Legal and financial challenges continue to mount in the Diocese of Pennsylvania as the standing committee held its regularly scheduled meeting Sept. 26 with the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., bishop of the diocese. The meeting occurs before the Oct. 1 resignation of the diocesan chancellor becomes effective and shortly after the standing committee issued an appeal for donations to hire independent legal counsel.

“As any chancellor is unable to represent both the standing committee and the bishop in a disagreement, our chancellor has recommended that the standing committee retain Michael Rehill, Esq.,” the committee said in a statement posted on a website maintained by the committee. “Bishop Clay Matthews, executive director, [Presiding Bishop’s] Office of Pastoral Development for The Episcopal Church, has stated that the standing committee is entitled to independent legal counsel… The chancellor agreed to put this directive in writing to Rob Rogers and has done so. On Monday, September 18, 2006, at a special meeting of the standing committee, the bishop refused to issue the retainer check.”

Amid accusations that he had been “economical with the truth” on a number of issues and used restricted funds to cover diocesan operating expenses and development of a camp and conference center, the standing committee unanimously called on Bishop Bennison to “retire or resign” within 90 days last January. Saying the problems in the diocese would not be resolved by his removal, Bishop Bennison declined to resign. A subsequent report prepared by the Presiding Bishop’s Office for Pastoral Development concluded there was little likelihood that mediation would resolve the dispute. Bishop Bennison disagreed with that conclusion and repeated his intention to remain in office.

Bishop Bennison told The Living Church he would present a new chancellor for standing committee approval during the September meeting and explained that he refused to issue the check for an independent counsel because the disagreement with the standing committee is not a canonical one. He said paying another lawyer would be poor stewardship of diocesan finances.

“I have yet to be presented with a valid reason why they want to hire a lawyer,” he said. “I don’t think we have irreconcilable differences. I’m not even sure what the disagreement is about.

“There is no doubt that, like the rest of The Episcopal Church, we are going through enormous transition and transformation. I think it is important to maintain a steady hand at the top. I am just doing my job. I am not concerned by what others think.”

Bishop Bennison said he hoped that the standing committee would permit him to initiate new legal action to ensure that the diocese retains church property where congregations estranged from the bishop continue to worship without clergy licensed by Bishop Bennison.

“It has been four years since the deposition of David Moyer. It is also four years that an unlicensed priest has been allowed to serve at the altar of one our churches [All Saints, Wynnewood],” Bishop Bennison said. “Our efforts at reconciliation are clearly not working. We need to recover those properties for The Episcopal Church. Under our canons, a bishop needs to take all legal action possible. We need to develop a legal strategy to secure those properties.”

The diocese is also facing a Dec. 31 deadline to exercise a $4 million option to buy the entire 1,600-acre plot of land on which Camp Wapiti is located. The exact amount of money the diocese has spent to improve Camp Wapiti is a matter of dispute, but probably exceeds $1 million. If the diocese is unwilling or unable to exercise the option to buy by Dec. 31, Bishop Bennison said it would retain ownership of the 200-300 acres of waterfront property where most of the camp and conference center buildings are located, but the remainder of the property might be sold to someone else by the current owner.

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