Following simultaneous yet separate negotiations with both the Diocese of Montana and his Title IV Review Board Committee, the Rt. Rev. Charles I. Jones III submitted his resignation as bishop effective Feb. 28.

"Although this does not seem to me to be what God is calling me to do after nine years, Ashby and I cannot emotionally continue to stand against the powerful forces seeking my ouster," Bishop Jones wrote in a letter.

On Feb. 14, the Court for the Trial of a Bishop recommended that Bishop Jones be deposed [TLC, March 11]. Bishop Jones had 30 days in which to respond. Edwin I. Curry III, Bishop Jones' lawyer, said he will now file a motion for modification of the original sentence with the court.

After the sentencing, Bishop Jones and Mr. Curry began intensive negotiations with both the diocese and the Title IV Review Board Committee, which the bishop hoped would lead to his resignation and a voluntary submission to discipline.

Bishop Jones and his attorney were successful with the diocese on Feb. 25. In exchange for the bishop's resignation and promise not to sue, the diocesan council agreed to give him a $175,000 settlement and also promised not to sue. The amount agreed upon includes 15 months of salary minus travel expenses plus forgiveness on the remainder of Bishop Jones' home mortgage, about $55,000.

The hoped-for agreement with the Title IV Review Board Committee failed to materialize, however, after the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop, refused to consent to Bishop Jones' voluntary submission to discipline. The review board was scheduled to meet Feb. 26, according to Mr. Curry, but without Bishop Griswold's consent, there was no point.

Mr. Curry is optimistic that the Court for the Trial of a Bishop will be willing to consider modification of the original sentence based on a statement in the original judgment and sentence which noted that "some members of the court would have been inclined to impose a sentence of suspension on condition of immediate resignation as Bishop of Montana..." but those members felt limited by the fact that under current church law suspension does not remove the bishop from the administrative matters of the diocese, only the episcopal ones.

Should the court be unwilling to modify the sentence, Bishop Jones could appeal the decision, in which case it would be heard by the Court of Review of the Trial of a Bishop.