Fort Worth Diocese
splits
from Episcopal Church
By SAM HODGES, from
the Web November 15, 2008
The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth
broke away from the Episcopal Church on Saturday, becoming the fourth U.S.
diocese to withdraw since late last year.
Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker championed the move, arguing that the Episcopal
Church has strayed from orthodox Christian faith through allowing women priests
and approving an openly gay bishop.
“The Episcopal Church we once knew no longer exists. It’s been hijacked,”
Bishop Iker said.
Clergy and lay delegates, by about an 80 percent margin, voted Saturday morning
to withdraw from the Episcopal Church at the diocese's annual convention, held
in a packed school gym in Bedford.
They later voted to align with a conservative, Argentina-based province of the
worldwide Anglican Communion.
Bishop Iker has said that five to six of the diocese’s 55 churches, and perhaps
4,000 of its 19,000 congregants, will remain with the Episcopal Church.
A legal showdown with the Episcopal Church is likely over church buildings and
other assets
The Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church,
released the following statement Saturday:
“The Episcopal 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.”
'It's like getting a divorce'
The conflict is hitting home with parishioners. Lanette Carpenter of St.
Stephen's Episcopal Church in Hurst doesn't agree with everything the Episcopal
Church does. But she can't say enough about the people at her church,
especially choir members she has sung with for years.
"They've walked with me through the best and worst times of my life," she said.
Ms. Carpenter she loves her church and doesn't want to leave.
So on Sunday, she and other Episcopal Church loyalists from St. Stephen's plan
to hold services at a local women's club.
"It's like a man and woman getting a divorce, and now they have to have two
households," she said. "It saddens me greatly."
The 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church and other mainline denominations have
long struggled over what is the true Christian approach on social issues.
The fight has come to a head among Fort Worth Episcopalians, dividing
congregations and setting up a legal showdown.
"We no longer see a secure future in the Episcopal Church as traditional
believers," he said.
Women as priests
Evidence of the conflict is perhaps best seen in the issue of female priests.
The Episcopal Church officially permitted female priests in 1976, and the
Diocese of Dallas had its first in 1985. But the Fort Worth Diocese still
hasn't had one.
"It's a departure from the biblical witness," Bishop Iker said, noting that
Jesus chose 12 male apostles, "and from the historical practice of the church."
The Episcopal Church decided in 1997 that dioceses must allow female priests.
Though that hasn't been enforced in Fort Worth, Bishop Iker is sure the
Episcopal Church would eventually force the diocese to comply.
As more evidence of a church galloping down a liberal, nonbiblical path, Bishop
Iker points to the 2003 decision by top church leaders to allow an openly gay
bishop (the Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire) and the 2006 election of a
woman as presiding bishop (the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori).
"We're not leaving the Episcopal Church," he said, echoing Ronald Reagan's quip
about the Democratic Party. "The Episcopal Church has left us."
But many within the Fort Worth Diocese support the national church's direction
as showing Christian acceptance and justice to women and gays. Or they at
least believe the Episcopal Church remains a big tent under which people of
different views can worship and serve together.
Katie Sherrod argues that under Bishop Iker and his predecessors, the Fort Worth
Diocese has become a refuge for priests who oppose women's ordination and take
every chance to criticize the Episcopal Church.
"There's been this huge disinformation campaign," said Ms. Sherrod, a Fort Worth
writer active in local groups advocating loyalty to the Episcopal Church.
"Voices that would offer a counterpoint have not been heard."
Ms. Sherrod points to Bishop James Stanton of the Diocese of Dallas as a
conservative leader who, after a survey and listening tour of the diocese,
decided against secession.
Bishop Stanton, who has sided with Bishop Iker in many church controversies,
said that 80 percent of his parishioners had concerns about the direction of the
national church. But 80 percent of them weren't troubled enough to want to
leave.
The Dallas Diocese has seen some conservative churches leave on their own,
including the large, influential Christ Church in Plano. But Bishop
Stanton is disinclined to follow the lead of his close friend Bishop Iker.
"We're not going anywhere," Bishop Stanton said. "If I've heard it said
once, I've heard it said a thousand times: You don't win a battle by
leaving the battlefield."
Costly decision
Both sides in Fort Worth say the breakaway will be costly.
The churches expected to stay in the Episcopal Church include All Saints' Church
in Fort Worth, the diocese's largest congregation and financial contributor.
Of the churches following Bishop Iker, a handful such as St. Stephen's have
contingents loyal enough to the Episcopal Church to have established separate
congregations. They're bringing in priests, renting space and accepting
prayer books and other worship service items donated by Episcopal churches
around the country.
All told, Bishop Iker said, as many as 4,000 of the diocese's 19,000 congregants
may remain with the Episcopal Church. He also expects the Episcopal Church
will do with Fort Worth what it has done with other breakaway dioceses -–
organize a replacement leadership and sue to retain church buildings and other
assets.
Bishop Iker predicts a negotiated settlement but acknowledges that it could be a
long time coming.
Eventually, he said, a unified, orthodox Anglican diocese in Fort Worth is
likely to flourish. Regardless, he's sure of his role as defender of the
faith.
"I sometimes tell people that God is not elected," he said, "nor is the
Christian faith determined by majority votes."
samhodges@dallasnews.com
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