Forth Worth takes option on overseas oversight

Ed: This is the 'phrase that pays' from the statement referred to below:

Every attempt to find “an American solution to an American problem” has failed. Following the two meetings in New York and the House of Bishops’ rejection of the Primates’ proposed Pastoral Council at their March meeting, it now seems clear that there is no desire on the part of the present TEC leadership to provide an acceptable form of Alternative Primatial Oversight within The Episcopal Church.

The Presiding Bishop of this church has refused to accept the key recommendations of the Windsor Report, has failed to seek implementation of the essential requests of the Dar es Salaam Communiqué, and has denied basic tenets of the teaching of the New Testament. By her statements and actions, the course she wishes to pursue is clear: to lead TEC to walk apart from the Anglican Communion. This is a course we cannot follow. For all these reasons and others, we do not wish to be affiliated with her, nor with anyone she may appoint or designate to act on her behalf.

So where does this leave the Diocese of Fort Worth’s appeal for APO?

While we remain open to the possibility of negotiation and some form of acceptable settlement with TEC, it appears that our only option is to seek APO elsewhere. This may entail a cooperative effort with other appellant dioceses in consultation with Primates of the Anglican Communion, to form a new Anglican Province of the Communion in North America. A second possibility would be for the diocese to transfer to another existing Province of the Anglican Communion. Athird possibility would be to seek the status of an extra-provincial diocese, under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, as presently recognized in several other cases.

We believe that we must now explore these possibilities.

The executive council of the Diocese of Fort Worth on May 16 adopted a statement of the diocesan standing committee, which met two days earlier, calling for the diocese to move forward with its appeal for alternative primatial oversight (APO).

“While we remain open to the possibility of negotiation and some form of acceptable settlement with [The Episcopal Church], it appears that our only option is to seek APO elsewhere,” the statement said.

The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, and the standing committee of the diocese appealed for APO in June 2006. The appeal was endorsed by the diocesan executive council in September and by the diocesan convention in November. The APO requests from Ft. Worth and other appellant dioceses were presented to the primates’ meeting in February. Read more