Multiple Episcopal bishops must resign as corruption with the House of Bishops runs rampant

As heads roll in the Church of England following the Makin report on the sadistic abuse of the late John Smyth and the church’s sea of complicity in tacitly condoning Smyth’s behavior, there is a lesson for the Episcopal Church:

Multiple Episcopal bishops need to resign, starting with Todd Ousley and going from there, over their ongoing corruption involving clergy discipline.

Episcopal bishops: looking out for their own

For far too long, the Karens and Kens of the House of Bishops have looked out for their own, even in the face of misconduct.

For example, when the national church learned that Michigan Bishop Whayne Hougland was having an extra-marital affair, the church looked out for him, helping with his mortgage and a golden parachute, even though it did nothing for those hurt by his immoral behavior.

The help didn’t stop there, however. Soon after Hougland’s fall from grace, Todd Ousley pulled some strings to get the former in as interim rector of St. Chrysostom’s, a large, affluent parish in Chicago that is paying a cushy salary.

In other words, it’s good to be an adulterer.

And even though Hougland no longer votes with the House of Bishops, he still gets to attend its meetings. So, no need to sit home bored in Chicago—Hougland can still booze it up with the bishs, which probably is a welcome relief after sitting through the interminable meetings.

Ousley: Corrupt on every level, ignores sexual harassment and child rape

In the case of Todd Ousley, a similar pattern applies. Yes, he left office on the last day of 2024, but he’s on sabbatical and soon to land (as a sole-source candidate) as the bishop interim of Wyoming.

We wonder how that happened.

The news that Ousley is soon to resurface in Wyoming comes despite Sean Rowe’s statement that, as the guy in charge of Title IV, Ousley never really understood it and needs additional training. Needless to say, this argument is laughable and offensive in the extreme to those of us who have been on the receiving end of Ousley’s misconduct.

There’s an important bit of context for all of this: The Singh case is far from the most egregious case deliberately mishandled by Ousley. Indeed, two specific cases come to mind:

1. The Bishop George Sumner case, which involves both the sexual harassment of an adult woman and Sumner’s retaliation against the priest who reported the matter to the Diocese of Dallas. Three complaints have been filed in the matter, and Ousley has acknowledged receiving one of the complaints, but the national church has done nothing about the complaints more than a year later.
2. The Richard Losch case, in which Ousley refused to help the victim on the basis that it’s not “[Ousley’s] role in the church.” Relatedly, bishops Glenda Curry, Michael Curry [no relation], Alan Gates, and others have all ignored the case. After all, if the rape of a child isn’t enough to get Ousley off his generous backside, what is?

In other words, the fact pattern is identical to the sea of silence/complicity in the Church of England. Thus, Ousley needs to resign, not land a sweetheart gig in Wyoming.

Other bishops need to resign

And just like the Church of England, a host of other bishops need to resign. These bishops include:

• Former Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori, who ran an equally corrupt Title IV program, administered by retired Bishop Clay Mathews, who was every bit as bad as Todd Ousley.
• Alan Gates, who got his wrist slapped in Title IV for juvenile behavior at the Easter Vigil, even though he has not been held accountable for ignoring multiple incidents of criminal conduct by clergy in DioMass.
• Glenda Curry, who continues to ignore priest Richard Losch’s rape of a boy and multiple allegations of misconduct by Stephen McWhorter, now canonically resident within the Diocese of Alabama. Meanwhile, Curry’s claim that the Diocese is investigating Losch is laughable, as there is zero evidence of any meaningful effort to do so.
• Shannon Johnston, now retired, who covered up allegations of sexual harassment by Stephen McWhorter, then canonically resident in the Diocese of Virginia. Even worse, Johnston repeatedly sandbagged complaints of criminal conduct by a priest within the Diocese.
• Susan Goff, now retired, who covered up allegations of criminal conduct within the Diocese of Virginia and refused to forward this information to a Title IV intake officer. She also ignored complaints of spiritual abuse from the assistant rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Alexandria
• Jennifer Brooke-Davidson, who covered up allegations of criminal conduct within the Diocese of Virginia and refused to forward this information to a Title IV intake officer. She now serves as assistant bishop of North Carolina.
• Gayle Harris, who covered up allegations of criminal conduct within the Diocese of Massachusetts and refused to forward this information to a Title IV intake officer. Harris now serves as assistant bishop in the Diocese of Virginia.
• Chilton Knudsen, former bishop of Maine and head of the Disciplinary Board of Bishops, now retired. Knudsen covered up criminal conduct by Chicago priest Will Bouvel, failed to report two known cases of child sexual assault, and has stated in writing that criminal conduct by a priest is “not of weighty and material importance to the ministry of the church” for Title IV purposes. Moreover, Knudsen lied under oath in her claims that she reported the Chicago child sexual assault to law enforcement.
• Paula Clark, bishop of Chicago, who continues to try to cover up Will Bouvel’s criminal conduct in the form of perjury.
• Lucinda Ashby, bishop of El Camino Real, who is not only doing her best to tee up another case of child sexual assault but is actively engaging in retaliation against a Title IV complainant, even as she falsely claims that a complainant must maintain confidentiality.
• Bishop Susan Brown Snook, who is actively retaliating against the complainant in a Title IV case involving sexual harassment.
• Santosh Marray, bishop of Easton, who has repeatedly violated Title IV’s requirement for confidentiality (which DOES apply to clergy), bullied clergy, threatened complainants with retaliation, engaged in conduct unbecoming, and demonstrated anti-LGBTQ+ bias. Yes, he says he’s retiring in 2026, but that is nowhere close to soon enough, and the Diocese and its members will pay a heavy price for allowing him his victory lap and an additional year to cause problems.

In short, just like the Church of England, we’ve reached the point where the only way to clean up corruption in the church is for multiple bishops to resign.

For the record, if you are a bishop and your name is not on this list, don’t think you’re in the clear. We are closely reviewing issues with several additional bishops, so if you have ethical challenges, now’s the time to make yourself scarce.