Bishop Iker on the ACN meeting here
A REPORT ON THE ANNUAL MEETING OFTHE ANGLICAN COMMUNION NETWORK
April 22, 2005
The annual meeting of the Anglican Communion Network was held at St. Vincent’s Cathedral this past week, where the continuing theme was the importance of missionary outreach and the planting of new churches. There are 10 member dioceses of the Network, five geographical convocations, and a non-geographical convocation for members of Forward in Faith. Delegates to the meeting represented 800 clergy, 1,000 congregations, and over 190,000 communicants of the Episcopal Church. The Network was formed following actions of the 2003 General Convention that are contrary to the teaching of the worldwide Anglican Communion on sexual morality and the authority of Scripture.
The meeting expressed appreciation for the leadership of the Primates of the Anglican Communion in addressing the divisions we are facing over these issues and called upon the Episcopal Church "to repent of its actions which have alienated the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion." A message was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury imploring him immediately to organize the Panel of Reference called for by the Primates to help ensure the protection of beleaguered parishes and clergy of the Episcopal Church who find themselves in revisionist dioceses and are being persecuted for their orthodox views. In addition, delegates criticized the decision of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church to send a full delegation to the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council as "further evidence of the arrogance of the church and a direct refusal to comply with the letter and spirit of the Primates’ Communiqué" of February.
Special greetings were faxed to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, whose election was announced on the first morning of the Network meeting. As Cardinal Ratzinger, the new Pope had sent a special letter of encouragement and support to the inaugural meeting of the Network in Plano in 2003. This letter has been posted on our diocesan Web site.
In other actions, the Network pledged to support and stand by six congregations in the Diocese of Connecticut where the Bishop is attempting to remove the rectors because of the their orthodox positions and to continue to work to build formal relationships with the Anglican jurisdictions not currently in full communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury and to work for structural unity with them.
A Windsor Action Covenant was adopted to serve as a guide to those who are committed to remaining as faithful members of the Anglican Communion. You can read the Covenant and a Communiqué issued by the Network on our Web site.
Our diocese was represented by Dean Ryan Reed, Fr. Tom Hightower, Jo Ann Patton, and Walter Virden as delegates, and by Kay Stromberg, Judy Mayo, and Fr. Chris Cantrell as alternates. Any of them would be happy to come to your church to tell you more about the purpose and mission of the Network.
The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worth
April 22, 2005
The annual meeting of the Anglican Communion Network was held at St. Vincent’s Cathedral this past week, where the continuing theme was the importance of missionary outreach and the planting of new churches. There are 10 member dioceses of the Network, five geographical convocations, and a non-geographical convocation for members of Forward in Faith. Delegates to the meeting represented 800 clergy, 1,000 congregations, and over 190,000 communicants of the Episcopal Church. The Network was formed following actions of the 2003 General Convention that are contrary to the teaching of the worldwide Anglican Communion on sexual morality and the authority of Scripture.
The meeting expressed appreciation for the leadership of the Primates of the Anglican Communion in addressing the divisions we are facing over these issues and called upon the Episcopal Church "to repent of its actions which have alienated the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion." A message was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury imploring him immediately to organize the Panel of Reference called for by the Primates to help ensure the protection of beleaguered parishes and clergy of the Episcopal Church who find themselves in revisionist dioceses and are being persecuted for their orthodox views. In addition, delegates criticized the decision of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church to send a full delegation to the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council as "further evidence of the arrogance of the church and a direct refusal to comply with the letter and spirit of the Primates’ Communiqué" of February.
Special greetings were faxed to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, whose election was announced on the first morning of the Network meeting. As Cardinal Ratzinger, the new Pope had sent a special letter of encouragement and support to the inaugural meeting of the Network in Plano in 2003. This letter has been posted on our diocesan Web site.
In other actions, the Network pledged to support and stand by six congregations in the Diocese of Connecticut where the Bishop is attempting to remove the rectors because of the their orthodox positions and to continue to work to build formal relationships with the Anglican jurisdictions not currently in full communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury and to work for structural unity with them.
A Windsor Action Covenant was adopted to serve as a guide to those who are committed to remaining as faithful members of the Anglican Communion. You can read the Covenant and a Communiqué issued by the Network on our Web site.
Our diocese was represented by Dean Ryan Reed, Fr. Tom Hightower, Jo Ann Patton, and Walter Virden as delegates, and by Kay Stromberg, Judy Mayo, and Fr. Chris Cantrell as alternates. Any of them would be happy to come to your church to tell you more about the purpose and mission of the Network.
The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worth
posted by Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) | 5:59 PM
1 Comments:
Sorry for omitting to sign - I posted the above.
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