Earlier this year, the Standing Committee of the diocese called on Bennison to resign. A number of individual priests…also asked Bennison to step down.

Delegates to the 227th Diocesan Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania voted overwhelmingly for Bishop Charles Bennison to resign. 476 secret ballots were cast, 341 in favor of the resolution, 134 voted against the resolution.

Bennison thanked the diocesan convention for its voting and when asked to comment, refused to say anything and proceeded to continue with the business of the convention.

Proposers of the resolution focused almost entirely on the abuse and cover-up of his brother’s sexual abuse of a minor, citing various things Bennison has said, recently and generally, as well as his unrepentant and self-justifying attitude.

Bennison remained expressionless throughout the vote and discussions. Following the vote, he continued on as if it had never happened. Assistant Bishop Rodney Michel presided during that vote.

When the vote was announced following lunch, there was no reaction in the crowd.

A number of delegates did not come to the convention because they are disgusted by Bennison’s return.

At the morning Eucharist, most people avoided Bennison and moved their positions to take communion from Bishop Michel. A number of delegates also refused to attend Morning Prayer.

Just hours before the convention began, Bishop Paul Marshall of Bethlehem, PA, wrote a letter to the delegates and Bennison calling on him to resign. Arguing that it was extraordinary for a neighboring Bishop to intervene in the deliberations of another Diocese, and that the episcopal relationship had not worked out to the advancement of God’s reign, Marshall then called on Bennison to resign his office.

“I did not join in the discussion or the vote of the House of Bishops against him (the outcome was clear from Day One, as it too often is in that body), still hoping against hope that a resolution could be reached. I still believe that without chimerical canonical intervention, there simply comes a time to call it quits, and I hope that for the sake of our common mission, this will happen in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

“It is with enormous reluctance that I state my belief that change in leadership, perhaps on more than one level, is necessary, despite any legalities that may be invoked.”

Earlier in the week Christ Church, Philadelphia, announced, by a unanimous vote of its Vestry, that they will not contribute its Episcopal Assessment for 2011. Christ Church will increase its contribution to the Program Budget for 2011 by the amount of its Episcopal Assessment.

Earlier this year, the Standing Committee of the diocese called on Bennison to resign. A number of individual priests including Frank Allen, (St. David’s) and Todd Cederberg (Good Samaritan) also asked Bennison to step down.

Bennison has steadfastly refused to leave. An ecclesiastical appeals court overthrew charges against Bennison based on the statute of limitations, but still maintained that Bennison’s actions were unbecoming a member of the clergy.

Delegates were charged $75.00 to attend the convention, a charge that infuriated some delegates.

Bennison, 66, resumed his role as diocesan bishop Aug. 16, some 11 days after the church’s Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop overturned a lower church court’s finding that he ought to be deposed (removed) from ordained ministry because he had engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. The review court agreed with one of the lower court’s two findings of misconduct, but said that Bennison could not be deposed because the charge was barred by the church’s statute of limitations.

The lower court, the Court for the Trial of a Bishop, had called for Bennison’s deposition after it found that 35 years ago when he was rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Upland, California, he failed to respond properly after learning that his brother, John Bennison, was “engaged in a sexually abusive and sexually exploitive relationship” with a minor parishioner. At the time, John Bennison was a 24-year-old newly ordained deacon (later priest) whom Charles Bennison had hired as youth minister. The abuse allegedly lasted for more than three years from the time the minor was 14 years old.

Charles Bennison was found to have failed to discharge his pastoral obligations to the girl, the members of her family, and the members of the parish youth group as well as church authorities after he learned of his brother’s behavior. The court said that he suppressed the information about his brother until 2006, when he disclosed publicly what he knew.

Episcopal Church canons have no time limit for bringing claims arising out of physical violence, sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a person younger than 21 years (Canon IV.19.4(a) and (b). The statute of limitations on other offenses committed by clergy is 10 years, with certain exceptions extending the time period by a small number of additional years.

Bennison had been inhibited (prevented) from exercising his ordained ministry since the fall of 2007 when the disciplinary action began. The ban expired with the review court’s decision.

During it Sept. 16-21 fall gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, members of the House of Bishops said in a lengthy and strongly worded “mind of the house” resolution that they were “profoundly troubled by the outcome of the disciplinary action” against Bennison, and had concluded that his “capacity to exercise the ministry of pastoral oversight is irretrievably damaged.” Bennison declined to honor that request.

David W. Virtue is a theologically trained journalist and a pioneer in Internet journalism. He has been a newspaper reporter and editor in New Zealand, Canada and the United States. He studied theology in London, Chicago and Vancouver. www.virtueonline.org