Fort Worth Bishop Accuses Presiding Bishop of Unwelcome Meddling

April 30, 2008

The Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, has responded to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who urged a visiting primate to cancel a planned visit to Fort Worth. The Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, is scheduled to address a special convocation in Fort Worth May 2-3.

“Visiting a special convocation of the Diocese of Fort Worth with the expressed purpose of describing removal to the Province of the Southern Cone is an unprecedented and unwarranted invasion of, and meddling in, the internal affairs of this province,” Bishop Jefferts Schori wrote to Bishop Venables on April 29. “I ask you to consider how you might receive such a visit to your own province by a fellow primate. The actions contemplated by some leaders in Fort Worth are profoundly uncanonical. They also prevent needed reconciliation from proceeding within this province.”

Bishop Iker responded the following day. He described Bishop Jefferts Schori’s letter as rude. “Far from being ‘an unwanted interference,’ [Bishop Venables] is coming at my request as an honored visitor and guest speaker.” Bishop Iker reminded the Presiding Bishop that a diocesan bishop is free to make such invitations and accused her of being disingenuous. the rest

Bishop Iker's letter at Stand Firm