The Standing Committee reportedly plans to issue a public letter soon explaining its decision. But, with Bennison insisting that his resignation is "not in the best interests of the diocese," it seemed that the jurisdiction could be in for a tug of war similar to that in the late 1990s in the Diocese of New Jersey. There, Bishop Joe Morris Doss held out against calls from diocesan leaders for him to leave, though he eventually took a severance package valued at $1.2 million to do so.

It was Bennison himself who announced in a January 25 letter to his flock that the Standing Committee had unanimously voted for him to step down as the spiritual leader of the 65,000-member diocese centered in Philadelphia.

" I said in my address at the Diocesan Convention last November that if you felt that I were not leading the diocese effectively and asked me to resign, I would pray about it, and, if I felt it were God's will, I would do so," the 62-year-old prelate wrote. " I am seriously praying about the Standing Committee's request, and I ask that you pray for me, for our colleagues throughout the diocese, and above all for the unity and health of our diocese."

The bishop is already "done praying," though, and is staying. "Our disagreements are not a reason for dissolving our relationships with one another," he said.

After an all-day meeting with his staff on January 26, Bennison said his resignation "would not be the solution to the challenges" facing the diocese, and that the best way forward was to "pursue together a rigorous long-term process for addressing our problems." He pledged his cooperation with the reconciliation process and invited "the Standing Committee and all of you to be part of it."

Bennison holds revisionist views on Jesus Christ (whom he believes was a sinner); scripture (which he says the Church wrote, and can rewrite); sexuality (he has recommended a new marriage ceremony for heterosexuals and homosexuals employing rites used by the Visigoths); and women's ordination. In the latest issue of The Pennsylvania Episcopalian, he reportedly questions the "historical accuracy" of the synoptic gospels and puts them in the same category as the words on the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin (?).

He is perhaps best known, though, for his efforts to break up a multi-congregational, traditionalist stronghold in his diocese. After he became the diocesan in 1998, conservatives say he reneged on a pledge to continue a system of alternate episcopal care for faithful parishes. Since then, his efforts have led to: the departure of St. James the Less, Philadelphia, a now-independent congregation which faces eviction from its historic building at the end of February following a successful lawsuit by Bennison and the diocese; the departure of members of St. John's, Huntingdon Valley, sans property, for the Anglican Mission in America; the delicensing of the rector of All Saints', Wynnewood, the Rev. Eddy Rix, who nonetheless continues to serve the parish amid a tense stand-off between it and the bishop; and Bennison's widely rejected deposition of the orthodox rector of Good Shepherd, Rosemont, David Moyer, who is now a bishop in the Traditional Anglican Communion, though Good Shepherd, which he still leads, remains aligned with the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Bennison's move to defrock Moyer gave rise to three, still-pending civil lawsuits. The first seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the bishop (as an individual and as Bishop of Pennsylvania) stemming from his initial "inhibition" of Moyer; the second alleges fraud, collusion and bad faith, and seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the "deposition" of Moyer and an order setting that deposition aside. In a third action, the insurance company for the diocese has sued the diocese and Bennison for a declaration that there is no insurance coverage for the Moyer lawsuit because of what it says was fraud committed by Bennison. The insurance company joined Moyer as a party, said his attorney, John H. Lewis Jr.

Bishop Moyer told TCC: "I called for the resignation of Charles Bennison four years ago because of his false teachings and duplicity, and his fraudulent actions towards me. I am pleased that the Standing Committee has taken this action, but call upon them to recognize that his failure as a bishop began with dishonesty and the abandonment of his vows to guard the faith."

Of the two lawsuits filed against Bennison, Moyer stated: "Unless resolved, the litigation I commenced will continue even if the bishop resigns."

Lewis confirmed that the plaintiff would pursue claims against Bennison, whether or not he resigns, and that, where the two Moyer lawsuits assert claims against him as Bishop of Pennsylvania, the plaintiff reserves the right to press those claims against the ecclesiastical authority in the absence of a bishop-the Standing Committee-and/or Bennison's successor.

MORE RECENTLY, however, it seems that unhappiness with Bennison has spread beyond traditionalist ranks in Pennsylvania, for reasons that some sources in the diocese say have to do with factors such as a lack of collegiality and candor, a fall-off in diocesan income, and how much and for what reasons money is being spent or proposed to be spent.

One Pennsylvania cleric cited the "exorbitant renovation of the cathedral" and "white elephant projects" seemingly geared to allow Bennison to build a kind of "pyramid" for himself in the diocese. Certain findings of the Moyer and insurance lawsuits in regard to the bishop's actions may have added to the disaffection among some diocesan leaders, he suggested.

Bennison suffered a tacit vote of no confidence at November's diocesan convention, when delegates rebuffed his $4.3 million budget for 2006, which planned to use $1.2 million in endowment funds to balance the budget. Delegates also rejected his move to require that parishes tithe to the diocese.

"That would have only succeeded in putting more parishes in the position of possibly being reduced to mission status," said the aforementioned Pennsylvania cleric, who asserted that some 40 parishes in the diocese already have been identified as "teetering" and possibly facing closure.

Bennison was also scored for using $3 million in endowment funds to buy 618 acres along Maryland's Elk River and the northern Chesapeake Bay to build a children's camp and retreat center.

There has been a "mounting sense of frustration over [Bennison's] leadership, concerns about financial mismanagement, that he oftentimes listens only to himself, and that he does not lead in a collegial fashion," the Rev. Greg Brewer, rector of the conservative Good Samaritan parish in Paoli, told the Inquirer.

Bennison, though, says he has listened to God and come to a different conclusion about what he should do. He maintained that he is collegial, consulting broadly, and contended that the standing committee is "opposed to the forward direction I've been leading the diocese."

Now operating under an interim budget, the diocese plans a special convention March 25 to adopt a permanent budget for 2006. Bennison said he did not believe that the issue of his resignation would be on the meeting's agenda.

END

[size=x-small]Sources included The Diocese of Pennsylvania, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Living Church [/size]

Permission to circulate the foregoing story electronically is granted, provided that there are no changes in the headings or text, and this notice is included.

To learn more about THE CHRISTIAN CHALLENGE magazine, which has been offering independent, comprehensive coverage of the Anglican world for 44 years, please visit http://www.challengeonline.org.