As a priest of the Diocese of New Jersey who retired last June after 35 years of full-time ministry, all but three of which were spent in that diocese (including at one time, a term as president of the standing committee, and, at the time of my retirement, senior warden of the diocesan council), I regard with sorrow and dismay what has transpired in our diocese, culminating at our recent diocesan convention with the de-facto forced resignation of our diocesan bishop, the Rt. Rev. Joe Morris Doss [TLC, April 4].

There are only two positive things I can see which come out of this sorry episode:

First, that the self-styled Coalition for Mission and Ministry members' obsession with getting rid of Bishop Doss, no matter what the cost, motivated those of them who presently serve on the standing committee and diocesan council to negotiate a very generous financial package. It can, of course, never adequately compensate the bishop and his family for the abuse they have received from this coalition. It will, however, ensure that though Bishop Doss and his family now leave the diocese thoroughly "trashed" and humiliated by the slanders put forth by coalition members, they will not leave it pauperized as well.

Second, that none of the proposed canonical changes introduced by one of the chief architects of the campaign to force the bishop's removal was approved by the delegates to the diocesan convention.

Now that they have succeeded in ridding themselves of this "troublesome prelate," we can only hope that coalition members will now want to release their "fair share" quotas (which they've, allegedly, been holding "in escrow") to advance the "mission and ministry" of the Diocese of New Jersey to which they claim, by the title they have given their coalition, to be committed.

While Bishop Doss remains "on sabbatical" until 2001, authority in the diocese resides in the standing committee which, at this time, is totally populated by coalition members buoyed by the success of the coup they've so tragically engineered. Pray for New Jersey.

(The Rev.) E. Walton Zelley, Jr.

Copake Falls, N.Y.