The Rt. Rev. Andrew D. Smith, Bishop of Connecticut inhibited one of the “Connecticut Six” priests today, the Rev. Mark H. Hansen, rector of St. John’s Church, Bristol. A spokesperson for the Diocese of Connecticut, Karin Hamilton, told The Living Church Fr. Hansen had been inhibited for six months and that a priest-in-charge, the Rev. Susan McCone, had been installed at St. John’s by Bishop Smith.

Leading an entourage from the diocesan office, Bishop Smith presented the notice to St. John’s this morning. TLC was unable to reach Fr. Hansen, and visitors to the parish website were automatically redirected to the Diocese of Connecticut's site, where a statement was released later in the day. Asked about the ecclesial status of the other members of the “Connecticut Six,” she said that Fr. Hansen was the only priest inhibited today.

Fr. Hansen and five other rectors together requested alternative episcopal oversight shortly after the 2003 General Convention. The other five rectors are the Rev. Donald L. Helmandollar, Trinity, Bristol; the Rev. Christopher P. Leighton, St. Paul’s, Darien; the Rev. Gilbert V. Wilkes, Christ and the Epiphany, East Haven; the Rev. Ronald S. Gauss, Bishop Seabury Church, Groton; and the Rev. Allyn B. Benedict of Christ Church, Watertown.

In six identical letters dated March 29, Bishop Smith told the priests the standing committee had determined they had “abandoned the communion of this Church.” Bishop Smith gave them until April 15 to recant and conform.

The threat by Bishop Smith to inhibit and depose without trial active parochial clergy who had not threatened to leave the Church, under a canonical procedure used in the past to depose clergy who had been received by the Roman Catholic Church, elicited widespread protest. Six retired bishops castigated Bishop Smith on April 11 saying his actions amounted to an “unconscionable ecclesiastical tyranny.”

Seventeen active members of the House of Bishops asked Bishop Smith on April 14 to reconsider, noting the March 14 House of Bishops covenant request for all bishops to exercise restraint in light of the forthcoming Archbishop of Canterbury’s panel of reference. The “threat of inhibition and deposition of the clergy,” which arose only after the six had made known “intent to appeal to the panel of reference,” they wrote, was unjust.

An April 21 meeting at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford for the diocesan clergy revealed a diocese divided over the propriety of threatening to depose the six rectors for “abandoning the communion of the church” for refusing to acknowledge the bishop’s authority.

In an interview with TLC in May Archbishop Peter Carnley, retired Primate of Australia and chairman of the panel said the group could only offer suggestions, not render a verdict.

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