Battlin' Bishops: Conservatives Challenge Connecticut Cleric

The Washington Blade is reporting that nine conservative Episcopal bishops will take Connecticut's bishop to religious court over his suspension of one priest and threat to remove five others.

Dubbed the "Connecticut Six," the priests had asked to be supervised by a different bishop because they disagreed with Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith's support for Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the church's first openly gay bishop.

Earlier this month, Smith used his power to "inhibit" one of the six, Rev. Mark Hansen, and appointed another priest to lead St. John's Church in Bristol.

In a letter to Smith dated Wednesday, the bishops, most from the South and Midwest, said they plan to intervene in the case of St. John's and are prepared to do the same if the five other priests are inhibited.

"We would prefer to find some way other than this deepening battle, but we refuse to allow this recent aggression to go unchecked or unchallenged" they wrote.

The bishops said they are preparing a"presentment," a formal charge filed in ecclesiastical court, charging Smith with ''conduct unbecoming'' a bishop.

All I can say is way to go guys! To let such an abuse of power to go unchallenged would only embolden the minority leadership into more tyrannizing of the majority of good minsters.