Mr. Tom Allen wrote a letter to the parish saying they had asked Bennison to "consider" sending another bishop, but when Bennison refused, the rector's warden did an about face and said, "surely we should welcome the bishop on that day, and support his message to our confirmands."

On January 29th the Standing Committee asked Bennison to either retire or resign citing "trust" as well as "fiscal mismanagement" issues and gave him till March 31st to make up his mind as to which of the two choices he would take.

Bennison refused both options and said he would stay on despite appeals for him to go by the Standing Committee, Bishop Clayton Mathews, (representing the Presiding Bishop) and a theologically diverse group calling themselves Concerned Pennsylvania Episcopalians.

And now VirtueOnline has learned that the rectors warden of St. Christopher's, the parish of the Rev. Bill Wood, and the Rev. Mary Laney, the V-P of the Standing Committee are allowing Bennison to come and confirm having first asked him not to come and then backing down.

In a letter, dated March 30, 2006 obtained by VOL, Allen said while the parish was withholding part of its pledge, they requested that Bennison consider sending another bishop, but the revisionist bishop refused and insisted he will come to confirm on April 23.

At that point parish leaders had the option of telling him not to come; telling the congregation to stay away; telling the congregation what they and others told Matthews about Bennison's fraud and evil treatment of others. They did none of these. To the contrary, they told the parish to welcome him and that his "message" will be wonderful.

Wrote Allen: "Surely we should welcome the Bishop on that day, and support his message to the confirmands. I know from experience that Bishop Bennison is capable of communicating very well on such occasions."

Say what?

The Standing Committee has asked Bennison to step down and then its leaders turn around and accept him coming to their parish! What sort of spiritual schizophrenia is this?

Here is a bishop who said Jesus was a sinner who forgave himself; that the Church wrote the Bible, and therefore the Church can re-write it. Furthermore he has replaced the marriage ceremony with a Visigoth Rite and says the Gospels are inaccurate with the words being similar to those on the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin. He also could not confirm that he believed in certain fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith when asked to do so by an Anglo-Catholic rector in his diocese.

The stirring Call to Action memo from St. Christopher's, a country club parish, is the most disingenuous and hypocritical to date.

Written by the Rector's Warden on behalf of the church, it must be seen for what it is - a cowardly backing down at precisely the moment when a strong rebuttal and demand for Bennison to go, is called for.

It also sends the wrong message to the parish. It is cowardly, because parish leaders have backed down in the face of Bennison's insistence on coming.

This action by the rector's warden sends the wrong message to the parish because it also focuses on money rather than heresy, sociopathic behavior, insanity and fraud.

It is also outrageous because it tells the parents of the children to be confirmed that their children should be confirmed by a heretical bishop, and that his "message" will be valid and true, when it is not.

Finally, it is a clear statement that the Standing Committee will not, in the end, push for Bennison's removal. Clearly they are prepared to live with a crippled, heretical bishop rather than set about the process looking for a new one.

One hopes that the new $28,000 audit demanded by the specially called Diocesan Convention will reveal all and prove to be the final straw for the rest of the diocese in calling for the ouster of Charles E. Bennison the fraudulent Bishop of Pennsylvania.

END