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Mediating Panel not wanted in US diocese
Church of England Newspaper
July 22
Plans for an international Panel of Reference to investigate divisions between traditionalists and liberals will not affect a key American diocese. The Archbishop of Canterbury's Panel of Reference has been warned that it will play no role in the battle for alternate Episcopal oversight (AEO) in the diocese of Connecticut, a spokesman for Bishop Andrew Smith told The Church of England Newspaper.
Bishop Smith's rejection of a mediating roll for the Panel in one of the flashpoints of division within the Communion, demonstrates its irrelevance, critics charge. Liberal American and Canadian bishops who have expressed willingness to work with the Panel have largely granted AEO to dissident parishes, while bishops who so far have refused AEO, will ignore the Panel with impunity, they claim.
Bishop Smith Bishop inhibited the Rev Mark Hansen, rector of St John's, Bristol, Connecticut, for failing to abide by the diocese's sabbatical guidelines -- and by doing so, the diocese claims, pastorally neglecting his congregation. On the morning of July 13, Bishop Smith, accompanied by lawyers and locksmiths, served notice on the parish secretary that Dr Hansen -- a staunch opponent of Bishop Smith over his support for Gene Robinson -- had been inhibited and would be deposed in six months unless he recanted. The bishop ordered the locks changed and a security guard maintains a 24-hour vigil at the parish.
Earlier, on March 29 Bishop Smith gave Dr Hansen and five other priests -- known colloquially as the Connecticut Six -- until April 15 to recant of their opposition to his policies. Bishop Smith's threat to depose priests without trial elicited sharp protest from traditionalist bishops who said his actions "amounted to an "unconscionable ecclesiastical tyranny".
Dr. Hansen told us the charges leveled against him by the diocese were "specious". While acknowledging that he had taken a sabbatical with the blessings of his vestry, he contested Bishop Smith's claim that the parish had been pastorally neglected, noting that two retired clergy, the parish deacon, and the rector of a neighboring parish were filling in during his absence. He also stated that he met with the suffragan bishop of Connecticut on July 1 to discuss his sabbatical.
Dr. Hansen also rejected Bishop Smith's claim that his whereabouts were unknown, saying he continued to reside in the parish rectory and his telephone was in working order. Dr. Hansen told us that on April 12, attorneys for the Ct Six wrote to the diocese "beseeching Bishop Smith that he refer our differences to the Panel of Reference". No response to the request has been made as of our going to press.
Karin Hamilton, a spokesman for the diocese, tells us Bishop Smith has made no "mention of the Panel of Reference" and does not envision a roll for it in the present conflict as he wishes to resolve the present dispute "domestically".
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