A soft-spoken nurse testified in a church court Monday afternoon that when the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., Bishop of Pennsylvania, was still a parish priest, he walked in on her and his younger brother, disheveled and flushed, after unwittingly interrupting their sexual encounters.

Two sexual encounters took place in the A-Frame structure of St. Mark’s Church, Upland, Calif., said the 50-year-old mother of three sons, who testified in her childhood name of Martha Alexis.

In both instances, Ms. Alexis said, the young rector of St. Mark’s was within about six feet of the couple. “He seemed very flustered, surprised,” she said. “His cheeks were bright red, his nose was bright red.”

Those two incidents occurred in the summer of 1973, when she was 15, Ms. Alexis testified, but other sexual contact began when she was still 14.

“It was very confusing to me. It was also ... I was happy to have all that attention,” she said.

“He groomed me over time to be his sexual toy, if you could call it that,” she said about John Bennison, who was a 24-year-old, married seminarian when he began making sexual advances toward her. “He was very exacting and specific about what he expected, in terms of technique.”

After more years of sexual affairs with other women in other congregations, John Bennison went on to become a priest. Eventually, he was deposed from the priesthood and three years later reinstated, going on to serve blamelessly for the next 25 years according to Bishop William Swing of California. Despite the support of his parish, Mr. Bennison resigned as rector of St. John’s, Clayton, Calif., in June 2006. He was “removed” from the priesthood the following month, according to The Episcopal Church Annual.

Ms. Alexis testified that she wished the then-Rev. Charles Bennison had done something after witnessing those two incidents involving his brother. “I think I was hoping he would tell my parents,” she said. “I wanted out. I wanted help.”

She testified in a hushed and windowless banquet room in a hotel in downtown Philadelphia in front of about 60 observers. The Court for the Trial of a Bishop, consisting of five bishops, two priests, and two laity, is scheduled to hear the case through Thursday. It then has 30 days to decide whether Bishop Bennison is guilty on two counts: failing to speak up at the time of sexual scandal, and striving to suppress information about it in the years since.

Ms. Alexis said that many of their sexual encounters occurred within the office spaces of St. Mark’s.

“John was very persistent in moving the intensity and frequency of the sexual contact to things that I never knew people did,” she said. They engaged in sex in the church’s choir loft, Sunday school rooms, library, and a work room normally reserved for paper cutters and mimeograph equipment. They engaged in sex three to four times a week for four years, she said, and Mr. Bennison moved their encounters to his apartment after being caught a second time at St. Mark’s.

Bishop Bennison’s defense attorney, James Pabarue of Philadelphia, did not have the opportunity to respond directly to her testimony, which began only about one hour before the court adjourned for the day at 6 p.m. Mr. Pabarue said in a previous interview with The Living Church that Bishop Bennison first heard about the sexual involvement in 1975, when Ms. Alexis was 17.

Mr. Pabarue spent much of Monday cross-examining Ms. Alexis’s mother, June, whose testimony began the day’s proceedings.

Andy Alexis, who is 22 months older than his sister Martha, also testified and was cross-examined, but for a much briefer time than his mother or sister.

“Martha wanted to be rescued from abuse she was powerless to stop,” Mrs. Alexis said about her third child.

Mrs. Alexis and her late husband, Don, a physician, did not learn of their daughter’s involvement with Mr. Bennison until 1978, when Ms. Alexis was a student at UCLA. Ms. Alexis testified that she was struggling with an eating disorder, frequent drunkenness, and serious thoughts of suicide when she sought help from a school counselor. The counselor said she could not begin to heal without telling her parents about the four years of sexual abuse, Ms. Alexis testified.

“What John had done, in a very deliberate way, was to take our place as parents,” Mrs. Alexis said. “He was taking her over when she was our child to protect, not his.”

Douglas LeBlanc

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