Two Texas bishops have expanded an 11-year-old plan for alternate episcopal oversight.

In place since 1996, the “Dallas Plan,” praised recently by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference, provides for women in the Diocese of Fort Worth who seek ordination to the priesthood to be referred to the Bishop of Dallas. Citing “pastoral concern” for one of his parishes, Bishop James M. Stanton of Dallas approached Bishop Jack Leo Iker of Fort Worth late last year to amend their agreement so that aspirants and parishes in Diocese of Dallas who do not approve the ordination of women might come under Bishop Iker’s episcopal care.

The expanded “Dallas/Fort Worth Plan” was conceived by the bishops this month and has been immediately implemented. St. Francis’ Church, Dallas, now is under Bishop Iker’s pastoral care. Under the agreement, the parish’s annual assessment will be divided equally between the dioceses. Its property continues to belong to the Diocese of Dallas.

“The primary advantage of this plan is that we are operating under the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church and the parish concerned remains within the family,” Bishop Stanton noted. “This permits stable ministry to be carried on within discernible Episcopalian and Anglican norms.”

Paragraph 1 of the agreement states, “Should a congregation of either the Diocese of Dallas or the Diocese of Fort Worth believe that there is impaired communion or an impaired relationship between them and their diocesan bishop, they may ask their bishop to arrange for episcopal pastoral care for them from the bishop of the other diocese.”

Both dioceses are members of the Anglican Communion Network. St. Francis’ is a Forward in Faith parish with about 200 members. The Rev. David M. Allen has been rector of St. Francis’ since 1993.

“People may think we’re extreme, but we’ve taken a much more modest approach than Christ Church, Plano, or St. Matthias,” Fr. Allen said, referring to two Diocese of Dallas parishes that have left The Episcopal Church in the past six months. “We don’t want to take such a radical step. We want to remain Episcopal and Anglican. Yet, as a result of events of the last few years, we have lost a quarter of the membership of our parish.

“We have great respect for Bishop Stanton,” Fr. Allen asserted, echoing the parish’s official request for alternate episcopal ministry. “It takes a lot of courage not to take [a thing like this] personally.” He said the rupture with the diocese goes back to the mid-1980s, when Bishop Donis D. Patterson began ordaining women to the priesthood.

“The timing of this decision had no reference to anything going on in the rest of the church,” Bishop Stanton said. “It seemed to be quite consistent with our previous agreement, and, indeed, with the DEPO [delegated episcopal pastoral oversight] arrangement in the House of Bishops. But it had nothing to do with anything external. It had to do with providing a pastorally sensitive response to the concerns of the parish in question.”

The original plan “has worked very well over the years,” Bishop Stanton said. Presently two parishes in Dallas have female rectors who began the discernment process under Bishop Iker. An additional provision of the plan, which would allow a Fort Worth parish calling a female rector to have oversight from Bishop Stanton, has never been implemented because no parish in Fort Worth has called a female priest.

The bishops have notified the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Panel of Reference of the amendments to the plan. The arrangement is similar to the “good-neighbor-bishop” solution that the panel recently recommended to the Diocese of Florida, Bishop Iker noted. In a March 26 announcement to his clergy, he said, “Bishop Stanton and I believe this is a very important step forward, and it provides a model for other parts of the church that remain divided on this issue.”

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