Here is the ENS reporty on the Fort Worth diocesan convention. The outcome was no surprise to anyone.
Bishop Iker is correct that this is just the beginning of this fight, but what is yet to come is extremely serious.
Our primate, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori has already said that as "long as one" wants to remain in The Episcopal Church, those members will be able to do so.
Bishop Jack Iker might try to take the entire diocese out of The Episcopal Church, but I think he's in fantasy land. He acts like a bitter, angry man. ----Gordon
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91941_ENG_HTM.htm
Episcopal News Service
November 17, 2007
*Fort Worth convention approves first reading of constitutional changes
Diocese to explore invitation to join Southern Cone province *
By Matthew Davies and Jan Nunley
[Episcopal News Service]
The 25th annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth November
17 gave the first of two approvals needed to amend its constitution and
remove accession to the Constitution and Canons of General Convention, as
well as several canonical amendments that eliminate mention of the Episcopal
Church.
Speaking in a news conference following the convention's conclusion, Fort
Worth Bishop Jack Iker said the decisions "marked a firm resolve about
moving forward together, recognizing that there are parts that are not fully
behind the path we've chosen, but the debate is always characterized by
respect and honesty."
"It's important to note that the decisions made today are preliminary
decisions that need to be ratified by another convention," he added.
Meeting at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas, the
convention also thanked the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone for its
invitation offering the diocese membership "on an emergency and pastoral
basis." Iker and the diocesan Standing Committee are to prepare a report on
"the constitutional and canonical implications and means of accepting that
invitation." Attending the convention was Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia in
the Southern Cone.
The convention noted that the diocese wishes "to remain within the family of
the Anglican Communion while dissociating itself from the moral,
theological, and disciplinary innovations of the Episcopal Church…"
If the constitutional and canonical amendments pass a second reading,
presumably at the 2008 diocesan convention, they effectively would violate
the requirements of the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons. Article
V, Section 1 says that a diocese's constitution must include "an unqualified
accession" to the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sent a letter November 8 to Fort
Worth Bishop Jack Leo Iker, who has supported the amendments, notifying him
that his intentions to withdraw the diocese from the Episcopal Church could
result in her taking action to bring the diocese and its leadership into
line with the mandates of the national Church.
"Your statements and actions in recent months demonstrate an intention to
lead your diocese into a position that would purportedly permit it to depart
from the Episcopal Church," wrote Jefferts Schori to Iker on November 8.
"...If your course does not change, I shall regrettably be compelled to see
that appropriate canonical steps are promptly taken to consider whether you
have abandoned the Communion of this Church -- by actions and substantive
statements, however, they may be phrased -- and whether you have committed
canonical offences that warrant disciplinary action."
Iker responded November 12 to Jefferts Schori's letter declaring, "I have
abandoned nothing, and I have violated no canons." Iker termed Jefferts
Schori's letter "highly inappropriate" and "threatening," and claimed that
it "appears designed to intimidate" delegates to the diocesan convention.
"The posturing using public released letters added to the resolve that we
must do something firm," Iker told the media gathered at the November 17
news conference. "This is unfortunate -- I would hope the bishops of the
national church would actually try to make efforts of reconciliation."
In an October 20, 2007 address to the Forward in Faith International
Assembly in London, a recording of which is available on the group's
website, Iker stated that the three Forward in Faith dioceses -- Fort Worth,
San Joaquin, and Quincy -- intend to leave the Episcopal Church by 2009.
"There are three Forward in Faith dioceses in the United States, and the
three bishops of those dioceses have come to a common conclusion that we
have no future in the Episcopal Church," Iker reported to the London
meeting. "Our conventions in those three dioceses, Fort Worth, Quincy, and
San Joaquin, will be taking constitutional action to separate officially
from TEC. Because it is a constitutional change, it must be passed at two
successive annual conventions."
On the recording, Iker continued: "...Our plan is not only to disassociate,
then, from the Episcopal Church, but to officially, constitutionally
re-affiliate with an existing orthodox province of the communion that does
not ordain women to the priesthood. These conversations are very far along
but cannot be announced until the province that is considering our appeal
has made their final decision public."
The annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh November 2 gave
the first of two approvals needed to enact a constitutional change to remove
language in its diocesan constitution.
Jefferts Schori sent the first of several letters warning bishops of the
consequences of attempted secession to Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan on
October 31.
At its December 8-9 convention, the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin is
scheduled to hear the second and final reading of a similar amendment that
would delete from its constitution all references to the Episcopal Church
and state that the diocese is "a constituent member of the Anglican
Communion and in full communion with the See of Canterbury." San Joaquin
Bishop John-David M. Schofield has welcomed an invitation from the Anglican
Church of the Southern Cone, similar to the one received by Fort Worth, that
offers the diocese membership "on an emergency and pastoral basis."
In June, the Executive Council, the governing body of the Episcopal Church
between meetings of General Convention, warned that actions by Episcopal
Church dioceses that change their constitutions in an attempt to bypass the
Church's Constitution and Canons are "null and void."
In Resolution NAC023, the Council reminded dioceses that they are required
to "accede" to the Constitution and Canons, and declared that any diocesan
action that removes that accession from its constitution is "null and void."
That declaration, the resolution said, means that their constitutions "shall
be as they were as if such amendments had not been passed."
The Presiding Bishop could ask the Episcopal Church's Title IV Review
Committee to consider whether the bishops supporting those constitutional
changes have abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church. If the
committee agreed that abandonment had taken place, the bishops would have
two months to recant before the matter went to the full House of Bishops. If
the House concurred, the Presiding Bishop could depose the bishops and
declare the episcopates of those dioceses vacant. There is no appeal and no
right of formal trial outside of a hearing before the House of Bishops.
Members of congregations remaining in the Episcopal Church would be gathered
to organize a new diocesan convention and elect a replacement Standing
Committee, if necessary. An assisting bishop would be appointed until a
search process could be initiated and a new bishop elected and consecrated.
A lawsuit could be filed against the departed leadership and a
representative sample of departing congregations if they attempted to retain
Episcopal Church property.
The 2007-2009 Title IV Review Committee consists of Bishop Dorsey Henderson
of Upper South Carolina (president), Bishop Suffragan Bavi E. Rivera of
Olympia, Bishop Suffragan David C. Jones of Virginia, Bishop C. Wallis Ohl
Jr. of Northwest Texas, the Rev. Carolyn Kuhr of Montana, the Very Rev.
Scott Kirby of Eau Claire, J.P. Causey Jr. of Virginia and Deborah J. Stokes
of Southern Ohio.
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