Delegates to the 26th annual diocesan convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth voted Saturday to realign the diocese with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.
With little debate or emotion, delegates voted by order, 73 votes in favor, 20 against, among clergy and 98-28 among the laity for realignment. After the vote Bishop Jack Iker read a letter from Archbishop Gregory Venables, welcoming Fort Worth into the Southern Cone.
In a statement, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said after the vote that the church “grieves the departures of a number of persons from the Diocese of Fort Worth. We remind those former Episcopalians that the door is open if they wish to return.
“We will work with Episcopalians in the Diocese of Fort Worth to elect new leadership and continue the work of the gospel in that part of Texas. The gospel work to which Jesus calls us demands the best efforts of faithful people from many theological and social perspectives, and The Episcopal Church will continue to welcome that diversity.”
[i]In a statement, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said after the vote that the church “grieves the departures of a number of persons from the Diocese of Fort Worth. We remind those former Episcopalians that the door is open if they wish to return.”[/i]
A ‘number of persons’. 80% is just a ‘number of persons’?
[i]”We will work with Episcopalians in the Diocese of Fort Worth to elect new leadership and continue the work of the gospel in that part of Texas.” [/i]
Ready or not, like it or not, legal or not, here we come!
[i]”The gospel work to which Jesus calls us demands the best efforts of faithful people from many theological and social perspectives, and The Episcopal Church will continue to welcome that diversity.”[/i]
Except conservatives, reasserters, or those who want to hold the church to the Standard set by the Apostles, Church Fathers, and 2000 years of Church teaching.
Peace to the Dio. of Ft. Worth! Thank you for remaining faithful to the teachings of the Lord, the Scriptures, and the Church universal.
Blessings on the Episcopalians left in Fort Worth and Godspeed as you rebuild and call new members into your House of Prayer for ALL people!
De Nile stretches from Canterbury past 815 and down to the country from which its earthy name is given. It seems to have detoured through California by way of Pittsburgh and Quincy before passing through Fort Worth.
[i] Edited by elf. [/i]
[i] Off topic comment removed by elf. [/i]
[i] We remind those former Episcopalians that the door is open if they wish to return [/i] —KJS
Remember, O runaway Israelites, that we have graves enough in Egypt! If you conduct yourselves meekly, you shall also have straw for your brick-making just as you did in the goodly days of old.
That will stop the exodus of dioceses. All those against the ordination of women to the priesthood have left TEC. Sorry to see them go, and hope they will be happy with those of like mind.
The Pasadena Report of the Reconciliation Task Force suggested the best way to go was to look at two recognized jurisdictions in the USA, with free association for individuals (clergy and lay) and parishes, with no blaming or shaming. How I WISH that this was the way things would go! Of course KJS might disagree, but if any -I repeat- ANY of those who contributed money and land to the PECUSA/ECUSA/TEC of the 18th/19th/1st half of the 20th centuries were somehow to be polled, there would be a gigantic margin of givers who would say they did NOT give their money/land to endow an organization which would someday be the very negation of almost everything its benefactors asserted.
So… Ft. Worth has bailed out in the sense of “to parachute out of an aircraft in an emergency” whilst the US Gov is busy bailing out all kinds of folks. Maybe the Treasury Dept. ought to consider sending some $ to the new Anglican province (just kidding!).
Too bad we can’t repossess what we had given in the way of memorials, capitial fund, etc.
Well, gifts can always be given with legally enforceable conditions.
Susan,
If TEC had been “faithful Episcopalians”, Fort Worth would not have voted to leave.
I am sad that there is a hole in Texas with Fort Worth no longer part of TEC. I will miss their witness and aid in contening for the faith within TEC. May God bless them in their journey and bring us all back to where we can live in united witness to the Truth as revealed in Holy Scripture and proclaimed by the Church catholic.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
It’s interesting that the new “House of Prayer for ALL people” becomes emptier every day. The more rhetorically “inclusive” TEC becomes, the less ACTUALLY inclusive it is.
Eugene,
That is not the issue. Pittsburgh ordains women as do others in the Global South. Live in that fantasy land as long as you like. There will be more and more room in it. There will be more dioceses leaving and many more parishes and individuals will follow. This is indeed the beginning of the realignment.
Phil,
With the turn of events in The Episcopal Church a new, heretical religion is being born. It is faithfulness to those heresies that is the problem. If The Episcopal Church were a faithful Christian church then the Diocese of Fort Worth would not have left. There would only be the women’s ordination issue to discuss.
Ms. Russel — The Anglican Church is open to ALL PEOPLE. All that it ask is that people try to turn from their sinful ways to the Lord God through his Son, Jesus Christ. The Episcopal Church denies this and blesses evil as good, sinfulness as righteousness
TEC a “…House of Prayer for ALL people”? HAH!!! TEC has and will become less, and not more diverse, since the overwhelmingly vast majority of Black, Latino, and Asian people will simply NOT attend a church at which there is even a remote possibility of having a LGBT priest doing same-sex unions. TEC is fast becoming a dying all-white knee-jerk jackbooted leftist entity. The Law Of Unexpected Consequences strikes again!
[i] Slightly edited by elf. [/i]
Oh, and BTW… no one will like this further comment, certainly not Susan or BillB. On the topic of radical inclusivity and Fort Worth’s change of jurisdiction. My orthodox Anglican parish warmly welcomes all people with open arms. In our rural congregation we have two partnered gay couples (one pair just got civilly unioned). And also one guy who is the best-known gay person in our county. While same-sex unions are forbidden by both the Rector and Vestry as contrary to the Bible and Universal Church Teaching, everyone is loved and appreciated for who they are, paradoxically. But then, all truth is found in the midst of paradox. Anyone who attempts to eliminate paradox ends up by eliminating the Truth, in the end.
ECUSA: A House of Error for All People.
frreed: sorry you missed my point: only the three dioceses which do not ordain women and the one with the moderator of Common Cause have left. None of the other Network Dioceses have or plan to leave as far as I can tell. Do you know of another one that plans to leave?
By the way the majority of the individual parishes that have left do not favor the ordination of women (e.g. CANA, AMiA). And the other Common Cause Partners do not (e.g. REC). The new Province will not be a happy place for those who favor the ordination of women to the priesthood.
I wish them well and hope that they will not argue amongst themselves.
I sincerely doubt that any further dioceses whatsoever will choose to change jurisdictions from TEC to another.
So far as I know, most dioceses require changes to their constitutions to be passed in two successive conventions. Pittsburgh, Quincy, and Fort Worth have all passed their second reading this year, but I haven’t heard of any new dioceses that have voted on first readings of such amendments. That means that if there are going to be any more dioceses voting to leave, it will be at least two years down the road before they can do that.
If it were only as innocent as error, #17. KJS and her lackeys are knowingly leading TEC’s members into the fire with their new age mumbo jumbo. Thank Heaven above that there are at least four dioceses that have the faith and resolve to tear free.
Jeffersonian (#21) – I think it would be difficult for any reasonable person to believe that KJS are “knowingly” and deliberately leading people into what they (KJS et al) themselves believe is hellfire-bound error. She and her minions are sure they are leading people into “all truth”. Of course, they are not only dead wrong theologically, they are also blindly destroying the denomination they genuinely care about.
I wish I had your faith that this is just all some big misunderstanding, ASP, but there have been too many flat-out denials of even the most basic Christian beliefs for me to think that this is anything but deliberate.
We remind those former Episcopalians that the door is open if they wish to return —KJS
And, if they can’t protest, when dead (like her mother), they’ll be claimed as Episcopalians even *after* death. She’s been a desperate person for years.
Does anyone know if the diocesean conventions have to be a certain time apart from each other? Could they not convene on a Friday night, end that convention (after first reading of changing constitution), then convene the next convention the next morning for the second reading?
Just wondered.
“Does anyone know if the diocesean conventions have to be a certain time apart from each other?”
Although I don’t know the answer, I’d note that holding a second diocesan convention so quickly might notice requirements in the diocesan constitution or canons.
Eugene #18, CANA does permit ordained priests, as does Pittsburgh. The difference is that the groups in Common Cause permitting it are promising the full respect to no-WO groups which TEC promised and then reneged on.
Oops, in #27 the first sentence should read “ordained women,” of course.
Hooray for the Southern Cone Diocese of Fort Worth!
Re: 2, all are welcome to come and pray in an (Anglo-)Catholic church. What BillB wrote in 14.
With the departure of its last Anglo-Catholic diocese the Catholic Movement in the Episcopal Church is now over but with a few surviving parishes scattered around the country.
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I believe diocesan canons are subject to interpretation just like the national canons. The difference is the interpreter. One group believes words have meanings. The other group likes to invent meanings. The difference is truthfulness versus truthiness. No diocese has yet followed the national dys-organizational model of Beers-Schori-HOB. Integrity is not just a name for a homosexualist organization. Some people actually have it. So I don’t look for any dioceses to do other than as they have already chosen. NOT TO DECIDE IS TO DECIDE as the ABC has so flagrantly demonstrated.