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CONNECTICUT: Statement from "Tthe Connecticut Six"
Six Connecticut Priests Grieve Bishop Smith's Rupture of the Episcopal Church
For months we have sought a joint meeting with Bishop Smith, but he has refused each request. We, therefore, welcomed last night's meeting with a sense of hope for sincere and open dialogue. We went to the appointment in good faith prepared to listen and to begin a process toward positive resolution.
We were hopeful of an atmosphere in which true negotiations might take place. Instead, we walked into a trap, a brutal and long meeting in which Bishop Smith attempted to coerce us individually into an admission that we had abandoned communion.
As we have consistently maintained, we and our congregations stand united with the truth as revealed in Scripture as well as the teaching of Anglicanism upheld by the primates, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and some 70 million Anglicans worldwide. It is inconceivable to us that anyone could interpret our position as "abandonment of communion" as we have stated over and over our commitment to the communion.
Despite the good efforts of Bishop Scruton of Massachusetts to mediate discussion, Bishop Smith suspended consideration and conversation regarding oversight and related issues; he was intractable and unyielding; he sought neither reconciliation nor solutions but rather effectively demanded a verbal oath of allegiance. He warned us that in leaving the meeting, we offered "proof" of leaving the communion. The one request we made of Bishop Smith is that he withdraw his threat of inhibition as we seek resolution together. He refused. In his statement following the meeting, he reasserted the threat of inhibition based on his claim that we had not acknowledged his authority as bishop.
We have been clear from the beginning that we seek oversight as called for by the primates of the worldwide Anglican Communion in their statements of October 2003 and February 2005. It would seem by his actions last night that Bishop Smith does not acknowledge or embrace the authority of the primates and is intent upon continuing the rupture of the Episcopal Church. We grieve his intransigence, but rejoice that our hope is not in man but in God. We six priests and congregations stand together in unity of purpose and commitment to Jesus Christ. We feel the power and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and we are confident that the Lord will lead and sustain us in this difficult time.
The Rev. Allyn Benedict, Christ Church, Watertown The Rev. Ronald S. Gauss, Bishop Seabury, Groton The Rev. Mark Hansen, St. John's, Bristol The Rev. Donald Helmandollar, Trinity, Bristol The Rev. Christopher Leighton, St. Paul's, Darien The Rev. Gil Wilkes, Christ and the Epiphany, East Haven
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