Posted on 08/25/2007 12:30:31 PM PDT by Huber
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Episcopal Life reports from Church Times: A suggestion that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori ordered the removal of information from the Wikipedia website has been discredited, according to a report by Simon Sarmiento in the U.K.-based Church Times newspaper.
The story, which originated on an American conservative website in May, resurfaced last Saturday in The Independent newspaper, which reported that Barbara Alton, personal assistant to Bishop Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania, "deleted information concerning a cover-up of child sexual abuse [by the bishop's brother], allegations that the bishop misappropriated $11.6 million in trust funds, and evidence of other scandals. When challenged about this, Alton claims she was ordered to delete the information by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori."
Alton confirmed this week that she was acting on her own initiative as the bishop's personal assistant, the Church Times reported. She had edited the bishop's biography on the website, because of changes that others had made which she described as "a frightening mess," according to the newspaper. She did not have the time to follow the Wikipedia process for correcting misinformation, however, and so had simply replaced it with the standard official text. This had led to her being banned by Wikipedia.
She had never received an order from Jefferts Schori, however, nor from anyone else at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City, the Church Times article reports. "Church officials in New York confirmed that the Presiding Bishop had never spoken to Barbara Alton."
Reader David Bailey offers us this link on the edit.
for those who would like to do their own investigation on Ms. Alton’s track record on Wikipedia . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Barbaraalton
David Bailey
Posted by David Bailey on 08-24-2007 at 04:15 PM [link] Well, then, ++KJS has her own libel suit actionable against Barbara Alton if you follow the Wikipedia edit link. In her own typed words she deleted the Child Sexual Abuse Scandal by direction from Schori’s office. Or is Beers too busy suing orthodox congregations and trying to shut down their thriving ministries to replace them with the wide open echoing spaces of nearly empty pews?
Posted by Milton on 08-24-2007 at 04:52 PM [link] Milton, if there was to be a suit, it would be against Virtue who went with the assumption, refuted above, that ++KJS ordered the changes. It appears that Alton is saying that the Virtue story was wrong.
I don’t know if ++KJS could argue in court that Virtue ran the story with his apparantly false assumption hoping to tarnish her public image or not. Interesting question since she is a public figure.
Posted by John316 on 08-24-2007 at 04:57 PM [link] Milton -
Can you provide a link and some directly quoted text for what you see? I can’t find any comments by Barbara Alton in the discussion of the edits. I see complaints by others that Barbara is stonewalling.
From the Church Times article:
She did not have the time to follow the Wikipedia process for correcting misinformation, however, and so had simply replaced it with the standard official text. This had led to her being banned by Wikipedia.
This is highly misleading. It’s quite easy to see that Barbara Alton’s edits were abusive, and that she repeatedly vandalized the article until her user id was removed, and that she made no attempt whatsoever to work cooperatively on the article.
Posted by Randy Muller on 08-24-2007 at 05:08 PM [link] Milton, nevermind. I found it. Here is what Barbara Alton said about one of her edits:
The links about scandals must be deleted per order of the Presiding Bishop in her address to ECCP in New York available on podcast.
So the “order” from the Presiding Bishop was not a direct order to Barbara Alton, but rather how Alton interpreted a speech by the Presiding Bishop. Alton is trying to make it sound like an official order related to Alton’s actions.
Posted by Randy Muller on 08-24-2007 at 05:14 PM [link] Alton also removed links to web pages set up by the Diocese of Pennsylania Standing Committee.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. I have to agree with you...it doesn’t pass the smell test!
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