Now we can move to informed speculation. I have simply got to assume that no background or reference check of any sort was made on Bowman prior to the hiring decision, or at any other time between his hiring and when I notified the ACA of the arrest in April 2014. A reference check to his previous parish, St Luke's REC Santa Ana, CA, would presumably have brought out the fact that Bowman was immediately terminated there (per news reports) following his arrest. So nobody bothered to call St Luke's! (St Luke's did shut down in 2012, but someone should have insisted that Bowman provide contacts for former wardens, vestry, or other parishioners, and an unwillingness to do so should have stopped all negotiations. For that matter, minimal work with Google would have brought up some of those names without Bowman providing them, since I could easily find them myself.)
Where was Frederick Rivers, who as Rector of the parish would have made the hiring decision? Well, among other things, he was 76 years old and an absentee. In his own rambling account of his priesthood, he notes that he doesn't put much stock in seminaries, although he's the vocations director of his diocese. This would be comical, but fall-down drunks can be comical until they get into a car and start driving. This is something a little beyond dereliction of duty.
Where was the All Saints Fountain Valley vestry? Didn't any of them make the due diligence step of asking for a reference at St Luke's or googling the guy? I assume they allowed themselves to be charmed by a psychopath. All the more reason for churches to be very, very careful, and all the more reason to point out that the vestry also fell down, very seriously, in its responsibilities.
Where was The Rt Rev Brian Marsh, Presiding Bishop of the ACA and, at the time of Bowman's hire, episcopal visitor to the ACA Diocese of the West? He presumably knew, or should have known, that Rivers, his Vicar General as well as Rector of All Saints Fountain Valley, was 76 years old, unqualified to be a priest under normal criteria, almost certainly retired-on-the-job, and none too bright. Didn't he have a responsibility to supervise what was taking place on his watch?
Where was The Rt Rev Owen Rhys Williams, after August 2013 episcopal visitor to the ACA Diocese of the West? When I informed the ACA of Bowman's arrest in April 2014, this should have gone immediately to Williams. Oddly, there is no contact information for Williams anywhere on any ACA site, either for his current parish in New Hampshire, the Diocese of the Northeast, where he is suffragan, or the Diocese of the West, where he is episcopal visitor. Given the quality of the individuals involved here, I can't make any assumption that anyone passed my notification to the ACA on to Williams. But following my notification in April 2014, Williams made no reply. As of today, Bowman's profile remains as clergy on the All Saints Anglican Fountain Valley web site.
St Luke's REC terminated Bowman immediately after his arrest. This was an entirely appropriate action. The ACA should have taken the same action immediately on learning of the arrest -- but its hiring process had been so slipshod that minimal checks, not even a phone call, just a Google search, would have told them about the arrest even before they made any hiring decision.
This all goes a little beyond dereliction of duty. But it appears there's more.
