Should Heather Cook have been consecrated a bishop?

Bishop Heather Cook, who has been charged in connection with the death of a cyclist, was suspected of being drunk at her own consecration, according to an official Church timeline of events.

Cook hit 41-year-old cyclist Tom Palermo after driving her SUV into a bicycle lane in Baltimore on December 27 last year. She then left the scene of the accident, but returned around 20 minutes later.

Testing showed that the bishop was three times over the alcohol limit for drivers in Maryland at the time of the incident and she later confessed in court that she has an alcohol problem.

Now a timeline posted on the website of the Diocese of Maryland shows that a bishop at the lunch before her consecration in September reported her for being drunk. The entry reads: "Bishop Sutton suspects that Cook is inebriated during pre-consecration dinner and conveys concern to Presiding Bishop. Presiding Bishop indicates she will discuss with Cook. Cook consecrated a bishop." Keep reading

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"The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife,sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil." 1 Timothy 3:1-7 ESVUK

Photo: Episcopal Diocese of Maryland