The Diocese of Fort Worth has published documentation for its annual convention to consider:
“Today the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth announced its decision to sponsor five proposed amendments to the Diocesan Constitution and Canons for consideration at the diocese’s 25th Annual Convention on November 16 and 17, 2007. [PDF document below]
If adopted, the Diocese would take the first step needed to dissociate itself from the General Convention of The Episcopal Church and to begin the process of affiliating with another Province of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Since constitutional changes do not go into effect until they are approved by two successive diocesan conventions, the second, ratifying vote would come at the annual meeting in 2008. Under the proposals, the Diocese would reaffirm its position as “a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, a Fellowship of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, consisting of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces and regional churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.”
Read the full announcement here.
See also the full report of the Committee on Constitution and Canons as a PDF file here.
Read the Episcopal News Service story: FORT WORTH: Standing Committee proposes severing Episcopal Church ties.
And the Living Church story Fort Worth Will Vote on Affiliations at Convention.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported it as Panel advises splitting from U.S. Episcopal Church.
The Dallas Morning News had Fort Worth Episcopal Diocese proposes break from church.
So, when do we declare the See vacant?
So goodbye already…adios, hasta la vista, happy trails…please leave TEC property/goods on the “way out”…the “way out” is something Bishop Iker is familar with as he’s unable to stay in a room and have a actual, grown up, big boy conversation with anyone he shuns at The Body of Christ. Will we need to send TEC Sheriff’s Posse after him/them or will they leave the building and prayer books/worship finery and generations of accumulated loot for the loyal Episcopalians and their kids and grandkids and EVERYONE else? The Episcopal Church WELCOMES everyone else! We will “leave the door open and… Read more »
Good work, ABC….. your political strategies, bending over backwards to please the radical, minority views of TEC HOB, giving them freedom to keep on breaking agreed Anglican positions are causing schism – but note, the people you will not speak to in “the Network” are very similar to most of the AC and most of us would rather keep them than VGR……are you sure you can fool or force enough people to stand with those who “tore the fabric of the Communion”?
Excuse me, NP, but I thought you had been confidently telling us that the ABC’s stance was exactly the opposite of what you have just posted, and that he could be relied upon to act in ways that supported the seccessionists. The small number of congregations and bishops who hold a narrowly dogmatic view of scripture and a judgmental view of creation, are engineering their departure from the Communion. They will free the Communion to enagage with more critical issues of God, including justice for the poor, human sexuality in general and the full inclusion of LGBT people in every… Read more »
Colin -I have been telling you, that in the end, the ABC has always acted in line with the majority of the AC. With Jeff John and in Tanzania, he bent over backwards to please people who share your agenda in the church…but in the end, he retreated for the sake of unity – did he not? I view the JSC stitch-up in the same way as I viewed the “sub group” report in Tanzania….. clearly biased and it is not going to be accepted by the majority. Colin, God, who gave us the bible, makes his will clear on… Read more »
Assuming that not every parish in the FW diocese agrees with Iker and company, what provisions will be made for them? I mean, if conservative parishes in liberal dioceses can demand alternate arrangements, shouldn’t the reverse also be true?
Or is the sauce only fit for the goose and not the gander?
Fascinating Article on American Secessionists in Today’s Independent, and it doesn’t mention ECUSA once!
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3028714.ece
Since when, Fr. Coward, should one expect consistency from evangelicals? The evos always argue up one side of an issue and down the other, in what ever way it supports their preconceived positions.
Might all this be known in a few years as the Pittsburgh Tea Party?
I’m surprised people aren’t advocating that Queen Elizabeth declare the White House vacant and move to recover our rightful property.
On the other hand, as someone once said, “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. … It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.”
Something is wrong with NPs record player. He puts the same record on, as ever, and the needle gets stuck, but I think it is playing backwards.
Since the legal position of the Episcopal Church is that dioceses and parishes can’t leave (although individuals of course may), Title IV, Canon 9 would allow the PB to inhibit a Bishop who departs from the Episcopal Church, pending a vote of the HOB. If the HOB concurs, then the Bishop is removed from office. Title I, Canon 2, makes it the duty of the PB to provide for “interim Episcopal services” in the event of a vacancy in the Diocese.
NP, you have amazing, God-like powers.
You know exactly what God wants for LGBT people.
You know that Lambeth 1.10 and TWR are flawless statements of orthodox, universal, never-to-be-changed Christian teaching on human sexuality.
You are able to foretell my own thoughts and ideas.
You know what the majority in the AC think.
You know what the ABC thinks and who he has always sided with.
You get so many people posting here in response to you.
You are on the ‘right’ side and know the thoughts of everyone.
Divinity indeed.
NP- Give it up.
You’re out on a limb and it’s geting cut off.
+++Rowan has been clear, if you leave TEC you are out of the communion. You all are on the highway to Nowhere and you will lose, everything.
Colin – your email is ridiculously funny. Not feeling I can condone behaviour “incompatible with scripture” is behaving like God, is it??? I say that I want to stick to an agreed, scripture-based, Anglican position and you do not like it so you go off the deep end….. May I remind you that the position of the CofE, as stated in Lambeth 1.10 and reaffirmed in Windsor, is not changed and it is consistent with the RC church and the vast majority of Christians in the Western world as well as the whole world. May I remind you that your… Read more »
John Richardson:
‘ On the other hand, as someone once said, “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical… It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government’
What an apposite quote. As far as Fort Worth and the conservative evangelical wing are concerned this is precisely what the Church is all about: politics and power.
Kurt,
A recent study of people ages 16-29 years-old done by The Barna Group here in the United States has found that only 3% have a favorable opinion of evangelicals. Central to this was their perception of the Right’s judgmental and “unchristian” additude toward gays and lesbians.
In case you are wondering, The Barna Group does nation-wide surveys and reports, typically for the religious middle to right wing.
Tom Downs
But then you don’t know any Greek, do you, NP?
So you wouldn’t be able to tell, anyway.
I am sure that Fort Worth knows that there will be a legal contest for the churches and other assets. The Episcopal Church will not disappear from the city and diocese of Fort Worth, and leave its parishioners and possessions to the new religion of Ikerism. Of course, I am equally sure that ++Iker has American financial backers who supporting his legal defense. Still it is a very unhappy day.
I liked Kurt’s posting and thanks Tom for helping me put it into context. There are some evangelicals who do as Kurt suggested, just as there are some Jews, Muslims, entrepreneurs, government representatives and scientists who do the same. It can happen for a number of reasons, they are in the pockets of an authority figure and have a secret agenda, they don’t know that they’ve been fed a poisoned diet missing crucial ingredients and overly laced with hazardous substances, they are in denial that things could really be that bad… One of the good things about the last few… Read more »
NP, what you find ridiculously funny is to other people, life-threatening and soul-destroying. I refer to the homophobia and prejudice which conservatives in all churches encourage and which the Roman Catholic Church and Lambeth 1.10 endorse. Ask Davis Mac-Iyalla if there is anything funny about the prejudices you purvey. I don’t care whether you condone my behaviour or not, because you don’t know how I behave. You are frighteningly and consistently wrong about so many things. You ignore reality, as with the state of affairs at Wycliffe and your misrepresentation of 1.10, Windsor, etc. It is this wilful distortion of… Read more »
Goran – when you are appointed Regius Professor of Greek, I will read your posts…..but we both know that ain’t going to happen
The irony of Ft. Worth’s proposed constitutional amendments is that they may not go far enough.
What happens if (when?) Akinola and company walk away from Lambeth and declare that they are no longer in communion with Canterbury? Iker and Ft. Worth will be stuck with a constitution that says they have to be in communion with Canterbury, which then, free from any further pressure from the GS conservatives, will tell Iker in no uncertain terms to get back into the fold of The Episcopal Church.
The quality of this site has declined greatly since it became NP’s blog.
What JPM said on Saturday, 6 October 2007 at 9:46pm BST
JPM “The quality of this site has declined greatly since it became NP’s blog.”
Au contraire, it’s good practice dealing with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their legalistic quasi-scripturalism when they hammer on the Vicarage door. Let’s have more NP, he could become an integral part of a ‘dealing with doorstep evangelism’ training programme!
-thanks Mynster – I was quite hurt by JPM’s post…… don’t see JPM getting TA mentioned in the Times! (just joking, relax!) -seriously, thought “listening” was supposed to be popular with liberals – but not to conservative views? – TA would be more boring if it were just made up of people complaining about the nasty conservatives and playing the victime – is it not better for having liberal prejudices and inconsistencies challenged? Others do this better than I so I do not claim credit myself – just making a general point that the dialogue is more interesting than the… Read more »
“Au contraire, it’s good practice dealing with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their legalistic quasi-scripturalism when they hammer on the Vicarage door. Let’s have more NP.” While I’m sure that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are an unavoidable fact of life at the Vicarage, one of the advantages of the second-floor (UK first) apartment that I have occupied for the decade is the front-porch/balcony from which I can survey and pass judgment. JW’s do not make the cut. Maybe, Mynsterpreost, you could set up a TA overflow site, syphoning off a little of legalistic quasi-scripturalism for your private amusement. For the rest of… Read more »
“thought “listening” was supposed to be popular with liberals”
NP, the trouble is that, on TA, the Liberals listen, it is you who do not. Go ahead, prove my point!
JPM “The quality of this site has declined greatly since it became NP’s blog.” While NP might be annoying, take heart, he dares to post what wiser souls would refrain from doing. S/he provides the evidence that such souls exist, that others try to deny that they do. He is a blessing because when others try to make out that we are paranoid and no Christian would act that way, NP leaps into the fray to prove that such souls do exist and they do act that way. NP is a blessing from God. S/he is the Balaam who can… Read more »
chaps – “ad hominem” attacks are not supposed to be allowed round here!
You may want to be careful, NP. The bulk of your posts are little more than ad hominem attacks, what with your constant lie that anyone who disagrees with you is “ignoring scripture.”
The pot doth lecture the kettle on its blackness.
When Rhodesia declared UDI they declared loyalty to the Queen. After five years of being ignored they then became a Republic.
The ” faithful remnant ” seem to have the same attitude to Canterbury as the white Rhodesians had to the Queen.
They want to be in communion with a man who ordained active gays and graciously received Bishop robinson at Lambeth Palace, as the rightful Anglican bishop of New Hampshire.
Malcolm – it is only people who want to misunderstand who can say condoning behaviour which is “incompatible with scripture” is not ignoring scripture….. Robert – many in the CofE were against RW being made ABC by the current Labour government. You misunderstand if you think people are keen to be in communion with RW. Archbishops come and go, denominations also are not eternal but the word of God lives forever and so we pray and work for the church to stay faithful to the scriptures. What people care about is the CofE and the AC staying faithful to the… Read more »
“the AC staying faithful to the scriptures”
I’d rather the Anglican Church stay faithful to the Gospel, actually.
So, not only am I “ignoring scripture,” but apparently I’m lying about it as well. NP, you aren’t the pope. And even is your were, I wouldn’t care. It is now clear to me that you are not honest, and you are not prepared to engage with any integrity on this or any other issue. You stand convicted by your own arrogance and your own behaviour of being the troll others have suggested you are. There is an honest conservative case to be made. It is unfortunate that so few of the screaming horde of “conservative” demagogues – NP included… Read more »