A titan of American Anglicanism has died

Bishop Iker was not a cowardly lion when it came to dealing with life threatening issues or The Episcopal Church’s and its descent into spiritual decay and its scorched earth method of ligation. Instead, he earned the moniker “The Lion of Fort Worth” for his ferocious defense of the faith and property.

“I stand before you as the most sued Anglican bishop in all of North America,” Bishop Iker said in 2010 when he told the United Kingdom’s Forward in Faith’s National Assembly being held in London, England.

“I’m presently named in three different suits in three different courts in two different counties … but all for the same offense … for standing firm for the historic faith and order of the undivided Church, and not allowing the Diocese of Fort Worth to compromise that by a relationship with the General Convention religion of The Episcopal Church,” the bishop explained. “As I’m in three suits, because I haven’t had access to the Internet today. There may be another one out there I haven’t heard about. I’ve been away from the office.”

When Bishop did check the Internet he learned he was indeed being sued a fourth time by All Saints Episcopal Church in the United States District Court for the “intentional and unauthorized use” of All Saints Episcopal Church’s name and service mark.

Jack Iker picks up his lionlike tenacity honestly from birth. His middle name is Leo — Latin for lion — which represents bravery and lion-heartedness. As a priest, and then bishop, he lived up to the attributes of his middle name.

The Fort Worth bishop was born on August 31, 1949 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He died just five weeks past his 75th birthday leaving behind his wife Donna, three daughters — Chrissy, Jenny, and Debby — five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

He was educated at the University of Cincinnati picking up a Bachelors of Art degree and at General Theological Seminary where he earned his Master of Divinity. He was ordained priest in 1974. Following a brief two-year curacy at St. George’s Church in Dayton, Ohio, he joined the clergy staff at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota, Florida.

He then served as the IX Rector of Redeemer from 1978 to 1993 when he left to become the III Bishop of Fort Worth following in the giant footsteps left by Bishop Clarence Pope (II Fort Worth).

This week Redeemer’s Facebook Page is flooded with messages and memories of their beloved former rector-turned-bishop with such sentiments as: “he was … a great guy … a great man … the best priest … an important rector at Redeemer … a great lion for the Lord … a good and faithful servant …God gets another beautiful soul … “

While at Redeemer Fr. Iker was very active in community ministry; he served as the founding president of Resurrection House (a center for ministry to the homeless); and was co-founder of the Caritas Ministry (an ecumenical program providing food and financial assistance to those in need). He served on many boards included the local YMCA, the First Step Alcoholism Treatment Center, and the Safe Place Rape Crisis Center in Sarasota.

On the diocesan level he became the Diocese of Southwest Florida Standing Committee president. He also represented the diocese at three General Conventions. He was a deputy in 1985, 1988, and 1991.

As a parish priest Fr. Iker was noted for his adherence to traditional Anglicanism. As bishop he was able to provide clarity and strong leadership for his diocese which was fighting to keep the male priesthood intact.

Fr. Iker’s churchwide involvement continued as bishop. He was a member of the Board of Trustees at Nashotah House in Wisconsin and Sewanee in Tennessee.

“We here in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth intend to be who we have always been, to believe what we have always believed, and to do what we have always done,” he told the 2008 diocesan convention. “We are not going away, nor are we abandoning anything. We are not leaving the Church — we are the Church. We will remain an orthodox diocese of catholic Christians, full members of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Above all else, we remain committed to serving and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ, upholding the authority of the Holy Scriptures as the revealed Word of God and our ultimate authority in all matters of faith, morals and doctrine.”

General Theological Seminary, Nashotah House and Sewanee all honored Bishop Iker with Doctor of Divinity degrees for his tenacity and devotion to the faith.

Bishop Iker had a tigress by the tail. The Episcopal Church had opened the priesthood to women and the contagion was spreading diocese by diocese through the church.

When Jack Iker was consecrated bishop coadjutor in April 1993 it was done amid protests and demonstrations supporting priestesses. The commotion was organized by Katie Sherrod, a Fort Worth feminist. Even one of the original Washington Five irregularly ordained Episcopal priestesses showed up to support the feminist agenda and push for women’s ordination in Fort Worth.

In 1999 the Final Four — Eau Claire, Quincy, San Joaquin and Fort Worth — were the only remaining Episcopal dioceses which did not ordain priestesses.

When Bishop William Wantland (IV Eau Claire) retired in 1999 the Diocese of Eau Claire quickly fell at the hands of Bishop Keith Whitmore (V Eau Claire) leaving Bishop John-David Schofield (IV San Joaquin); Keith Ackerman (VIII Quincy) and Bishop Iker to stem the tide.

The women’s invasion of the priesthood was the make or break issue for Bishops Iker, Ackerman and Schofield.

In 1989 Bishop Iker was instrumental in helping to form the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA) following the 1988 election of Barbara Harris as bishop suffragan in Massachusetts and the first bishopette in the Anglican Communion. ESA was a coalition of traditionalists who sought to maintain authentic historic Anglicanism in America. Its roots came from the Evangelical and Catholic Mission and its lasting legacy is Forward in Faith — North America (FiF-NA)

However, it was the election of Katherine Jefferts Schori as the Presiding Bishop which led Bishop Iker to petition Archbishop Canterbury Rowan Williams for alternative primatial oversight.

On the heels of Katherine Jefferts Schori’s election as the Episcopal Church’s top bishop nine dioceses — Fort Worth, Dallas, Quincy, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, South Carolina, Central Florida, and Springfield — were all seeking alternative primatial oversight from Canterbury.

“Her (Jefferts Schori) election signals continuation of the policies of the outgoing presiding bishop, namely support for the ordination of practicing homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions, practices which have divided the Episcopal Church, impaired our relationships with a majority of other provinces, and brought the Anglican Communion to the breaking point,” said Bishop Iker. “The fact that her ordination as a bishop is not recognized or accepted by a large portion of the Communion introduces an additional element of division and impairment.”

One by one the most traditional still-standing bishops led their dioceses out of the Episcopal Church into safer spiritual waters. The Diocese of San Joaquin left in 2007, followed by the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Quincy and Fort Worth in 2008. All realigning with the Southern Cone. Eventually the Diocese of South Carolina left in 2012 eventually landing in ACNA.

In 2008 Jefferts Schori deposed Bishop Iker for Abandonment of Communion. In 2010 Bishop Wallis Ohl (II TEC Fort Worth Provisional) deposed all 57 of Bishop Iker’s clergy — deacons and priests — for Abandonment of Communion.

In 2008 the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) was partially conceived at the first Global Anglican Futures Conference’s (GAFCON) in Jerusalem. Bishop Iker was one of the 291 bishops in attendance in addition to 1,148 clerical and lay delegates seeking to return to the historic roots of Christianity.

GAFCON’s 2008 Jerusalem Statement called for “the formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known as Common Cause Partnership to be recognized by the Primates’ Council of the Anglican Communion.”

ACNA officially came into being during the inaugural assembly in 2009 at St. Vincent’s in Bedford, Texas. Bishop Iker’s Diocese of Fort Worth was the host diocese and St. Vincent’s was the host cathedral for ACNA’s birthing process. Bishop Iker’s diocese along with the Episcopal dioceses of Pittsburgh, Quincy and San Joaquin are founding ACNA dioceses.

But it was the first provisional bishop of TEC’s rump Fort Worth diocese — Bishop Ted Gulick — who was the one who fired the initial volley in the long drawn-out 12 year legal war between the two Episcopal Dioceses of Fort Worth. Each laying claim to property, assets and corporate identity.

At one point, there were three different denominational “Dioceses of Fort Worth” — the Diocese of Fort Worth (TEC); the Diocese of Fort Worth (ACNA); and the Diocese of Fort Worth (Roman Catholic). It all got very confusing. The best way to figure out which diocese was which was to see who was the helm as bishop. TEC’s bishop was Scott Meyer (IV Fort Worth provisional); ACNA’s bishop was Jack Iker (III Fort Worth); and the Catholic bishop was Kevin Vann (III Fort Worth).

In 2020, the Texas Supreme Court awarded the legal name “The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth” to Bishop Iker’s group. At which point The Episcopal Church’s remnant Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth had to rebrand itself, thus becoming “The Episcopal Church in North Texas.” In 2022 TEC’s short-lived north Texas diocese eventually was folded into the much larger Diocese of Texas which is based in Houston.

However, it was on April 14, 2009 when Bishop Gulick filed amended documents with the Texas Secretary of State purportedly removing Bishop Iker as the registered agent of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and replacing him with James Hazel, a non-parochial Episcopal priest. The corporate operating address of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth was also changed.

It was this action which kick started Bishop Iker’s prolonged drawn out legal battle with the Episcopal Church. Katherine Jefferts Schori and her legal attack dog David Beers used the scorched earth method of litigation to try and break the back and the bank of Bishop Iker’s Diocese of Fort Worth. Ultimately that did not succeed.

David Booth Beers was the Presiding Bishop’s Chancellor and the Episcopal Church’s senior legal advisor. It was Beers who implemented the draconian churchwide legal strategy to protect Episcopal Church assets after disheartened congregations and dioceses sought to leave the church and take their property and assets with them.

Schori and Beers were taking no prisoners. In 2012 nine sitting and retired Episcopal bishops filed Amicus Curiae briefs with the courts supporting both the dioceses of Fort Worth and Quincy in their legal battles with the Episcopal Church. The sympathetic bishops were brought up on Title IV charges for their efforts. The friendly bishops included: Edward Salmon (XIII South Carolina); Peter Beckwith (X Springfield); Bruce McPherson (III West Louisiana); Maurice Benitez (VI Texas); John Howell (IV Central Florida); William Love (IX Albany Daniel Martins (XI Springfield); James Stanton (VI Dallas); and Paul Lambert (Dallas suffragan).

The bishops were forced to kowtow to the powers that be in the Episcopal Church over the Amicus briefs and they promised to be good boys and never to do it again.

Bishop Iker bent over backwards to provide an equitable avenue by which Episcopal congregations, which desired to remain with the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (The Episcopal Church), could implement and leave the Diocese of Fort Worth and retain all their property with church buildings and dignity intact.

Canon 32, in place since 2007, allows departing congregations to disaffiliate with the diocese yet keep their property. However, that compassionate approach was mostly rejected in favor of a no-holds-barred style litigation designed by David Beers to destroy Bishop Iker’s diocese.

However, a few congregations saw the wisdom in Canon 32 and willingly participated with Bishop Iker. They were able to successfully disengage from the Bishop Iker’s diocese, keep their buildings and reconnect with The Episcopal Church. Cooperating congregations included: Trinity Church, Fort Worth; St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Southlake; and St. Luke’s, Stephenville.

Bishop Iker had seen an earlier version of the canon successfully work. So Bishop Iker knew Canon 32 was workable if properly implemented.

In 1991 Bishop Iker’s predecessor, Bishop Clarence Pope (II Fort Worth), successfully used a similar canon to allow the entire congregation of St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church in Arlington to convert and become Roman Catholic and bring their cherished building with them into the Catholic Church. At that point the Episcopal parish became a Pastoral Provision Anglican Use Catholic congregation. Now St. Mary the Virgin Catholic Church is a flourishing Catholic parish and it is now a part of the Anglican ordinariate.

The litigation which started in 2009 with Bishop Gulick finally ended in 2021 when the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the Episcopal Church’s latest challenge to the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling which applied neutral principles of law in deciding property matters, this denuding the Episcopal Church’s Dennis Canon which claims that all property owned by a congregation is in fact real estate of the diocese because the Episcopal Church has a fiduciary trust to keep the property even if the congregation is disaffiliated.

From 2009 until the U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in, rulings for and against Bishop Iker were batted about like a volleyball.

The Episcopal Church in North Texas’ spokesperson Katie Sharrod claimed the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Bishop Iker was politically motivated.

In the end, after many days in court, Bishop Iker’s diocese received $100 million in assets, real property, and the corporate identity. But it was a hard-fought legal battle through many courtrooms. Starting in 2011 when the Tarrant County District Court initially ruled against Bishop Iker and his diocese.

“Judge John Chupp of the 141st District Court told Iker’s group to ‘surrender all Diocesan property as well as control of the Diocese Corporation’ to local Episcopalians who remained loyal to the U.S. Episcopal Church. He also told those in Iker’s group ‘not to hold themselves out as leaders of the Diocese,’” VOL reported.

Bishop Iker appealed the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court which overturned the Tarrant County District Court’s first ruling in 2013 sending the case back to that same court to determine who has legal claim on the property, assets and control of the legal corporation.

In 2015 after rethinking his original decision Judge Chupp issued a new ruling granting the property to Bishop Iker’s diocese.

Then the Episcopal Church appealed to the Second Court of Appeals in 2018 which overturned Judge Chupp’s second decision granting contested property to Bishop Iker giving the contested property back to the Episcopal Church.

As a response Bishop Iker appealed to the Texas Supreme Court which in 2020 overturned the appellate court and reinstated Judge Chupp’s ruling in favor of Bishop Iker’s diocese. He gets to keep the properties in question.

The Episcopal Church approached the United States Supreme Court seeking to overturn the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling. The highest court of the land declined to hear the case thus allowing the final Texas Supreme Court’s decision to stand. The long road to the US Supreme Court which started in 2009 effectively ended the battle for buildings in Fort Worth.

Five churches would be released to Bishop Iker’s diocese including St. Christopher’s, St. Luke in the Meadow, St. Elizabeth & Christ the King, All Saints, and St. Stephen’s.

Unfortunately, the Episcopal Church did not play nice in relinquishing the contested churches.

“Shortly before the Episcopalians had to vacate the church buildings, its members and contractors began stripping, packing, and moving out all the personal property they could,” VOL reported in 2021. “They removed altars, pews, crosses, Communion vessels, vestments, office furnishings, Bibles, library books, church music, software for the HVAC system, and every knife, fork, spoon and spatula in the kitchen.”

The contentious prolonged litigation took its toll on Bishop Iker.

“The litigation is just debilitating,” Bishop Iker told the Texas Monthly. ” … emotionally and spiritually.”

In 2018 Bishop Iker contracted lymphoma. He powered through the first bout with grit and determination undergirded by the love and prayers of his people. Yet he continued to lead his diocese, deal with weighty legal matters, receive aggressive medical cancer treatment, conduct the election of his successor and still overcome the cancer in his body.

But in 2019 it was announced that he had beaten the scourge.

Also, in 2019 Ryan Reed was elected the bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Fort Worth. In September Bishop Iker participated in the consecration of his successor along with Foley Beach (II ACNA); Keith Ackerman (VIII Quincy) and William Wantland (IV Eau Claire).

Now the Episcopal Church dioceses of Eau Claire, Quincy, and Fort Worth are no longer. They each have become a footnote in Episcopal church history.

Since their retirements both Bishops Ackerman and Wantland have been instrumental in assisting Bishop Iker in his far-flung Fort Worth diocese. Both men have cope, mitre and crozier and will travel to provide episcopal sacramental care.

On New Year’s Eve Bishop Iker humbly laid his crozier on the altar and stepped into a well-earned retirement after 45 years as a priest and 26 years as a bishop. Bishop Reed was enthroned as the newest bishop of Fort Worth during the first week of 2020.

“His (Bishop Iker) stance for the biblical Christian faith made him either a hero, both within our church or even within ecumenical circles, where he had good relationships, or it made him despised, depending on the perspective of the audience,” Bishop Reed told the Fort Worth Report. “He didn’t back down from what we’ve received in terms of Biblical faith.”

But by the summer of 2024 it was announced that Bishop Iker’s cancer had returned. He entered hospice in August. He was called home to the Lord on October 5.

Through it all Bishop Iker never wavered from his Biblical stance and remained loyal to his Anglican rootedness even in retirement, a time when other former Episcopal bishops left the Episcopal Church to swim the Tiber including his predecessor Clarence Pope (II Fort Worth); as well as John Lipscomb (IV Southwest Florida); Jeffrey Steenson (VIII Rio Grande); and Daniel Herzog (VIII Albany).

Bishop Iker’s funeral arrangements include a planned visitation from 5 until 7 pm which is to be held on Thursday (Oct. 10) at his cathedral — St. Vincent’s in Bedford.

His Requiem Mass is also to be held at St. Vincent’s Cathedral on Friday (Oct. 11) at 2 O’clock.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas.

A titan of American Anglicanism has died
Bishop Jack Iker has completed his earthly journey

By Mary Ann Mueller
VOL Special Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
October 10, 2024

News broke over the weekend (Oct. 5) that ACNA Bishop Jack Iker (III Fort Worth) has died just weeks after his 75th birthday. He was one the founding bishops of the Anglican Church in North America and a powerful force which helped keep the Diocese of Fort Worth from sliding into hypocrisy and remain laser focused on the Faith Once Delivered to the Saints.

“We are taking a stand for the historic faith and practice of the Bible, as we have received them, and against the continuing erosion of that faith by the Episcopal Church,” Iker proclaimed in a 2008 newsletter.

Former Fort Worth Bishop Iker has succumbed to cancer. He died Saturday (Oct. 5) after losing to a second bout of lymphoma which he initially overcame in 2019.