordination of his brother.
John Bennison, who never faced criminal charges, left the priesthood two years ago.
This article was found at:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hFZQ8Y4BGWbGtd4I2iNij8czY8xQD91I109O0

Bishop in abuse case: 'I can't remember what I've forgotten'

Philadelphia Daily News
June 13, 2008

By NICOLE NORFLEET
For much of the 32 hours of witness testimony and lawyer statements this week, the audience's view of suspended Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. was restricted to the shiny bald spot in the back of his head.
Yesterday, the last day of his church trial, spectators got a glimpse of the 64-year-old bishop's perspective on his brother John's sexual abuse of a teen-age girl as he testified - sometimes forgetting the order of critical points of the case.
"I can't remember what I've forgotten," he answered during questioning by church attorney Ralph A. Jacobs.
His response elicited a few soft chuckles from the crowd inside the Center City Marriott.
"I do think I have an amnesia problem," he later stammered. "I don't remember a lot of this."
Bennison, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, is accused of failing to report his brother's conduct 35 years ago.
After Charles testified that John should not have been ordained a priest, Jacobs asked why Charles had not prevented the ordination. Charles had presented John to their father, the late Bishop Charles Bennison Sr., who ordained him. "Well, I was hoping that it would work out," Bennison said in a low voice.
The church lawyers introduced a book written by Charles Bennison in 1997 that they claimed shows the hypocrisy of his comments.
"Congregations that harbor secrets surrounding events in their collective lives - such as sexual or financial misconduct on the part of one of the clergy experience cognitive dissonance between reality and what is said about it," Bennison wrote. "Within the life of the congregation, secrecy becomes toxic."
Bennison testified that he had not viewed the sexual affair between then-14-year-old Martha Alexis and his brother as abuse, but more as consensual sin on both of their parts.
He added that people in Upland, Calif., the location of the church in which much of the abuse occurred, would have shared the same view and would have persecuted Alexis if he had made the affair public.
He said that he would have reported everything if it happened today. "We'll never know," he said. "We'll never know what would have happened if we ran another tape."
Bennison's lawyers argued that the bishop's actions may have been insufficient because his clerical training did not include sexual-abuse awareness and the church lacked a written abuse policy at the time.
Jacobs dismissed the argument by saying that "common sense" should have guided Bennison.
"He did not need some 21st-century detection protocol," Jacobs said. "How hard is it?"
Before the end of the day, Bennison's camp moved to have the case dismissed, contending that it had not been brought within the statute of limitations of canon law, which requires charges against clergy to be presented within five years of the offense.
Bennison's attorney James A. Pabarue suggested during his closing statements that the Alexis family was being "used" by some of the bishop's enemies in an opportunistic attempt to get him out of office.
But Maggie Thompson, the ex-wife of the bishop's brother, who had helped expose the abuse, said: "The evidence spoke for itself. We're all very pleased to be able to have this chance to be heard."
A nine-person panel will determine whether Bishop Bennison is guilty of "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy" within the next 30 days.
If the panel rules against him, it could take months to agree on any punishment. *
Staff writer Joshua Mellman contributed to this report
This article was found at:
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080613_
Bishop_in_abuse_case___I_can_t_remember_
what_I_ve_forgotten_.html

Episcopal Bishop's very public trial a first for the church

Philadelphia Daily News
June 12, 2008

by Ronnie Polaneczky | Daily News Columnist
SOMETHING extraordinary is going on at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel: A bishop is being called on the carpet for not alerting church authorities, parents or police that a church youth-group leader at his church was having sex with a teenage member.
More extraordinary still is that the proceedings are public. Anyone can enter the Marriott ballroom and see the robed, nine-member jury of Episcopal leaders presiding over the church trial of Bishop Charles Bennison.
They can wince as the victim, now 50, haltingly describes her childhood abuse as "degrading."
They can hear her abuser's ex-wife describe the horror she felt when she realized her former spouse was actually a sexual abuser, not a philanderer.
They can watch as a distraught Bennison explains why he didn't help the young victim.
No matter what the trial's outcome, its transparency alone makes it historic.
How ironic that it's unfolding in a city where Catholic bishops responsible for covering up past sex abuse in the Philly Archdiocese have yet to be held publicly accountable by name, by their church, for the pain their complicity perpetuated.
Bennison was rector of a California church in the 1970s, where his brother, John Bennison, was a youth minister. Charles Bennison, now bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, has admitted that he knew his brother was in a sexual relationship with a then-14-year-old girl named Martha Alexis.
He also has admitted he did nothing to shield her from further harm. Forget alerting church authorities or the police. Bennison didn't even tell Alexis' parents - those in the best position to protect her - what was happening to their daughter. Only later, when Alexis sought counseling, was she able to tell them herself.
John Bennison eventually moved on to another church and became involved in additional sexual misconduct, which might have been prevented had his brother had the courage to speak for the voiceless.
Charles Bennison is now charged with "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy" for his inaction. If found guilty, he could, among other things, be forbidden from ever again holding church office.
Bennison, it must be noted, had his detractors long before the charges against him came to light. Some argue that his current mess is the result of actions by those who have long wanted him gone, for political reasons having nothing to do with the sex-abuse charges.
Which is beside the point. No matter how the charges came to light, they need to be addressed. They're too serious not to be.
But if the Episcopal Church was unconscionably slow to address the abuse that Charles Bennison acknoweldges took place, the church is to be commended for not being too cowed by his lofty rank to hold him accountable for what any caring adult - let alone a spiritual shepherd - would have done in similar circumstances.
There's another irony in Bennison's trial: It's scheduled to conclude today - the same day that hearings into childhood sexual abuse were supposed to have begun in Harrisburg.
I've written before how the House Judiciary Committee has refused to hold hearings on House Bill 1137, The Child Victims' Act of PA, which would give childhood sex-abuse victims until age 50 to bring civil suits against their abusers (the current age limit is 30). It would also open a two-year window to allow childhood sex-abuse victims to file a civil suit when the statute of limitations on their case had otherwise expired.
The bill's prime sponsor, Rep. Lisa Bennington, was thrilled when Rep. Louise Bishop offered to hold related hearings today in the Children and Youth Committee, which she heads, so victims could be heard.
But last week, Bishop canceled the hearings, citing scheduling conflicts. She has no plans to reschedule.
"I am appalled that no one in power in the Democratic Party will assist us in giving a voice to these victims," Bennington said yesterday. "It's unfathomable."
But, sadly, not unexpected, given how easily and often those in power - whether they're lay or spiritual leaders - cave when it comes to doing the right thing.
Which makes the Episcopal Church's willingness to hold Charles Bennison's very public trial even more extraordinary.
So if you want to watch history in the making, head to the Marriott today and sit a while.
It could be a long time before it gets made this way again.

This article was found at:

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/
local/20080612_Ronnie_Polaneczky__
Bishop_s_very_public_trial_a_first_
for_the_church.html

Episcopal Bishop charged with concealing his brother's sexual abuse of a teenage girl

Philadelphia Inquirer - June 11, 2008

by David O'Reilly | Inquirer staff

The church trial of Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr., charged with concealing his brother's sexual abuse of a teenage girl decades ago, heard again yesterday from the victim, who said Bennison did nothing to protect her after he learned of the abuse.
In response to questioning from one of Bennison's lawyers, the woman, now 50, also told the special Court for the Trial of a Bishop that she had nothing to do with initiating the proceedings against Bennison and was testifying only reluctantly. The woman has been identified as Martha Alexis, her childhood name. She is now married and does not use either name.
"I haven't wanted him removed from his job," Alexis said tearfully. "I just want him to acknowledge his role" in protecting his brother and failing to protect her.
Charles Bennison was rector of her parish in Upland, Calif., in the 1970s. John Bennison was the parish's 25-year-old, married youth minister when he started a four-year sexual affair with Alexis when she was about 15.
But Charles Bennison did nothing to protect her after he discovered them, she said in response to questions from attorneys for the Episcopal Church USA.
And he allowed his brother to continue as youth minister even after he twice walked in on them and found them flushed and with their clothes in disarray, Alexis said.
"Was John Bennison still in control of you?" asked church attorney Larry White.
"Yes," she said, adding later that the sex not only continued but grew even more "degrading" until John Bennison, newly ordained a priest, left the parish about two months later to take a curate's job in another parish.
In October the denomination suspended Charles Bennison as bishop after a special church committee concluded that he knew or should have known about the girl's abuse.
Bennison, 64, is charged with "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy" for failing to protect the girl or notify the Diocese of Los Angeles of his brother's crimes.
If the nine judges, who include five bishops, find him guilty, Bennison could be removed permanently from holding any clerical office in the 2 million-member church.
Ann Allen, a former rector's warden at the parish, told the court that she learned of the abuse when Alexis was about 15.
In Webcast testimony from San Francisco, where she now lives, Allen recalled how one of her teenage sons had told his parents that Alexis was "John's woman."
But when she apprised Charles Bennison that there might be "something going on" between the girl and his brother, Bennison "just kind of shrugged and said, 'That's the way it is,' or, '[That's] the kinds of things that are happening.' "
She said Bennison later told her in a phone conversation: "I appreciate your not telling other people about this because it could negatively affect my career."
Allen said she deeply regretted failing to tell the girl's parents or intervening in John Bennison's ordination to the priesthood in 1975.
She was followed on the witness stand by Gary R. Schoener, a Minnesota psychologist who specializes in clergy sexual misbehavior. He said the standard protocol for a rector who suspected abuse back then was to make inquiries and, if substantiated, immediately separate the victim from the abuser and inform the child's parents and diocesan leaders.
"The issue of needing to respond is not new," Schoener said.
Much of the late afternoon was taken up with an approximately three-hour taped deposition from Bishop David Richards, the retired head of the Episcopal Church's Office of Pastoral Development.
Testifying for the prosecution, he told the court that he believed Bennison's failures to protect the girl or report his brother's abuse constituted conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy.
Charles Bennison should have immediately separated his brother from Alexis, he said, informed the diocesan bishop and the seminary where he was training, and steered his brother into counseling.
"The good shepherd keeps away the wolves," Richards told the court.
The trial, which is being held at the Downtown Marriott Hotel, resumes this morning.
This article was found at:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/
philadelphia/20080611_Woman_in_Bennison_
trial_testifies_reluctantly.html

An iconoclast gathers his heretical flock

The Sydney Morning Herald - Australia

Linda Morris Religious Affairs Writer

August 16, 2007


HERE are some heretical thoughts to alarm Sydney's Anglican Archbishop, Peter Jensen:

* Jesus was not born of a virgin;

* His father Joseph was a literary construct, as was Judas;

* His family thought he was out of his mind;

* There were probably not 12 disciples;

* There were no miraculous healings, no crown of thorns, no tomb, no angel; and

* Jesus did not rise from the dead.

The publishers of John Shelby Spong's latest book, Jesus for the Non-Religious, had originally wanted it to be called Freeing Jesus from the Shackles of Religion, and that's essentially what the iconoclastic retired Episcopal bishop claims to do. He portrays the supernatural elements of Jesus's life, the very cornerstones of Christian doctrine, as fabrications woven into the biblical narrative decades after Jesus's death. First-century Jewish interpretations of the Jesus experience had served to distort the very essence of Christianity, he says. And it's the reason institutional Christianity has no future.

He does not believe that God sent Jesus to die for the sins of humankind - the doctrine of the atonement - because that made a victim out of Jesus and made God "the ultimate child abuser". Rather, the message of Christ was to live fully human lives of love and compassion.

Bishop Spong has his detractors, including Mark Thompson, the president of the evangelical lobby group, the Anglican Church League, who has accused the visiting Harvard lecturer of "defacing the only portrait of Jesus that makes any real sense".

"One cannot imagine anyone willing to be martyred for Spong's Jesus," Mr Thompson wrote in Southern Cross, the journal of Sydney Anglicans. "The transformation of the ancient world in the wake of the first preaching of Jesus and the foundations of two millennia of Western culture are inexplicable if this is all there is."

Bishop Spong is used to the derision, which he likens to being "gummed to death by a herd of clacking geese" but counts three Australian bishops as close friends, including the Australian Primate, Phillip Aspinall.

He was not interested in converting conservative Sydney Anglicans but wanted to speak to those who had given up on God or were disillusioned with the Sydney church.

Belief in God should not require a person to shut down their mind. It's the reason he would rather debate the atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens than Archbishop Jensen. While they "miss the point" of God, these writers were at least "living in the 21st century", he quipped.

Dr Jensen is foremost among conservatives agitating against blessings of same-sex unions and the consecration of openly homosexual bishops.

Bishop Spong said he knew of many closeted gay bishops and encouraged those threatening to quit the Anglican Communion to do so.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/an-iconoclast-gathers-his-heretical-flock/2007/08/15/1186857596819.html

Episcopal priest admits to abuse in Skaneateles

The Post-Standard - Syracuse

August 14, 2007

By Renee K. Gadoua


A former Skaneateles Episcopal priest who ran for state Assembly last year has admitted sexually abusing four adolescent boys while serving as rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Skaneateles from January 1986 to May 1993.

J. Edward Putnam, 66, was suspended from acting as a priest for 20 years after a diocesan investigation, said the Rev. Karen C. Lewis, assistant to Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams.

Putnam signed a document last month that outlines the accusations and the church discipline, Lewis said. In a written statement to the bishop, Putnam said he engaged in "inappropriate conduct with minors" while at St. James, she said.

The diocese received a complaint about Putnam from one man on May 13 and immediately began an investigation, Lewis said. Two days later, Adams prohibited Putnam from acting as a priest while the diocese investigated the allegations.

The investigation revealed three other victims. All were males and minors at the time. She would not describe the incidents but said some of them occurred in the church at 96 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles.

"We just don't tolerate this," Lewis said.



Putnam cannot celebrate Mass, preach, teach, or perform any other functions of a priest, Lewis said. He cannot wear a clerical collar and cannot use the title "Rev." or "Father."

The 20-year suspension, which was effective July 23, can be extended at the discretion of the bishop or his successor, Lewis said.

Putnam could not be reached for comment Monday. The telephone at his 42 Jordan St., Skaneateles, home has been disconnected, and he did not respond to an e-mail message.

His tenure at the Skaneateles church immediately preceded that of Adams, who was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New in 2001. Putnam also served as interim dean of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Syracuse and in parishes in Albany, Rhode Island and Michigan. He retired from active ministry in 2004.

Lewis said diocesan officials informed New York State Police and the other dioceses where Putnam ministered of the accusations. First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio said he doesn't know about the case, and it's unclear whether the criminal statute of limitations has run out.

Adams and others involved with the investigation met Monday night with members of St. James Church. Lewis said informing the congregation is part of diocesan policy.

"For it to remain a secret would cause damage," she said.

Diocesan clergy and lay leaders were informed in a letter from the bishop mailed Monday.

"The Episcopal Church and this Diocese maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any type of clergy misconduct, particularly in the area of sexual misconduct," Adams wrote. "We know this behavior to be an abuse of power, a betrayal of trust, and a sinful act against God's beloved creation."

The diocese has investigated three cases of clergy sexual misconduct since 1992, Lewis said. The Rev. Wallace Frey, pastor of St. David's Episcopal Church in DeWitt for 28 years, resigned from the ministry in 1992 after admitting sexual contact with several young men, including at least one teenager.

In 2006, the Rev. Ralph E. Johnson resigned from the ministry after a five-month investigation of allegations he sexually abused a boy in the 1970s while serving as rector of St. Paul's Church in Owego.

Neither was charged with a crime.

The third case involved a deceased priest. Lewis would not name the priest, but said the diocese is paying for counseling for the victim.

Putnam served as chaplain to the New York State Assembly from 1994 to 1996. In November 2006, Putnamhe ran unsuccessfully against William Barclay, R-Pulaski, who won a third term representing the 124th Assembly District.

In 2004, Putnam self-published a novel, "Sandy Hill." The biography included with the book describes him as retired, but does not say he is a priest. The back cover describes the book as "quite autobiographical."

The novel is about a recently retired school administrator returning to his hometown in upstateUpstate New York for a 45th high school reunion. In one scene, the main character, Dan, recalls an incident in which an older Boy Scout, Mitch, touched his genitals.

"Dan saw a pedestal shatter and a hero fall before his eyes," Putnam wrote. "The trust Dan had committed to Mitch had been destroyed, and it would never be the same again."

http://blog.syracuse.com/news/2007/08/episcopal_priest_admits_abuse.html