They passed 10 Connecticut parishioners on the way, including six from St. John's Church in Bristol, and nearly twice that many members of the media. The priests were immediately escorted inside Diocesan House, the West End mansion that is the headquarters of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.

Wilkes was accompanied by the Rev. Mark Hansen, pastor of St. John's, the Rev. Don Helmandollar of Trinity Church in Bristol, the Rev. Christopher Leighton of St. Paul's Church in Darien, the Rev. Allyn Benedict of Christ Church in Watertown and the Rev. Ronald Gauss of Bishop Seabury Church in Groton.

Some of the priests, all of whom are strongly backed by their parishes, smiled at people they knew on the way in, but did not speak.

Bishop Gordon Scruton of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, one of two voting bishops who abstained in the 2003 vote that elevated Gene V. Robinson to be bishop of New Hampshire, also attended the meeting as a facilitator.

"We are very glad that the six priests have decided to come and meet with the bishop today ..." said Bishop Suffragen James Curry, an assistant to Smith who met with the media shortly after the meeting began.

The meeting "is considered a conversation" between the priests and the bishop, said Curry. Some sort of action was expected to occur after the meeting, though not necessarily immediately after it.

The meeting still was going on at presstime.

"This is a night in which people around the Diocese, including outside our offices, are gathered in prayer ... and we trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us," Curry said.

Outside along Girard Avenue, parishioners from St. John's and St. Paul's of Darien and other churches were gathered in prayer, in a vigil that was lit by candles once it grew dark.

"We're here to support our priest - Father Mark Hansen of St. John's," said St. John's parishioner Bob Russell of Burlington.

Russell said in his mind the division also goes much deeper.

"The best thing that we can hope for is that we remain as one," Russell said, calling a split in the Episcopal Church "a distinct possibility."

Russell, like his fellow parishioners Tammy Vogt and Louinecq King, said the conflict "isn't just a homosexual issue.

The bottom line," he said, is "we believe in the bible and the people are trying to change the bible."

According to King, "the issue is not over homosexuals. It's over departing from the faith ... All sins, we disapprove of - mine and yours and everybody else's."

When asked, she said she does consider homosexual behavior to be a sin, although she said her problem with it "is not the person" but the behavior itself ... it's against nature," King said.

Her problem with the Episcopal Church is that "they want to revise Christianity and rewrite the bible," she said.

David Woodford, assistant warden of St. Paul's Church, said he came to show support for Leighton and to show that "I stand for the authority of the Bible ... This would never have come to a head if the scripture, which has been in effect for 2,000 years ... had been followed."

The six Connecticut priests all are affiliated with the conservative American Anglican Council. The priests sought to break from Smith's authority in July 2004 and have an independent bishop put in charge of them, amid charges that Episcopal leadership, including Smith, were engaging in revisionism.

Smith in turn charged that the priests "had abandoned the communion of the church," something Wilkes and the others question and Wilkes has said he doesn't fully understand.

Bishop Smith initially threatened the priests with inhibition which would last for six months before the he would make a decision either to defrock or reinstate them, effective last Friday. But he put off the decision Friday afternoon until after Monday night's meeting.

END