Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, primate of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, will make a pastoral visit to the Diocese of Fort Worth May 2-4.
 
The visit will include a specially called convocation of the 2008 annual convention delegates at St. Vincent’s Cathedral, Bedford, on May 3.
 
“The purpose of the convocation is to provide information,” according to a press release. “Archbishop Venables will answer questions from the delegates, but no legislation will be considered.”
 
Delegates to the 2007 diocesan convention called for a year-long process of discernment and took a number of provisional steps to leave The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Southern Cone. The visit by Bishop Venables is intended to “clarify the practicalities, benefits and possible drawbacks of such a move.”
 
In a statement given to The Living Church, Bishop Jack Leo Iker of Fort Worth said he was “disheartened” that to date he has been “unable to secure a future, safe place for this diocese within The Episcopal Church,” and “saddened by the fact that the HOB has been unwilling to make adequate provision for us in response to our appeal for alternative primatial oversight.”
 
Bishop Iker described the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church as a “toxic environment,” and said he will not be attending the meeting at Camp Allen March 7-16.
 
“In recent years I have increasingly dreaded the thought of attending another meeting of the House of Bishops of TEC,” he said. “For me, the small-group table discussions are places of hostile confrontation, not support and affirmation.”
 
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