Network bishops urge PB to take action
Thirteen bishops of the Anglican Communion Network have asked that Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold forward a complaint against Bishop Andrew Smith of Connecticut to the Episcopal Church’s Title IV Review Committee.
In a letter dated September 27, the bishops say that sending the complaint to the review committee would “obviate the need for us to proceed further at this time to formalize and file charges against Bishop Smith for conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy.”
The complaint, filed in late August by priests and laity of the diocese, says Smith has denied due process to the priests known as the Connecticut Six: Allyn Benedict, Christ Church, Watertown; Ronald Gauss, Bishop Seabury Church, Groton; Mark Hansen, St. John’s, Bristol; Donald Helmandollar, Trinity, Bristol; Christopher Leighton, St. Paul’s, Darien; and Gilbert Wilkes, Christ and Epiphany, East Haven.
Smith inhibited Hansen on July 13. Smith and a team of diocesan officials seized the parish’s property on the same day, and Smith installed the Rev. Susan McCone as priest in charge. The other five priests face possible inhibition.
Hansen resigned as rector in a letter dated September 23.
In an open letter to Smith, released on July 27, nine bishops of the Anglican Communion Network said they would prepare a presentment against him for conduct unbecoming a bishop if he did not “turn back from continued abuse and misapplication of the Canon on Abandonment of Communion [Title IV, Canon 10] in dealing with these six parishes and their clergy.”
Of the 13 bishops writing to Griswold on September 27, nine are diocesans with jurisdiction, two assist diocesan bishops and two are retired.
“We believe that the conduct of Bishop Smith in using Canon IV.10.1 as the basis for threatening the Six Priests with inhibition and deposition is deplorable,” the bishops wrote to Griswold. “In our judgment, that act alone would support a presentment of Bishop Smith for conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. For a bishop of this Church to threaten his clergy with disciplinary action under an inapplicable canon that would deprive them of a fair hearing and trial on their alleged wrongdoing is an exercise of raw power which cannot be condoned.”
The bishops added:
“We believe that Bishop Smith’s actions have come about because the Six Priests have expressed their disagreement with him on theological issues, including in particular his support of the consecration of V. Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire. We implore you to exercise your role as Presiding Bishop of the whole Church and in so doing to promptly pass those charges on to the Review Committee with the direction that the charges of the Connecticut clergy and laity receive a fair and objective hearing. Such action will obviate the need for us to proceed further at this time to formalize and file charges against Bishop Smith for conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy.”
Posted at 9:10 am 9.28.2005 | Permalink