From the worst is over dept.

FT. WORTH DIOCESE TO VOTE ON LEAVING THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Fourth Diocese to Sever Ties from Liberal Denomination
Former West Texas Bishop Sam Hulsey rumored to replace Bishop Iker
Anglo-Catholicism is Over in TEC

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
11/12/2008

Short of the Second Coming, delegates to the Diocese of Ft. Worth will vote this coming weekend to sever its ties forever with the Episcopal Church, making it the fourth diocese in the Episcopal Church to exodus this year, and signaling the end of Anglo Catholicism in The Episcopal Church.

One by one parishes and dioceses who trace their origins back to the Oxford Movement, that branch of Anglicanism which came to prominence in the Church of England during the Victorian era under the influence of the Tractarians, will be no more.

There will still be single, isolated Anglo-Catholic parishes around the country, mostly in the handful of remaining orthodox dioceses; however, as a movement, Anglo-Catholicism, which holds a "high" concept of the episcopate and of the nature of the sacraments will, to all intents and purposes, cease to exist.

The now thoroughly post-modern Episcopal Church which has no gospel to proclaim except Millennium Development Goals and pansexuality will not mourn their loss except insofar as to who controls the properties which the national church claims as theirs. This argument will now form the basis of massive legal action as to who rightfully owns the buildings and pews.

TEC Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori and her attorney David Booth Beers believe the canons are clear, based on the 1979 passage of the Dennis Canon, that the national church owns them now and for future generations, presuming of course that such generations will be there 30 years from now to take them over. With the average age of Episcopalians now in the mid 60s and with most congregations in double-digit survival mode, it is hard to imagine who will occupy these pulpits in the future as Episcopal seminaries are shrinking and retrenching. (Ironically, younger, vibrant Evangelicals with a clearly defined Great Commission mission are leaving and filling Anglican churches in AMiA, CANA, Uganda and Kenya).

There is nothing spiritually devastating in their decision to leave as three other dioceses - Quincy, Pittsburgh and San Joaquin -- can attest, only liberation from the bondage of a denomination in deep denial about its message and mission.

At last year's annual convention, nearly 80 percent of the delegates, under the leadership of Ft. Worth Bishop Jack Iker, gave initial approval to leave the Episcopal Church and align itself with the Province of the Southern Cone under Archbishop Gregory Venables - a decision that will receive final ratification later this week.

The Episcopal Church has less than 800,000 church-going Episcopalians in 16 countries and claims its largest diocese is in the country of Haiti. (The Church of England, the mother church of worldwide Anglicanism has 880,000 practicing Anglicans). The 38 provinces that make up the Anglican Communion number 55 million.

The feisty Bishop of Ft. Worth will be no pushover when it comes to property issues. He is on record that he believes the diocese, not the national church, has clear title to the 56 parishes and missions. The diocese has about 19,000 members.

Iker, in a statement on the Fort Worth diocese Web site, said nothing in the church's constitution prevents a diocese from leaving.

If Fort Worth delegates approve withdrawing from the church, individual parishes could choose to stay.

About five of the diocese's 56 parishes and missions will likely do so, according to diocese officials and group members who plan to stay with the church.

At the diocese's website, Iker posted a statement noting that division within the church has been building for years.

"Some might well ask, 'Why has it taken us so long to take definitive action, given the past 30 years of the shenanigans of The Episcopal Church?' We have explored every avenue and exhausted every possibility."

He said that "heresies...once proclaimed by just a few renegade bishops...are now echoed by the Presiding Bishop."

A spokeswoman for the Episcopal Church said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, would not comment about the Fort Worth diocese before the convention. Those opposing the withdrawal say that in case of a split, they will re-organize and seek a new bishop for the diocese, a standard procedure adopted in the three other departing dioceses. Representatives of The Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians - a group of conservatives and liberals who wish to remain with the church - met with Iker last week.

"We wanted to be proactive to make this very civil," said Walter Cabe, the group's president. "We want to be respectful, but we also want to clearly make a statement for the record."

There are unconfirmed reports that the former Bishop of West Texas Sam Hulsey will head up those who remain in the diocese.

The diocesean convention will be held this coming Friday and Saturday at St. Vincent's Cathedral in Bedford.

About 230 delegates, including laity and clergy will be in attendance, said Suzanne Gill, diocese communications director. Two-thirds approval is required to break away, she said. VOL will be there to report on this event.

END