The Watergate questions applied to pecusa, Arkansas division

What Did Diocese of Arkansas Leaders Know, and When Did They Know It?

Stand Firm by Greg Griffith  

 

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The Rev. Greg Fry, who recently revealed that he is “transgendered,” arrived at Grace Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in March 2013, according to this parish newsletter announcing his appointment.
But questions are now being raised about exactly what Bishop Larry Benfield and Canon to the Ordinary Jason Alexanderknew about Fry, and when they knew it.
Sources inside the diocese are also claiming that some members of the Grace Church vestry knew about Fry’s transgender leanings, but kept that information from church members. There are even claims that they also knew about his tendency to dress as a woman - complete with dresses, makeup, and earrings - while in Little Rock (where he lives with his wife, Lisa), but not in Pine Bluff when he’s on the job as priest-in-charge of Grace Church.

Did Bishop Benfield and Canon Alexander know any of this? Surely a standard background check would have revealed some or all of it - unless Fry has made his “journey” from perfectly normal, heterosexual male to a transgendered man on the verge of having a sex-change operation, in the span of 11 short months since taking the position as priest-in-charge at Grace Church.

Perhaps no background check or similar vetting process was ever conducted. Or perhaps Bishop Benfield and Canon Alexander - along with perhaps some members of the Grace Church vestry - knew full well what they were getting with Fry, and chose to keep that information from the rest of the parish.

In 2012, when the General Convention chose to change the canons to force parishes to accept transgendered clergy regardless of whether the parish believes that choosing to attempt to change one’s sex is a good thing, we warned that parishes would not see the nature of the candidates submitted on CDO profiles, and a number of other dire consequences for the vast majority of parishes that don’t believe in the health or goodness of having transgendered clergy. As such, they are subject to deceitful acts by bishops, clergy, and other leaders who recognize that the vast majority of parishes and laypeople do not accept transgendered clergy as healthy, functional examples of a godly life. Did leaders of the Diocese of Arkansas and of Grace Church, Pine Bluff, engage in such deceitful behavior?