From the ArcaMax Publishing, Religious News Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/religiousnews/s-369685-237197
An Episcopal Church court has found a Pennsylvania bishop guilty of
concealing his brother's sexual abuse of a minor during the 1970s.
Bishop Charles Bennison Jr. could be suspended or removed permanently
from ministry, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday.
Bennison's lawyers said they planned to appeal the decision. A
sentence is not likely to be handed down before late August, the
newspaper said.
Bennison, 64, became head of the five-county, 55,000-member Diocese of
Pennsylvania in 1998. He was suspended in October after a special
review committee of the Episcopal Church USA charged him with two
counts of "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy."
A church committee alleged that as the young rector of St. Mark's
parish in Upland, Calif., in the early 1970s, he had failed to protect
a teenage girl from the sexual predations of his younger brother John,
who served as the parish youth minister.
Bennison testified he had been unaware of the abuse, but the alleged
victim, now 50, testified Bennison had twice ignored obvious signs she
and John Bennison were having sexual relations.
The case marks the third time a bishop was tried before the church
court in the 232-year history of the Episcopal Church USA.