News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
1/21/2009
An ecclesiastical battle looms in the Diocese of Ft. Worth this week when Bishop Jack Iker attempts to meet with the rector, vestry and membership of All Saints Episcopal Church in Ft. Worth to determine if the parish wants to stay a member of the Province of the Southern Cone or determine another course for itself.
Bishop Iker set in motion a meeting with the parish following an overwhelming vote by the diocese (80 to 20) to leave The Episcopal Church.
He has asked to meet tomorrow with all parties. However, Fr. Christopher Jambor is holding his parish spiritually hostage by refusing them the right to vote on whether they want to stay or leave.
In a letter addressed dismissively to "Jack Iker, Bishop of the Southern Cone", the Vestry wrote, "Sir, the Rector and the Vestry have not asked you to come settle any controversy and you are not the Bishop. Therefore, we will not be attending this proposed meeting and we do not subject ourselves to any authority you may believe you have."
"You have abandoned The Episcopal Church. We have chosen not to. As a result of this decision you made, you gave up your authority you had over the parishes in the Episcopal Church."
The vestry ripped the bishop saying that even if the vote to leave been 100% to leave, "it would not have made it any more legal." We simply cannot take orders from you and we will not, they wrote.
In a final blast they added, "We will protect our church, our school, and our parishioners. We just ask that you leave us alone."
In a separate letter, Jambor ratchets up the rhetoric with words like "anxiety" and "protect". Instead of calming his flock, he appears to be causing a stampede.
Bishop Iker's position is that the diocese voted overwhelmingly to leave TEC and that any dissenting parish must have a 66% or more agreement by the membership in order to not leave TEC. Fr Jambor has steadfastly refused to allow his people to vote even though Canon 32 was overwhelmingly passed in 2007 to allow for such a provision.
All but three of the vestry signed the letter to Bishop Iker.
Enter into this ecclesiastical fray, Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop.
Following last year's diocesan convention, Jefferts Schori said she would visit the diocese, which she believes still belongs to The Episcopal Church.
Bishop Iker wrote telling her, in no uncertain language, to stay away as she had no authority to come into his diocese which is no longer associated with her denomination.
She wrote back a terse note saying she was coming anyway.
This past week, VOL received a note saying that the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth will hold a Special Convention on February 7. A Eucharist will held at All Saints on Saturday followed by a convention at Trinity Episcopal Church to which media, guests and visitors have been invited. Following all this, the Presiding Bishop, along with an unnamed Provisional Bishop, will hold a press conference. There will be a reception at St. Christopher's and on Sunday the Presiding Bishop will preach and celebrate at St. Stephen's, in Hurst.
VOL has been informed that the situation at All Saints' is fluid and ambiguous. One report said that some All Saints staff and vestry were fired, when in fact they "resigned". Jambor has consistently not responded to phone or e-mail requests for information.
The dissenters from the November diocesan convention call themselves The Steering Committee of North Texas Episcopalians, and say they represent about seven groups and an estimated 8,000 communicants from among at least 17 of the diocese's 56 congregations. They say they intend to remain aligned with the Episcopal Church.
However, Bishop Iker insisted that any decision to remain with TEC cannot be made solely by the clergy and that 66% of the congregation have to vote to leave. Canon 32 was passed in 2007 to help facilitate the anticipated 2008 realignment process. That canon called for an equitable way for dissenting parishes to leave the Diocese with their property intact.
Under the Canon, parishes such as All Saints are free to leave the Diocese, following a parish-wide vote of the membership aimed at assuring Bishop Iker that it is the collective mind of the parishioners to remain with TEC. This action is not to be taken on the will of the rector and vestry alone. The Episcopal Diocese of Dallas has a similar canon in place.
Later, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori announced that Bishop Iker had renounced his orders, which Iker flat out denied. This diocese has since elected to become a member of the new Anglican Province of North America.
Whatever happens Thursday, the legal wrangling has not yet begun. For the moment, the fight is ecclesiastical and nasty with sides being drawn up.
Bishop Iker has the moral and ecclesiastical high ground and, according to a life-long Episcopalian and attorney William L. Fisher, the realigned Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (EDFW) is still alive and well.
"It is a legal entity with a life of its own, separate and apart from TEC. There is nothing TEC can do that will have any legal effect on the EDFW. Those who voted at The Convention for the EDFW to leave TEC can thank God that He placed in positions of authority wise and learned leaders who were responsible for the formation of the EDFW in the beginning, and who have guided it through the troubled seas of recent times. From a legal perspective, it would appear the EDFW is on very solid ground. From a pastoral prospective it would appear the EDFW is on solid biblical grounds in how it proposes to treat those within the EDFW who disagree with leaving TEC. Those members of the EDFW who wish to remain in TEC must now take some affirmative action to go their separate way from the EDFW. Until they take such action, they remain part of the EDFW." You can his full statement here: http://tinyurl.com/8vuft7
VOL will bring you the latest news as it unfolds.
END
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