The Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., has rejected a request from the standing committee, stating in an e-mail message to the clergy that he will not resign.

After an all-day meeting with his staff on Jan. 26, Bishop Bennison said his resignation “would not be a solution to the challenges” facing the diocese. Bishop Bennison said 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.” To comply with the standing committee request would not set a proper example for the Church in the midst of its present difficulties, he said.

“Fundamental to our understanding of who we are as the Body of the Risen Christ is the conviction that disagreements among us, however difficult and painful, are not a cause for dissolving the relationship we have with one another through baptism and ordination,” he wrote, adding he was “committed to staying” with his present relationship to the diocese.

In an addendum to his email, Bishop Bennison asked the clergy to read his letter to their congregations on Jan. 29.

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