The battle over the name of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth has gone to federal court, with a trademark lawsuit filed against Bishop Jack Iker by the local group that chose to remain affiliated with the national church.
In 2008, delegates of the 19,000-member Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth voted overwhelmingly to leave the national denomination over issues including same-sex unions and the ordination of women. Several churches remained with the national denomination, and both groups now operate as the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.
The lawsuit, filed this week, contends that even though the Iker-led group left the national Episcopal Church, it “has been continuously providing, advertising and marketing its religious services under the name and service mark ‘The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.'”
Feed the lawyers…again!
Frivolous, in my opinion. Someone who knows something should weigh in, but I don’t see what the TEC group has to gain from this. When they lose, it will only weaken their stance even more.
Someone did weigh in. See the Anglican Curmudgeon’s analysis: [url=http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2010/09/in-texas-ecusa-es-muy-loco.html ]In Texas, ECUSA Es Muy Loco[/url]
I commented mistakenly in the David Brooks thread below. Apologies. My point, however, was that I am hard put to understand why the departing group would want to keep the “Episcopal” terminology other than that it may enhance their claim to property.
Continuity and succession can mean other than just a claim to property.
I hope the plaintiffs win on this one. Bishop Iker and his cronies continued use fo the Episopal church’s name is hypocritical. I’ve been told “Well gee, episcopal is an adjective, and why can’t we use it?” True enougn, but a a disingenuous and dishonest representation of who they are. They seek to confuse and confound. WHy they continue to want to use an adjective affiliated with the denomination they left and that they despise is baffling, other than to try to confuse jurors in the property lawsuits.
NoVA Scout, I have been a member of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arlington TX since 1989. Bishop Iker has been my bishop since his consecration. How has my worship changed? Why should I want to change our episcopal nature or name? We are still “episcopal” in every sense of the word. In the same period of time since Bp. Iker was consecrated, who has changed more? I would suggest it is PECUSA, now TEC, and not the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.
It is TEC that seeks to confuse and confound. It is the corporate entity led by Bishop that seeks to preserve its name. 6 has it absolutely right.
Ditto to Paul Nelson. When someone attacked our parish for being “something else” than Episcopalian I wrote them a note. I said our worship adheres to the liturgy and rubrics in the ’79 BCP. We read the complete lectionary in it in our services. We not only believe the liturgy we recite but we believe the words of scripture that we hear read and preach. Our worship had not changed with recent innovations and departures from the BCP. And yet, this same statment could not be made by a most Episcopal churches remaining in the Diocese, including, likely the bishop. So who is really Episcopalian? Who left who? To quote a famous character of Tolkein lore, “Bother these dwarves!”
Dallasite, why do you say we that follow Bishop Iker despise TEC? This is certainly not the case. I am blessed to continue friendships and ministries with members of the Dio. of Dallas, and also those who follow Bishop Ohl here in Fort Worth. My family has paid a substantial personal cost for our choice to leave TEC, but I can promise you that I do not despise anyone who remains a part of it. One thing that I learned from our years of discernment is that you cannot judge an individual by their choice in this painful time. If we do, we fall short of God’s desire for our lives.
Can’t speak for Fort Worth, obviously, but I don’t despise the Episcopal Church — I despise its current national leaders.
Thankfully, someday the Episcopal Church will be restored, only without its current leaders.
And I’ll be using the Episcopal name, God Willing.
It’s a bit like wondering why the people in France in WWII still loved France when their Vichy or Nazi leadership were in charge. Because France was France — and Nazis ended up gone.
Some day.
Bishop Iker is correct. I only wish *ALL* the ACNA dioceses had done the same thing. That would be step one towards restoring the good name of “Episcopal.”
It will happen.
Might take decades and scores of years — but I believe that it will happen. “TEC” will be long gone — or long ignored anyway — but “Episcopal” I think will go on and go on with the Gospel, someday.
I doubt that the federal court will hear this one–at least not until the litigation on the same issue in Texas courts has reached a final decision. It really isn’t a federal matter and the federal court doesn’t really have jurisdiction. Normally federal courts don’t take cases involving citizens of one state until the state courts have been exhausted, if then.
Mr. Nelson and Sarah, the perception from where I sit, and in what I hear, is that the Iker diocese despises the Episcopal Church. Perhaps a better word is that it disdains the Episcopal Church. In either case, it begs teh question of why the Iker group maintains then name, other than to confuse the jury that will hear its lawsuit.
My principal complaint with Bishop Iker isn’t with his theology (although there are many things I don’t agree with him on), but it is is in his strategy, for many years, to isolate his diocese from the Episcopal Church, his refusal to engage with the church at large, and the bunker mentality that has overtaken the churches in his diocese. In so doing, the Bishop has squandered any ability to win others to his side. He has guaranteed the isolation and marginalization of his diocese. HE has failed to evangelize. He is loved by the choir to whom he preaches, but has become irrelevant to everyone else. Even more irrelevant than the Episcopal Church.
The word “episcopal” is an adjective meaning “having a bishop.” Supposedly the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. is a protestant church that has bishops. The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth was organized with that name in 1983 and subsequently affiliated with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. It is a diocese that has bishops, and so is “episcopal.” Not every “episcopal” thing is part of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. It is somewhat presumptuous of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. to usurp the name “The Episcopal Church” as that are a great many episcopal churches in the world, including other provinces of the Anglican Communion, that are “episcopal”.
The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth–the one organized in 1983 of which Jack Iker is bishop–following the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth–voted in 2008 to disaffliate from the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and to become affliated with a different province of the Anglican Communion. It retained its legal name, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, because that was and is the name of the diocese operating under the constitution and canons of the diocese. It is under no obligation to change its name to satisfy a dissenting minority.
The dissenting minority and the Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. chose irregularly to organize a new diocese comprised of that dissenting minority. To confuse matters, the new diocese chose to hijack the name of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. They could have avoided the confusion which they caused by adopting a unique name for the new diocese, such as the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth or perhaps even the Episcopal Diocese of Central North Texas. But apparently they preferred confusion over honest clarity.