Episcopal Church Takes A Hard Look At Alcohol After Bishop Is Charged With Drunken Driving

[hrmjustin]

By Lauren Markoe

WASHINGTON (RNS) Hundreds of American bicyclists die in collisions with cars each year, but a fatal December crash in Baltimore has triggered some serious soul-searching within the Episcopal Church: The drunken driver, authorities say, was a bishop.

Now clergy and laypeople alike are rereading church policy on alcohol and the consecration of bishops, how addiction is handled and whether the church itself was in any way culpable in the death of cyclist Thomas Palermo, a 41-year-old husband and father of two.

The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, one of two main governing bodies of the 2 million-member denomination, said many Episcopalians are asking why church leaders allowed Heather Cook to be confirmed as bishop last September despite their knowledge of her struggle with alcohol.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/15/episcopal-church-alcohol_n_6679300.html?utm_hp_ref=religion