ACNA'09: New Anglican church will benefit former Episcopalians, Iker says

By Jim Jones
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
June 26th, 2009

The new Anglican Church in North America will give former Episcopalians new confidence and pride in being Anglicans, Jack Iker, bishop of a Fort Worth group that has left the Episcopal Church, declared Wednesday.

"Over the last 30 years, our members have winced or shuddered when they saw a story about the Episcopal Church in the public press," he said, "because it has usually been about some scandal or outrageous thing one of our leaders has said or done."

Iker said the new Anglican body "gives mainstream clergy and laity a chance to recover confidence and enthusiasm in being an Anglican Christian."

The new Anglican body, he said, will concentrate on planting churches and winning converts.

"So it's good to be a part of something that accentuates that part of Anglicanism . . . and being a biblical missionary group among the united people of God," he said.

Iker spoke at a news conference Wednesday evening at Christ Church in Plano before the consecration of Robert Duncan, the former Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh, as the archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America.

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