Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will offer a revamped primatial vicar plan to the House of Bishops at their meeting next week in New Orleans, sources who have been briefed on the broad outline of the new proposal told The Living Church.<\/p>\n
The plan is said to call for a nominee of the Presiding Bishop\u2019s to exercise delegated pastoral authority over those dioceses that had requested alternate primatial oversight from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams following the 2006 General Convention.<\/p>\n
However, the Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, said a plan that placed the ultimate authority in the hands of the Presiding Bishop was a non-starter. Fort Worth would not accept the \u201cunilateral dictates\u201d\u009d of the Presiding Bishop, he said.<\/p>\n
Last November, Bishop Jefferts Schori proposed a \u201cprimatial vicar\u201d\u009d scheme where she would appoint a bishop to serve as her \u201cdesignated pastor,\u201d\u009d presiding at consecrations and acting in her stead for \u201cany other appropriate matters.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n