Fort Worth to Go First

from Anglican Curmudgeon by A. S. Haley

Just as is the case with the Diocese of San Joaquin, there is only one, true Diocese of Fort Worth in the geographical area around Fort Worth which is a constituent part of the Anglican Communion, and it is a Diocese affiliated both with ACNA and the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. Just as is the case with San Joaquin, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth has been sued for all of its money and property by an upstart group that is not a Diocese, and which has never been officially admitted into union with the General Convention of ECUSA. Just as is the case with San Joaquin, the suit is currently on appeal to a higher court over the issue of whether a Diocese has the legal ability to realign itself with a denomination other than ECUSA.

However, unlike the case in San Joaquin, there is now a date that has been set for oral argument in the Court of Appeal -- and it will occur in the same week that oral arguments have been set in the Supreme Court of Virginia on the litigation between ECUSA, the Diocese of Virginia, and the Anglican District of Virginia. (The latter Court has not yet published a specific date and time for argument, but has announced only that arguments will occur sometime during its session meeting from April 12 to 16.)

The Court of Appeals for the Second District of Texas, which hears appeals from Fort Worth, has announced that it will hear oral argument on the writ sought by the Episcopal Diocese and Bishop Jack Iker on Wednesday, April 14, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

So Texas will go first, and Virginia and California should not be far behind. Your Curmudgeon predicts that at least one of these cases, and perhaps more, will not go well for ECUSA. And that should make its litigation strategy that much more difficult.