The editorial, "A Test for the Bishops" [TLC, March 5] certainly found a lot of fault with the Diocese of Newark and its bishop, the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong. Neither the diocese nor the bishop deserved it.

The information about the special Task Force on Prayer Book Revision was less than accurate. Many of us have spoken to the bishop about our discomfort with the theology and language of the 1979 book. His announcement of the appointment of a task force was greeted with sustained applause.

No one in the diocese, including Bishop Spong, labors under the belief that any body other than General Convention can revise the Book of Common Prayer. But there is nothing in the canons to prevent dioceses and congregations from experimenting with alternative liturgies. Indeed, the Standing Liturgical Commission, in its 1994 Blue Book report, expresses "a hope that new texts would be developed in worshiping communities." That is what we will be doing - creating new texts and presenting them as an offering to the SLC and the 1997 General Convention.

On the issue of the Statement of Koinonia - written as an affirmation of the wholeness of the church of God - the editorial might have mentioned that more than 70 bishops have added their names to Bishop Spong's, and that at least half of those 70 are the chosen leaders of dioceses with significant communicant strength.

And as to the presentment, it is a disgrace to contemplate the Episcopal Church becoming as litigious as the American society. The ordination to the diaconate of Barry Stopfel by Bishop Righter had the full support of the diocesan commission on ministry and standing committee. Like a growing number of dioceses, Newark does not believe that resolutions of General Convention bear the same weight and authority as the church's constitution and canons.

MARGE CHRISTIE Franklin Lakes, N.J.