DioFort Worth Makes It Official--We have acceded to the Constitution and Canons of the ACNA and endorsed the Anglican Covenant

When the gavel fell bringing our 27th diocesan convention to an end about an hour ago the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth officially became a full member of the Anglican Church of North America, ending the de facto "provisional" member status we have had in ACNA since its Inaugural Assembly last June here at St. Vincent's Cathedral.

By a unanimous voice vote the convention committed us "to continued participation in the development of the Anglican Church in North America, acceding to the Constitution and Canons thereof during this process." At the same time, our diocese will also maintain "its status as a member diocese in the Province of the Southern Cone while the formal process of recognition of this new province continues in the Anglican Communion."

We also unanimously expressed our "readiness to adopt the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant (Ridley Cambridge Draft)" and our "solidarity with the Provincial Council of the Anglican Church in North America and the Communion Partner Bishops in North America in the hope that individual dioceses and other churches [Covenant 4.1.5] be encouraged to adopt the Anglican Covenant."

By another unanimous voice vote we also declared that we share "Metropolitan Jonah’s vision 'to live, to actualize, and to participate in the full integrity of the Catholic Church—the full integrity of Orthodox Catholicism,'" and communicated to "Metropolitan Jonah and the Orthodox Church in America [our] desire to work toward that full, visible, and sacramental unity that the Lord Jesus Christ desires in his prayer that 'they all may be one.'"

Finally, we also expressed our "deep gratitude" to Pope Benedict XVI for "his willingness to achieve full communion with Anglicans" and urged members of our diocese to study prayerfully his soon-to-be-released Apostolic Constitution on reception of Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church.

The full texts of the resolutions may be found by clicking the title of this blog entry. All of these resolutions were adopted without modification by unanimous voice vote.

Archbishop Dimitri of the Orthodox Church of America (pictured below with Bishop Iker--photo by S. Gill) brought us fraternal greetings on behalf of Metropolitan Jonah. He was warmly received, as was the representative of the Roman Catholic diocese.