Describing the threat to inhibit six Connecticut clergy for their opposition to the consecration of a homosexual bishop as “unconscionable ecclesiastical tyranny,” six retired bishops have denounced the Rt. Rev. Andrew Smith, Bishop of Connecticut, for what they said was his lack of faith and “uncanonical coercion.”

Many in the current House of Bishops “have kissed the Lord with their vows and betrayed him for the silver currency of contemporary culture,” said bishops C. FitzSimons Allison, Maurice M. Benitez, William J. Cox, Alex D. Dickson, William C. Wantland, and Milton L. Wood, Jr. “Is the Bishop of Connecticut a kissing Judas?”

Bishop Benitez wrote in a follow-up internet post that the fate of the six “after years of faithful priesthood, lies entirely in the summary judgment of their bishop, acting with the consent of his standing committee. And we regard this as abominable and tyrannical.”

The six Connecticut rectors are at odds with Bishop Smith over his support for the normalization of homosexuality within the Episcopal Church. They had requested alternative episcopal oversight after General Convention in 2003 [TLC, April 24]. Bishop Smith, however, will not grant alternative oversight until the six congregations pay their voluntary parochial assessments at a level he deems suitable. In a letter dated March 29, he gave the clergy a deadline of April 15 to conform or he would begin the process to remove them from the ordained ministry.

In his May 2005 column for Good News, the diocesan newspaper, Bishop Smith wrote that he was “deeply sorry that we have reached this place. My intention and prayer remain that the rectors and the parishes will return to communion with the diocese, either with full oversight by bishop or through the implementation of delegated episcopal pastoral oversight.”