"Stand Firm" Interviews Bishop Iker
The orthodox Anglican blog Stand Firm has published an interview with the Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker, bishop of Fort Worth. One highlight:
Bishop Iker: So far we Americans have had very little success in settling things amongst ourselves! That’s why seven dioceses (and I think there will be others) have appealed to the Archbishop for alternative primatial oversight. We need an intervention. We need the help and support of the whole Anglican Communion to address the crisis American revisionists have created. Yet the Archbishop is not a pope, and he cannot impose a solution upon us. Our problem is rooted in the fact that we have acted like an independent protestant sect, while historically we have considered ourselves a province of the whole Catholic Church. This is part of our objection to the revisionist agenda. It treats the Episcopal Church as just one church among many - a church that can decide whatever it wants, no matter what others think. The Network, on the other hand, believes in submission to the consensus of Christians throughout the world, Anglicans first, but then the whole of Christendom. We uphold the biblical faith of the undivided church. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the key instrument of unity in the Anglican Communion, and it is his responsibility to hold the Communion together in this biblical faith. This means that he will have to use his influence to intervene in disputes within provinces such as the Episcopal Church. Neither he nor any other primate can compel the Episcopal Church to act differently than we have, but Canterbury does have the power and right to say who is Anglican and who is not - a power exercised by his prerogative to decide who should be invited to the Lambeth Conference of Bishops. The revisionist bishops know this, and it causes them no small amount of concern. When the Archbishop is ready to act, he will find the Windsor and Network bishops as strong allies.
Another noteworthy statement by the good bishop:
I have already said to my colleagues in the Network that I am not willing to allow the most timid of Windsor bishops to determine the course that the Diocese of Fort Worth will take in the future.
Bishop Iker: So far we Americans have had very little success in settling things amongst ourselves! That’s why seven dioceses (and I think there will be others) have appealed to the Archbishop for alternative primatial oversight. We need an intervention. We need the help and support of the whole Anglican Communion to address the crisis American revisionists have created. Yet the Archbishop is not a pope, and he cannot impose a solution upon us. Our problem is rooted in the fact that we have acted like an independent protestant sect, while historically we have considered ourselves a province of the whole Catholic Church. This is part of our objection to the revisionist agenda. It treats the Episcopal Church as just one church among many - a church that can decide whatever it wants, no matter what others think. The Network, on the other hand, believes in submission to the consensus of Christians throughout the world, Anglicans first, but then the whole of Christendom. We uphold the biblical faith of the undivided church. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the key instrument of unity in the Anglican Communion, and it is his responsibility to hold the Communion together in this biblical faith. This means that he will have to use his influence to intervene in disputes within provinces such as the Episcopal Church. Neither he nor any other primate can compel the Episcopal Church to act differently than we have, but Canterbury does have the power and right to say who is Anglican and who is not - a power exercised by his prerogative to decide who should be invited to the Lambeth Conference of Bishops. The revisionist bishops know this, and it causes them no small amount of concern. When the Archbishop is ready to act, he will find the Windsor and Network bishops as strong allies.
Another noteworthy statement by the good bishop:
I have already said to my colleagues in the Network that I am not willing to allow the most timid of Windsor bishops to determine the course that the Diocese of Fort Worth will take in the future.
posted by Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) | 3:32 PM
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