Court Admits Third Parties, Sets New Hearing Date

The following Press release is from the Bishop's Office.  Again we have good news for our Diocese.  Click on this web site to give you legal clarification about what happened today.

FORT WORTH, Texas - In a hearing this morning in the141st District Court, Judge John Chupp granted the Diocese's motions for leave to file a third-party petition and for continuance (postponement) of further proceedings until January 2010. The diocese's motion for reconsideration of the Sept. 16 order on a Rule 12 motion, was not granted.

Having determined that attorneys representing both parities were present by 8:30 a.m., the judge began the hearing early.

In the absence of any objection by the plaintiffs' attorneys, the continuance was granted, moving the date for the hearing on Plaintiffs' Motion for Partial Summary Judgment in the case from Oct. 15, 2009, to Jan. 22, 2010. Counsel for both sides agreed this period was necessary for discovery, the process of collecting evidence and depositions.

The favorable ruling on the third-party motion, which has been before the court since its first hearing on Sept. 9, brings eight persons into the suit as third-party defendants: the Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick, Margaret Mieuli, Walter Cabe, Anne T. Bass, the Rev. J. Frederick Barber, the Rev. Christopher Jambor, the Rev. David Madison, and Kathleen Wells. They are, respectively, the Provisional Bishop, Standing Committee, and Chancellor for the group of Episcopalians wishing to remain in The Episcopal Church following the diocese's realignment at its November 2008 convention.

Shelby Sharpe, representing the diocese, argued for reconsideration of Judge Chupp's previous Rule 12 order, which found that there are two dioceses and two corporations in the suit. In a memorandum submitted to the court on Oct. 1, he showed that the plaintiffs already had conceded in their original petition that there is only one Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, and he cited Texas case law requiring such admission to be binding.

Judge Chupp denied reconsideration of the previous Rule 12 order saying, "I would prefer we spend our time and resources on what happened at the November election." He adjourned the hearing shortly after, saying, "I hope to see you all soon on another motion."

Additional information, transcripts of the previous hearings, and documents filed with the court are available online at fwepiscopal.org.

Bishop Iker expressed his thanks to those who prayed and fasted this morning and encouraged their continued prayers for God's guidance and sovereign care over all these matters.

Respect Life Sunday is October 4th.

Anglicans for Life join with the Roman Catholic Bishops in the United States in setting aside Sunday, October 4th as Respect Life Sunday.

Respect Life Sunday, this year celebrated on October 4 is set aside to reflect with gratitude on God’s priceless gift of human life. It is also an occasion to examine how well we, as a nation and individually, are living up to our obligation to protect the rights of those who, due to age, dependency, poverty or other circumstances, are at risk of their very lives.

Pray for God's guidance in this matter and then be open to His leading. 

And let us always remember that respect for life and being "pro-life" means much more then standing against abortion.  It means supporting the dignity and sacred nature of human life from conception to natural death.

Anglicans for Life is the only Anglican/Episcopal, pro life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia, protecting embryos from research abuse, and promoting abstinence and adoption. We believe that, as Christians, we must follow God's biblical call to uphold the sanctity of every human life from conception to natural death. Check out their web site.

Faith gives joy!

Faith gives joy.  When God is not there, the world becomes desolate, and everything becomes boring, and everything is completely unsatisfactory.  It's easy to see today how a world empty of God is also increasingly consuming itself, how it has become a wholly joyless world.  The great joy comes from the fact that there is this great love, and that is the essential message of faith.  You are unswervingly loved.  This also explains why Christianity spread first predominantly among the weak and the suffering.  To that extent it can be said that the basic element of Christianity is joy... it is joy in the proper sense.  A joy that exists together with a difficult life and also makes this life liveable...

Faith also makes man light.  To believe means that we become like angles.  We can fly, because we no longer weigh so heavely in our own estimation.  To become a believer means to become light, to escape our own gravity, which drags us down, and thus to enter the weightlessness of faith...

Christians are not promised an "exterior" happiness but rather a deep interior security through communion with the Lord.  That Jeus is an ultimate light of happiness in one's life is in fact a part of all of this...  We are so alienated from God's voice that we simply do not recognize it immediately as His.  But I would still say that everyone who is in some sense attentive can experience and sense for himself that now He is speaking to me.  And it is a chance for me to get to know him.  Percisely in catastrophic situations He can suddenly break in, if I am awake and if someone helps me decipher the message.

Prayer and Fasting on Friday, October 2nd.

I am inviting everyone in the Diocese to join me in a morning of fasting and prayer this Friday, Oct. 2nd, as Judge John Chupp considers three motions we have put before him in the 141st District Court. The hearing begins at 9 a.m. on the fourth floor of the Family Law Center, located at 200 E. Weatherford Street (one block east of the old court house, on the south side of the street).

In the first motion the Diocese is asking leave to file a third-party petition against the persons elected as provisional bishop and as members of the Standing Committee at a meeting held on Feb. 7, 2009. This is to bring before the court those persons who have authorized the suit against the Diocese and the Corporation Trustees in order to determine the legitimacy of their election.

In the second motion the Diocese and the Corporation Trustees request that the Plaintiffs' Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (scheduled for Oct. 15) be postponed (in legal parlance, continued) until such time that all parties are in the suit and that a reasonable time for investigation of the facts has been established.

The last motion requests that the Court correct its Rule 12 ruling of Sept. 16 so that it will permit the local Plaintiff attorneys, Jonathan D. F. Nelson and Kathleen Wells, to represent only the people who have hired them, not the Diocese and the Diocesan Corporation.

Pray especially for wisdom and guidance for our attorney, Shelby Sharpe, and for clarity and truth in the decisions of the Court.

The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worth
Sept. 29, 2009
Feast of St. Michael and All Angels