However, The Rev Dr Robert Bowman is listed as "Interim Priest" on the All Saints Fountain Valley web site. His official bio on the parish web site says, "He has served churches in Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas and Virginia, as well as California. Alongside his church work, Dr. Bowman has served as a classroom educator and school administrator in both Christian day schools, and independent prep schools."
As I usually do, I googled Fr Bowman and came up with the following in the Orange County Register for April 8, 2010:
No charges follow pastor's arrestAnother story in the South Bay, CA Daily Breeze said that police began investigating Bowman following a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.Robert W. Bowman, who served as pastor of a Santa Ana church, was arrested in 2009 but no charges have been filed.
By DOUG IRVING / The Orange County Register
Published: May 1, 2009 Updated: Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.(UPDATE ADDED ON April 8, 2010:
Prosecutors have declined to file charges against the former pastor of a Santa Ana church who was arrested last year on suspicion of possessing child pornography.Police referred the case of Robert W. Bowman to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which “did not feel that it warranted a felony filing,” spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
The DA’s office forwarded the case to the Los Angeles City Attorney, which handles misdemeanor cases, but it also decided against bringing charges.)
(THE ORIGINAL STORY:)
The senior pastor of a Santa Ana church has been arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography.Robert W. Bowman, 62, the rector at Saint Luke's Reform Episcopal Church in Santa Ana and the headmaster of a Christian academy in Gardena, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home in San Pedro. He was booked into jail but was released on $20,000 bail.
The church dismissed Bowman as its rector on Friday, said Ken Sammons, a member of the church vestry. He said Bowman had been the rector, or senior pastor, of the small congregation for a few years.
He declined to comment further. Bowman did not return phone calls to his home and cell phone.
Los Angeles police arrested Bowman after a search of his home. Officer Jason Lee, a department spokesman, declined to say what led police to his home or whether they recovered any child pornography there, citing the ongoing investigation.
"There was a reasonable belief that he had possession of child pornography," Lee said.
Bowman was the headmaster at CrossRoad Christian Academy in Gardena, a school for children between "junior kindergarten" and eighth grade. His name had been removed from the school's Web site by Friday afternoon.
His name does not appear on the Megan's Law Web site, which lists registered sex offenders in California. Court records in Orange County show only a single traffic ticket for Bowman earlier this year.
A blog entry mentions that Bowman arrived at St Luke's in 2006. Before that, he appears to have been at an REC parish in Little Rock, AR. A copy of a listserv message places him at the head of a middle school in Little Rock in 1999. Given the location and the apparent consistency with the information in Bowman's bio on the All Saints site, this appears to be the same individual. I simply don't know if All Saints Fountain Valley or the ACA is aware of this arrest, or of Bowman's terminations.
It's worth pointing out that St Luke's REC Santa Ana closed in 2012, and the CrossRoad Christian Academy in Gardena closed in 2013. In the Daily Breeze article cited above, CrossRoad parents express pessimism about the school's future given the circumstances of Bowman's arrest. While both St Luke's and CrossRoad appear to have been marginal (which might be one reason they hired Bowman in the first place), there seems little question that Bowman was a destructive influence on both institutions.
It's also been difficult to track down the disposition of Bowman's case within the REC. Fr F. Earle Fox, an ACNA priest who took over the parish on behalf of the merged ACNA/REC after Bowman was let go, refers to him in the final sermon given at St Luke's as "Dr Robert Bowman", when he refers to other ACNA/REC priests as "Fr". Fr Fox has not replied to my e-mail requesting further information.
Inquiries to dioceses within the REC and the ACNA, as well as to knowledgeable individuals, have resulted either in no reply or, in the cases of the REC Diocese of the West and the ACNA Diocese of Western Anglicans, statements that St Luke's REC Santa Ana and Dr Bowman were never under them. As I posted yesterday, this appears to have been the case. Due to the changes in the REC and its joining the ACNA in 2008 and 2009, at the same time Bowman's arrest occurred, it may be possible that Bowman fell into a jurisdictional crack, and his case was never properly dealt with by the REC.
Certainly equivalent cases normally result in a priest being suspended and taken out of parish ministry. The fact that a district attorney declined to prosecute the case would not necessarily mean a priest would be returned to active ministry, given the overall circumstances and the extreme sensitivity of the issue in contemporary affairs. At this point, I've received no information on whether Bowman was investigated by the REC, whether any disciplinary action was brought, or what the disposition, if any, may have been. I do not find any reference to Bowman in parish work in any denomination between his arrest and termination by St Luke's in 2009 and his appearance at All Saints ACA Fountain Valley in 2013.
California law makes it an offense to possess child pornography in any form. California law prohibits an employer from using an arrest record in making an employment decision if the arrest did not result in a conviction. However, the information available does indicate that Bowman was terminated from his job at St Luke's REC, which in itself would be a normal issue to come up in a background check, especially if Bowman was not forthcoming about the reason for the termination. Given the level of trust required of even an "interim priest", who must be expected to come in contact with minors, the elderly, and other vulnerable people in a variety of potentially difficult circumstances, any hiring decision would need to take any potentially negative character information very seriously.
The hiring authority in this case would be the Priest-in-Charge at All Saints Fountain Valley, Frederick Rivers. While some interviews or checks may have been conducted by parishioners, the final decision and offer would have come from Rivers himself. It's hard to believe that a google search was not done on a potential candidate, but this was likely the case. The fact that Rivers is over normal retirement age and an absentee suggests normal attention to background checks may not have been given. At minimum, this should raise serious questions about Fr Rivers's judgment, and it should raise questions about his stewardship at both All Saints Fountain Valley and St Mary of the Angels.
I put the following information on the ACA's contact page at its home site:
Is the ACA aware that the Rev Dr Robert Bowman, currently serving as Interim Priest at All Saints Fountain Valley (DOW), was arrested on child pornography charges in 2009 and was dismissed from an REC parish (as well as the school where he was headmaster) as a result? See http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/may/01/oc-pastor-dismissed-after-arrest-for-child-porn/So far, I have received no reply.I would be very interested in the ACA's take on this -- there may be some extenuating reason for his hiring, but on the face of it, it does not appear to reflect good judgment or due diligence.
