Diocese of Fort Worth council endorses realignment with Southern Cone province

The executive council of the Episcopal diocese of Fort Worth on Sept. 10 endorsed recommendations of Bishop Jack Iker and the standing committee to realign the diocese with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.With one dissenting vote, the Council passed a resolution, which came from Bishop Iker and the standing committee, calling for Fort Worth to become a “member diocese” of the Southern Cone “on a temporary, pastoral basis, until such time as an orthodox Province of the Anglican Communion can be established in North America.”The diocese of Fort Worth is expected to act upon the realignment proposal during its Nov.14 to 15 convention.The Southern Cone has about 22,000 members and encompasses Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Its provincial synod, meeting in Valpariso, Chile, Nov. 5 to 7, agreed to welcome into the province “on an emergency and pastoral basis” Episcopal Church dioceses “taking appropriate action to separate from The Episcopal Church.”Fort Worth’s last convention passed a resolution thanking the province for its invitation and asking the Fort Worth leadership for a report on “the constitutional and canonical implications and means of accepting this invitation.”Two previous reports endorsed the realignment, saying in part that “the structure and polity of the Province of the Southern Cone would afford our diocese greater self-determination than we currently have under the General Convention of The Episcopal Church.”The 2007 Fort Worth convention also gave the first of two approvals needed to amend its constitution and remove accession to the Constitution and Canons of General Convention, as well as several canonical amendments that eliminate mention of the Episcopal Church.The former leadership of the diocese of San Joaquin accepted the Southern Cone’s offer in December.The diocese of Pittsburgh is scheduled to consider the offer October 4, via Resolution One.Episcopalians who do not agree with the direction in which Bishop Iker and the rest of the diocesan leadership are headed have been gathering and exchanging information through a variety of organizations.