About 400 delegates and overflow visitors who filled the 116-year-old Trinity Church and its parish hall on Fort Worth’s south side for a February 7 special organizing convention celebrated being “called to life” anew and getting back to the business of being the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.
About 19 clergy and 62 lay delegates representing 31 congregations unanimously elected the Rt. Rev. Edwin “Ted” Gulick, bishop of Kentucky, as provisional bishop by a voice vote in clergy and lay orders. Gulick, who will serve as provisional bishop until at least mid-year while continuing to serve the Diocese of Kentucky, received a standing ovation and sustained applause.
“I cannot tell you how moved I am by your trust and how awed I am by this responsibility,” Gulick told the gathering. He offered thanks to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, as well as to the people of the Diocese of Kentucky.
Interesting… a Bishop in Plurality. Is that allowed in the ancient canons. But then, his soi-disant “Diocese” in TX really doesn’t exist, anyway.
boder-crossing carpetbagger…. 🙂
How long, do you think, before he follows his fellow episcopus vagans in (but not of) San Joaquin in introducing priestesses and casting a blind eye to sodomitical vice in the “virtual diocese” of which he is the “virtual bishop.”
On the other hand, it is ironic to see the practice of a bishop of See X holding another see simultaneously “in commendam” — just like one Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey in England nearly 500 years ago.
I am sure that the Diocese and their elected…eh..appointed resident eh..flying bishop will grow the diocese (is 400 people a diocese?) and spread the great commission..eh…MDG’s…eh legal community to greater and glorious heights. Is it true that the bishops fell to their knees when Xerses..eh Madame Schori arrived?
I do pray for all lost souls…
Intercessor
I served for 3 years under Bishop Gulick. Good luck, Fort Worth. You called a far lesser man than the one you had in Bishop Iker!
[blockquote] About 19 clergy and 62 lay delegates representing 31 congregations unanimously elected ….. [/blockquote]
I’d sure like to see a list of those 31 congregations….I heard that one of the 2 people in our parish who were opposed to us moving to the Southern Cone and who then transferred out of our parish was a delegate representing “us”!!! What a joke….what happened to the “transparency” they said they wanted?!?!
http://episcopaldiocesefortworth.org/churches.htm
The TEC diocese lists 15 groups that appear to be 7 parishes in their buildings and 8 groups “holding services at” other locations. My own current estimate for the TEC diocese put ASA at between 1200 and 1500, probably in the lower half of that range.
Let’s all Vichy him well!
Indeed, Words Matter, if they had representatives from 31 alleged parishes at this convention there must have been many “delegates” from a large number of parishes where almost 100% of the attending membership are with Bishop Iker. I wonder if St. Vincent’s Cathedral (as solid an orthodox parish as you can imagine– attending membership >98% pro-Southern Cone, I would guess) had any alleged “delegates” there yesterday?
[blockquote]During his tenure, membership in Kentucky’s 36 congregations has increased by 30 percent, to about 10,600 active members. [/blockquote]
That doesn’t match this. Am I missing something? The tables underlying the charts aren’t available anymore, so I’m just guessing, but it’s pretty clear Kentucky has declined under Gulik. The ’07 membership number was 10,000, a 3.3% decline from ’06, shown here.
Elected?
Words Matter: you are correct. Since 1997 there is no evidence of growth in Members or ASA, but from 1997 through 2002 the diocese showed some healthy increase in Plate & Pledge. From 2002 through 2007 the diocese did fairly well compared with other dioceses, losing only about 4 percent in Members and ASA. Plate & Pledge increased by 11 percent which was 5 percent less than inflation. But it is an aging diocese with 134 Infant Baptisms and 185 Burials in 2007. The standing ovation may have been partly in appreciation of Bishop Gulick’s vote to depose Bishop Duncan. Statmann
[blockquote] The standing ovation may have been partly in appreciation of Bishop Gulick’s vote to depose Bishop Duncan. [/blockquote] And also, for those folks, because is was NOT +Iker!
According to the available stats the ASA in Kentucky in 1994 was 3859 and in 2007 was 3876. I couldn’t find any stats for active membership in 1994 when Gulick arrived in Kentucky, but it would be quite an anomaly for membership to grow by 30% during that period while ASA grew by less than 1%. Gulick has made this 30% claim quite often in the last few years. It would be interesting to hear his explanation.