He is known by friends and former parishioners as a man with a broad spiritual background, able to relate well to a wide variety of people. A former spiritual director for Cursillo, he has studied in the Holy Land, pondered God while hiking in New England, and is a frequent guest at a monastery run by the Order of the Holy Cross. On May 4, when the Rev. Andrew Donnan Smith was consecrated as Suffragan Bishop of Connecticut, these traditions were interwoven with gifts and love to frame his new ministry.

A crowd of nearly 800 filled Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford, with nearly 100 more seated in the parish house auditorium next door, participating via large screen projection of the service.

As the morning began and the long entrance procession formed outside, a persistent drizzle caused a few of the clergy to don their programs as protective headgear. Inside, however, the air was dry and full of joyful sound from the choirs of the cathedral and St. Mary's, Manchester, a brass band, and a timpanist, who sat just below and to the left of the pulpit. Intense lights from the camera crews videotaping the event placed the Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning, and all the action, in a circle of light at the cathedral crossing.

Attached to a side balcony, overlooking the proceedings, was a wall hanging created for Bishop Smith, displaying symbols important to his life. Sewn onto a background of black silk in various materials including textured fabric, white silk, leather, and gold tissue lamé, were domes from Jerusalem, a path through the woods, and six faces of Jesus, taken from different traditions in liturgical art.

The sermon was given by Bishop Smith's longtime friend, the Very Rev. Malcolm H. McDowell, Jr., dean of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Harrisburg, Pa., and former rector of St. Mark's, New Britain, Conn. In his sermon, Dean McDowell exhorted his friend to always let Easter make a difference, and to lead the church as it so desperately needs.

"You have demonstrated that inner power to be a servant in possession of a life that can be shared, laid down for others and ultimately given back to God. The church not only calls you to leadership, but needs faithful leadership at a time when our culture cries out loudly for spiritual nurture in the midst of crass and bloated materialism, quick fix schemes, and magical prophecies."

The consecrating bishops included Bishop Browning; the Rt. Rev. Clarence N. Coleridge, 13th Bishop of Connecticut; the Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley, 12th Bishop of Connecticut; the Rt. Rev. Bruce Cameron, Bishop of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney of the Scottish Episcopal Church, where Connecticut's first bishop, Samuel Seabury, went to be consecrated; and the Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, Bishop of Rhode Island.

After he was consecrated, Bishop Smith was vested by Ginny Hastings and Taffy Hastings Wilcox in red vestments worn by the late Bishop Brad Hastings, a mentor of the new bishop. His ring, gold with a diocesan seal, was a gift of St. Mary's; his pectoral cross, also gold and of Celtic design with a central amethyst stone, was a gift of all four parishes he has served in Connecticut.