MARYLAND
The Baltimore Brew
Fern Shen February 10, 2015
Saying that the Episcopal church should do more than investigate the Heather Cook case alone, a national leader has called for a review of the way bishops are selected and the church’s policy on alcohol and drug abuse.
Rev. Gay Clark Jennings’ statement, published yesterday, acknowledges the questions that have reverberated in Episcopal circles in the wake of the news that Cook, a recently-consecrated bishop in the Maryland diocese, fatally crashed her car into a bicyclist in Baltimore while allegedly drunk and texting, initially leaving the scene of the crash.
Four years before, while a church official in Easton, Md., Cook was arrested on DUI and drug possession charges. Last week, her superior, Maryland Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton, revealed that just two nights before her consecration, Cook appeared to be inebriated. Her September 6 consecration ceremony proceeded as scheduled.
“Many people in the church have struggled to understand better how our systemic denial about alcohol and other drug abuse in the church may have contributed to Bishop Cook’s election and confirmation as a bishop even as she seemed to be struggling with addiction,” wrote Jennings, president of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies, which is composed of representatives from clergy and the laity.
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