SALT LAKE CITY—The top legislative body of the Episcopal Church is reviewing its policies on alcohol and addiction as part of the churchwide soul-searching over an assistant bishop charged with drunken driving while texting and killing a bicyclist.
Leaders of the Episcopal General Convention, meeting in Salt Lake City, put the topic on the agenda after the criminal case against Heather Cook drew widespread attention.
The Diocese of Maryland acknowledged they knew of an earlier drunken-driving charge against Cook when she was being considered for the position of second-ranked local bishop, but did not disclose the information to local church members before they voted to elect her. Cook, who has been defrocked, has pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter, drunken driving and other charges. In committee meetings on Thursday, Episcopal leaders discussed updating the denomination’s guidance on alcohol use and abuse, which hasn’t been changed since 1985.
Those guidelines suggest clergy and lay people educate themselves on pastoral support for substance abusers in the church, encourage moderate consumption of alcohol and suggest providing both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages at parish events.
“Thirty years has passed. There are certainly new discoveries, new understandings in the field of addiction,” said the Rev. Gay Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, the convention voting body for clergy and lay people. Jennings, who formed the special convention committee on substance abuse, said the review could also look at “how we might approach our selection and recruitment and formation of leaders.”
Committee members said the church must demonstrate it’s taking the issue seriously. At the convention, some Episcopalians are scrapping the usual cocktail parties and replacing them with events that reflect the increased concern about alcohol abuse.
The Diocese of Maryland planned an ice cream social as an example of an alternative gathering that doesn’t involve liquor, said the Rev. M. Dion Thompson, a deputy from Maryland.