Nineteen Episcopal lay leaders and priests from Connecticut, USA have filed official charges against the Bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, Andrew Smith, under canon law provisions.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA), Frank Griswold was send notification of the charges earlier this week.

Charges against Bishop Smith include undermining the structure of the ECUSA and denying canonical due process for the labelled “Connecticut Six” members of the Church. The charges say that Bishop Smith contravened the Episcopal Church’s constitution, national canons, diocesan canons, and the law of the actual state of Connecticut.

The charges also include Bishop Smith’s action that saw him freeze bank accounts and custodial funds and securities of Bishop Seabury Church, Groton; Christ Church, Watertown; Christ and the Epiphany Church, East Haven; and St. John’s Church, Bristol. Therefore, he was placing funds and securities under his own direction and control, assuming management of the church for himself rather than the parish vestries.

The charges also reveal Bishop Smith’s illegal actions with regard to St. John’s, Bristol, where he took control of church property and its records; changing locks, and denying access to vestry members. It is also reported that he even appointed his representative as parish administrator. In addition, Bishop Smith, by appointing a priest-in-charge also interfered with the vestry’s responsibility for the parish-clergy relationship.

The charges say that Bishop Smith’s actions clearly violate canon and civil law, as he assumed ownership and management of parishes and “prevented vestries of the four parishes from carrying out their canonical and civil roles as the agents and legal representatives of their respective parishes.”

Bishop Smith has also been charged with refusing to offer six Connecticut priests canonical due process, as he failed to meet numerous provisions for clergy charged with a violation of the canons.

He accused the six Connecticut clergy of “abandonment of communion”, a provision used against those who have left the Episcopal Church in order to join another denomination.

Bishop Smith has been accused of using this charge to avoid the clergy’s receiving an ecclesiastical trial and canonical due process. Bishop Smith was advised mid-April that accusations of “abandonment of communion” in such circumstances were deemed invalid by the Presiding Bishop when used by Bishop Charles Bennison, Diocese of Pennsylvania.

The Presiding Bishop is required by canon law to reveal the charges to Bishop Smith and take the charge to a Review Committee within 90 days.

The Review Committee, in cooperation with an attorney representing the ECUSA, will determine whether the charges constitute a formal presentment (call for adjudication).

This situation of bringing charges against a bishop are extremely rare and typically used only as a last resort for extreme cases of abuse of canon and/or civil law.

Bishop Smith has been in dispute with the six Connecticut parishes over his theological views, as well as his actions that have been accused as being contrary to Scripture as well as to Anglican teaching and tradition.

The charges were filed by clergy from Christ Church, Watertown; Bishop Seabury, Groton; Trinity, Bristol; St. Paul’s, Darien; and Christ and the Epiphany, East Haven; and St. John’s, Bristol.