Episcopal Presiding Bishop Helps North Texas Episcopalians Restructure Diocese

By Mary Ann Mueller in Fort Worth
Virtueonline Special Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
2/9/2009

FORT WORTH, TEXAS --- "The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fort Worth is open for business," declared The Rt. Rev. Edwin Gulick, the Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky and the new provisional bishop for the newly reshaped Episcopal diocese in north central Texas.

Saturday (Feb. 7), the North Texas Episcopalians gathered in Fort Worth to re-establish an official Episcopal presence in the part of Texas that spreads from the Oklahoma border to the Colorado River and from Fort Worth to Hubbard Creek Lake.

From Ft. Worth TEC 2009

Delegates to the North Texas Episcopalians conference gathered from all parts of the 24 counties crossing the Texas prairie for an opening Eucharist at All Saints Episcopal Church in order to be spiritually reunified with The Episcopal Church. These North Texas Episcopalians were unwillingly severed from The Episcopal Church when the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, under the spiritual and pastoral leadership of its bishop the Rt. Rev. Jack Iker, overwhelmingly and canonically voted in the November 2008 Diocesan Convention to realign with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas, an Anglican province more theologically in line with traditional orthodox Anglicanism.

Not everyone agreed with that decision and there has been open, and at times bitter, dissension since then. Saturday's conference gave the disenfranchised North Texas Episcopalians an opportunity to return to the spiritual care of The Episcopal Church -- one of 38 Anglican Communion provinces which span the globe. In fact, the Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, personally came down to help shepherd the fledging Texas flock back into her spiritual fold.

This action, too, brought a flurry of communiqués between the Presiding Bishop and Bishop Iker. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury got involved as the bishops and their canonical advisors sparred over Episcopal canon law and its implications and implementations.

As the North Texas Episcopalians met Saturday morning, there was a joyful spirit of anticipation and heightened expectation at the prospect of returning to their more progressive spiritual moorings, which are highlighted by more liberal and socially-driven aspects of the Gospel message.

Mrs. Jefferts Schori was the main celebrant of the Opening Eucharist. She was joined at the altar by many North Texas Episcopal priests and several visiting Episcopal bishops including Suffragan Bishop Paul Lambert, Episcopal Diocese of Dallas; Suffragan Bishop Rayford High, Episcopal Diocese of Texas; Bishop Larry Benfield, Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas; retired bishop Sam Hulsey, Episcopal Diocese of Northwest Texas, and Bishop Gulick.

There were also three vested women priests participating in the Eucharist including Maureen Lewis who is now serving several North Texas Episcopal parishes; Sandra Michaels from Indianapolis, who was formerly from the Diocese of Fort Worth and has pursued priestly ordination elsewhere; and Raelyn Scott, a clergywoman from the Reformed Catholic Church who engages in hospice ministry throughout the Forth Worth area.

The Presiding Bishop made harsh comments during her Eucharistic sermon.

"I'll warrant that there's a lot of anger and rage in this part of the Church right now," she said. "I suspect that it's been the norm here for a long time."

She accused the leadership of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth as being controlling while using fear mongering and intimidation to keep the people in line.

"I want you to think about where the rage in Fort Worth comes from," Ms. Jefferts Schori continued. "Anger and rage and violence and retribution will not heal the hurt."

Following the Opening Eucharist, the entire North Texas Episcopalians conference moved to Trinity Episcopal Church where the business of the assembly got underway.

Ms. Jefferts Schori found herself in a unique situation. When the entire Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth was realigned with the Southern Cone including the bishop and all of the Standing Committee and diocesan officers, no one was left canonically in place to call to order an organizational diocesan convention. The Episcopal Church canons are silent on whether or not a presiding bishop can call for a special diocesan convention and gavel it into order. Canons do not specifically say TEC primate may call for a diocesan convention but neither do they say she may not. The action is open for interpretation.

This same canonical silence sounded when the Episcopal dioceses of Fort Worth, Quincy, San Joaquin and Pittsburgh separately realigned with the Southern Cone. There are specific canons governing the uniting of a new diocese with The Episcopal Church, which is a confederation of more than 100 dioceses in the United States and several foreign countries. However, there are no canons in place which outline the separation of a diocese from the Foreign and Domestic Missionary Society, commonly known as The Episcopal Church. Again, silence speaks loudly.

The first order of business, after Mrs. Jefferts Schori gaveled the North Texas Episcopalians conference into order, was to determine if there was a quorum present. In all there were 61 lay delegates representing congregational members in 31 parishes, churches and missions in the north central Texas region including the following congregations: St. Alban and Sts. Peter & Paul, Arlington; St. Vincent, Bedford; Good Shepherd and St. John, Brownwood; Holy Comforter, Cleburne; All Saints, Christ the King; Holy Apostles, St. Andrew, St. Anne's, St. Barnabas, St. Christopher, St. Elisabeth, St. John, St. Luke-in-the-Meadow, St. Simon of Cyrene, and Trinity, all in Fort Worth.

Also: Good Shepherd, Granbury; St. Laurence, Grapevine; St. Mary, Hillsboro; St. Stephen, Hurst; Our Lady-of-the-Lake, Laguna Park; St. Gregory, Mansfield; St. Peter-by-the-Lake, Possum Kingdom; St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Southlake, St. Luke, Stephenville; All Saints, Weatherford; Good Shepherd and St. Stephen, Wichita Falls; and St. Francis of Assisi, Willow Park.

In addition, 27 North Texas Episcopalians clergy participated in the convention. Last week, Bishop Iker released 23 clergy from clerical roles in the realigned diocese including parish priests The Revs. Frederick Barber and William Taylor, III, Trinity Church; Christopher Jambor, All Saints; and William Stanford, St. Christopher all from Fort Worth; The Rev. Sam McClain, St. Luke, Stephenville; and The Rev. James Reynolds, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Southlake. Non-parochial priests released are: The Revs. Melvin Bridge, James Hazel and David Madison.

Retired diocesan priests include: the Revs. William Belury, Bruce, Coggin, Vernon Gotcher, Bertrand Honea, Jr., Walter Kesler, Alex Moffat, Courtland Moore, John Payne, Gayland Pool, Frank Reeves, and John Stanley, Jr. The deaconesses are; the Revs. Ms. Janet Nocher, Sharla Marks, and Susan Slaughter.

Bishop Iker's removal of the clergy desirous of dismissory release canonically freed them to be reincardinated into The Episcopal Church.

One of the most important events of the North Texas Episcopalians conference was the election of the Episcopal Bishop of Kentucky as the provisional bishop for the reshaped North Texas diocese. The Presiding Bishop nominated Bishop Gulick to his post. As there were no further nominations from the floor, he handily won the post through an almost unanimous vote with only one abstention.

Following the interim bishop's election, the Presiding Bishop formally presented the new provisional bishop to the assembly. With an emotion-edged voice, Bishop Gulick accepted his new Texas episcopal ministry. After that the Presiding Bishop relinquished her bishop's throne to Bishop Gulick so that he could take over the chairmanship of the conference.

However, the assembly was quick to remind the Kentucky bishop that his Louisville prelacy was his "other" diocese and that he would have to think in dualistic terms. He also sought his new diocesan convention's best wisdom as he set into motion the mechanics of reformulating the new diocese.

Other convention business included the restructuring of various Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth canons to bring them back into line with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church. Through the years, several canons had been rewritten and added to help facilitate the Diocese's successful secession to the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

The conference, too, adopted a $632,000-plus budget. The Episcopal Church is contributing $200,000 to the fledging North Texas diocese. So far, there are 14 pledging churches from the 31 congregations that sent conference delegates.

Other diocesan business included the election and placement of a standing committee, diocesan officers and committees; the election of General Convention Delegates; and the passage of several resolutions.

One on-going problem that looms largely is the duplicity of diocesan names. Legally, the "Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth" is under the civil leadership of Bishop Iker and is spiritually and canonically attached to the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. This particular diocese is a legal Texas corporation with incorporation papers listing Bishop Iker as the corporate head. Therefore, no other Texas entity can legally use the same name and identity. This legal standing is a position that the North Texas Episcopalians vehemently disagree with and they resolutely insist in using a deliberately confusing diocesan name for their own.

The newly established North Texas Episcopal diocese is not an on-going continuation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth which came into being in 1983 after amicably separating from the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. The new North Texas Episcopal diocese draws its history from the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, but it cannot share its name.

So when Bishop Gulick declared "The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fort Worth is open for business," his statement was a misnomer. Formally, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is not canonically attached to The Episcopal Church.

This is one of the problems Bishop Gulick is going to have to face as he takes over the leadership of the Fort Worth Episcopal diocese and as he reaches out to those in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth who seek to be reunited with The Episcopal Church.


---Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline