Bishop Bennnison may be correct in stating that he's being railroaded and that this is unfair but there is no way that he will ever be an effective leader for the Diocese of Pennsylvania again. At the same time, the entire diocese has been held hostage by this very public power struggle...vendetta...whatever it is. If I were one of his advisors, I'd recommend he re-read the story of Solomon and the women fighting over the baby. Sometimes there are more important things than winning.

I am now 50, and was a member of the Saint Marks youth group in Upland when John Bennison was the youth group leader and Charles Benison was the rector. I did not know the secret, but I saw things that did not make sense. I saw it in John and Chuck. But mostly I saw it in Maggie and Martha, John Bennison's wife and a 15 year old girl in our group, respectively. I wondered why Maggie look like she had been crying or was emotionally beaten? Why did John just play his guitar and not seem to notice? Why did Martha expect to be treated as an adult, and why did the adults, and especially John, accept it. Why did she yell at Chuck like he was her battered husband? Why did he take it? Why did John leave so suddenly and why did the reason seem like no reason at all? At the age of 13 I came to the conclusion that some things about people just could not be understood. I let it all go until 2006 when John Bennison was pushed out as rector of his church is CA for having sex with Martha when she was a member of our youth group, frequently and over the course of several years. It explained a lot.

Since then I have read the news, the testimony, and gone to see the old church buildings of Saint Marks in Upland. I have rehashed a lot of things. The universe is not so random after all.

At present I believe this;

Chuck is a good man, he is earnest. He did screw this up. When he suspected John, he should have done more than just ask him about it. When he knew for sure about John and Martha he should have brought in the parents, and possibly the police. He did not. She was a child under his protection, and he failed to protect her. How Martha acted or treated him should have had little to do with it.

But he was not alone and should not be alone in taking this fall. Nor should he be taking the fall for what he did then as a representative of the church, based on what the church is now . He contends that is was a different time, but more to the point, it was a different Church. There was little training then for how to deal with this kind of thing. There was a culture of secrecy and cover-up and some outdated attitudes about statutory rape. I wish he had known better, had not have been so easily swayed by his biases and fears, not have trusted his brother so much, and had disclosed the incident to the parents. But in doing so, he would have been going against the grain of the culture of the Episcopal Church at that time. Look at the actions of Bishop Rusack and Swing who reinstated and supported John Bennison, even against the face-to-face objections of his victim. For the Church as a whole the transgressions of these two Bishops is as troubling to me Charles Benisons'. Their actions indicate that the entire church was in no position to deal appropriately with the John Benison problem, or his victims welfare. Charles Benisons' actions were, unfortunately, in sync with the attitudes of his Bishops at that time. But his attitude changed, as did that of the Episcopal church.

Finally I looked at the trial of Bishop Bennison and, as in the Youth Group in the 70’s, some things defied reason. Why, with so much institutional guilt to go around, was this one man on trial. Why not Bishop Rusack or Bishop Swing, or the policies and procedures of the Episcopal Church of the 1970’s. Ironically, of all of the players, the one that has since done the most to fix these problems and to help change its culture of shame and secrecy, is the only one who must defend, and suffer for, his actions.

But unlike when I was a youth at Saint Marks in Upland, there are some things that can be discerned.

Well-meaning people and organizations, (Virtue On Line for example) have demonized the man, and mob like, may be causing the Bishops, and Episcopal Church, some anxiety. Because of this, there is a danger that the simple and immediate welfare of the Church may out weigh the more complicated truth and justice for the individual who, in this case, is the Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles Bennison. 35 years ago, it was a 15 year old girl who could not find individual justice. Hmmm.

Who incites the mob? This is information easily available on-line. It is a group of less liberal (more fundamental?) Episcopalians centered in the dioceses of Pennsylvania, who are financially and ideologically threaded by the beliefs and actions of Bishop Bennison. Lacking the numbers, the Bishops power, or some more direct approach, they are forced to leverage the issue of sexual abuse, which resonates easily with the masses, to bring an end to Bishop Benisons tenure, and have him replaced with someone more supportive of their faith. They also seem to hate him.

Bart Millar

Good questions Bart. Thanks