Presiding Bishop and House of Deputies President Address Embezzlement in Teleconference
Episcopal News Service. July 27, 1995 [95-1186]
(ENS) In an historic first, Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning and House of Deputies President Pamela Chinnis fielded questions from around the country during a two-hour live teleconference transmitted from Washington D.C., June 24.
The event, called "A Saturday Conversation," was the first time the church's top leadership has used a teleconference format to field questions from the church. Many of the questions dealt with the national furor caused by the embezzlement of $2.2 million in Episcopal Church funds by former treasurer Ellen Cooke, but others asked about the place of homosexuals, ethnic minorities, youth and single adults in the life of the church.
Viewers at 51 downlink sites organized through the Episcopal Cathedral Teleconference Network (ECTN) called or faxed in queries while a studio audience of 16 young people from the Washington, D.C., area asked additional questions. Sarah Moore of Royal Oak, Michigan, president of Episcopal Communicators, served as moderator. Episcopal Communicators is a national, independent organization of people engaged in communication work at all levels of the church.
Reactions varied widely with some dismissing the event as an effort at damage control but others welcomed the display of openness that they said seemed a sincere effort to reach out to the person in the pew.
While Browning and Chinnis had no new information to report about the Cooke embezzlement, Browning stressed in his opening remarks that, given the "very difficult news" of recent months, "we think it is tremendously important to communicate to the whole church."
After relating the events that led to the embezzlement's discovery, Browning said that the national church staff has been cooperating fully with the investigations that should lead to prosecution of Cooke. "The issue of prosecution is really not in the church's control," he said. "She broke laws of the land; she broke laws of the state." At the same time, he said, "there is a possibility, and I think it's a real possibility, that we'll bring a civil suit against Mrs. Cooke."
Admitting that one of the most frequent questions he has been asked is "how in the world could anybody get away with that kind of embezzlement over a period of five years," Browning said the church "had the controls... she literally bypassed the controls." Even with annual audits, he said, "it's hard to find a few (suspicious) checks out of the hundred thousand that are written over the course of a year."
There is no question that Mrs. Cooke has done enormous damage to this church that we love," said Chinnis in her opening comments. "The question to me is whether we cede to Mrs. Cooke the final victory by letting those who are calling for the resignation of the presiding bishop prevail."
As Chinnis raised the issue, Browning reiterated that he has no intention of resigning. "I will not permit Mrs. Cooke to ruin my ministry and the ministry of our church," he said, adding that "the repair of the church is not dependent on my resignation." Rather, he said, "I have every intention of restoring the credibility of the national church. I am committed to seeing that the integrity of the church's ministry is held high."
Chinnis praised what she called a new spirit in the national Executive Council, noting that, despite the pain of the past months, "it's exciting to see members of Executive Council take hold of their responsibilities in ways I've never seen before." She added, "We've been through a bad several months. I think the worst is over."
Concern about dwindling resources for college chaplaincies and other campus ministries prompted questions from the young studio audience about the inclusion of youth in the church.
Chinnis cited the advances youth made at last summer's General Convention as youth representatives were named to the committee to nominate a new presiding bishop. "The one way that congregations can deal with keeping young people is to give them some sense of responsibility," agreed Browning.
"I think we have lifted the understanding that God's church is very diversified," Browning said, pointing to advances in the inclusion of minorities and he defended the emphasis the Episcopal Church has placed on ministry to persons with AIDS who often don't have a voice to speak for themselves. He also spoke of his pride in the church for "wrestling very deeply with the issues of homosexuality," noting that homosexuals "want to come to the table and feel that they belong there, that Jesus would want them to be there."
Melissa Wilson, a journalism student from Nebraska who was part of the studio audience, gave the event high marks as a way to let "the people feel more in touch with what was going on." While much of the communication from the national church about the embezzlement has been in the form of press releases, "they go just to the media," she said. "This kind of personalized it."
But the Rev. Richard Kim of St. John's, Detroit, who called in a question during the teleconference, said in an interview afterward that the format limited the possibility of follow-up questions. "(Browning's) opening statement left a lot of questions. I don't think their answers were specific enough," he said. "I saw it as a stone-walling session. It was damage control." He praised the work of Moore as moderator, but suggested using a panel of journalists in the studio who would press for more detailed responses.
At the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in the Diocese of Los Angeles, diocesan staff, clergy and lay leaders gathered with lay leaders from Arizona and New Mexico in front of two large-screen monitors, and for the most part praised the event as effective.
The Rev. Clayton Thomason of St. James' Parish, Los Angeles, said he wished more people had come to watch and also that he had "caught a glimpse of how personally painful for (Browning) this has been." Parallels could be drawn to a parish, he said. "To call for the immediate resignation of a parish priest in difficult times is considered not helpful. So it is in this case."
He also maintained that the presiding bishop demonstrated "a genuine commitment to righting a wrong and we should continue to give Browning that opportunity."
"The questions that needed to be asked were asked," said Jenny Ladefoged of St. Michael's, Studio City, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. "People didn't hold back." She observed that "the most interesting reactions from Browning came when he spoke about diversity and the question of resignation. He was passionate on those two subjects -- emotional in a good way."
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