Episcopalian realignment vote will affect local church properties

By Ann Work
Friday, November 14, 2008

A vote this weekend will determine where Wichita Falls’ Episcopalians sit in church Sunday.
Disagreements that have been festering for years in the Episcopal Church will be addressed today and Saturday at the annual convention of the Diocese of Fort Worth at St. Vincent’s Cathedral in Bedford, Texas.

The published agenda includes a vote on a constitutional amendment that would remove the Fort Worth diocese — including its church property in the diocese — from the Episcopal Church and tuck it under the South American-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, a realignment under the branch of the church that is headquartered in Argentina.

Who will own the actual buildings in Wichita Falls — All Saints Episcopal at 2606 Southwest Parkway, Church of the Good Shepherd at 1007 Burnett, and St. Stephen’s Episocopal Church at 5023 Lindale Drive near Rider High School — is in question and may require a court to decide, officials say.

The Very Rev. Scott Wooten, who favors the move, said his parishioners are not leaving the Episcopal Church but realigning themselves under the Archbishop Gregory Venebles, who supports a set of traditional beliefs, such as the inerrancy of the Bible, the divinity of Christ, and that the Bible says homosexuality is sin. the rest