You are here
Former Episcopal Bishop Jack Iker ignored by Episcopal Church in death
Lack of Episcopal Church respect for one of its own is telling
By Mary Ann Mueller
VOL Special Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
October 16, 2024
Retired Bishop Jack Iker (III Fort Worth) died on October 5. To date the Episcopal Church has yet to make mention of a godly man who for 34 years labored in the Episcopal Church vineyard -- 19 years as an Episcopal priest followed by 15 years (1993-2008) as a sitting Episcopal bishop. Nor have I seen any member of the Episcopal House of Bishops pay their respects to a brother bishop at his passing.
However, several former parishioners from Sarasota's Episcopal Church of the Redeemer flooded the Florida church's Facebook with messages, memories, and sentiments for their beloved former rector -- Fr. Jack Iker even as Hurricane Milton was taking bead on the Florida Gulf Coast.
Fr. Iker was plucked from the Redeemer's pulpit after serving the parish as its rector for 15 years (1978-1993) to become the III Bishop of Fort Worth following in the footsteps of Bishop Clarence Pope (II Fort Worth).
Bishop Iker may have had serious theological differences with the Episcopal Church over women's ordination and engaged in a decade-long battle over buildings, but that does not negate the three-plus decades of sacerdotal faithfulness serving in Episcopal Church trenches.
But Bishop Iker's predecessor Bishop Clarence Pope was not forgotten in death by the Episcopal Church, even though he had the shortest episcopal reign in Fort Worth history (8 years) and had left the Episcopal Church a time or two waffling between the Episcopal Church and the Church of Rome.
On January 7, 2012 Bishop Pope died. Two days later on January 9 the Episcopal News Service posted the headline: "Former Bishop Pope dies in Baton Rouge surrounded by wife, family."
It was followed by a complete story about Bishop Pope's passing complete with funeral arrangements, a full biography and obituary, even though Bishop Pope had left the Episcopal Church twice to become Roman Catholic.
Soon after retiring as the II Bishop of Fort Worth Bernard Cardinal Law received Bishop Pope and his wife, Martha, into the Roman Catholic Church.
But the fit was not as Bishop Pope hoped for and he temporarily returned to the Episcopal Church and was reinstated into the House of Bishops. But he again left to re-enter the Catholic Church.
Bishop Pope continued to struggle with his place in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. His heart was Anglican but his soul was Catholic. He lived that tension for the rest of his life struggling to be faithful to the spiritual path God had laid out for him.
Yet when he died, he was fondly remembered by the Episcopal Church (TEC), the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), and the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).
Bishop Pope's funeral was at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he served as rector for 21 years and he was ultimately buried at Grace Episcopal Church in St. Francisville, Louisiana.
Twelve years later Bishop Jack Iker also died. But the Episcopal Church has made no mention of his passing.
The Episcopal News Service hasn't posted word one about the former Episcopal bishop's death, nor has the remnant of the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Fort Worth made mention of the passing of its former bishop.
The Episcopal Church rebranded its Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth into the Episcopal Church in North Texas and then that was scooped into the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.
However The Episcopal Diocese of Texas North Region's webpage still maintains Bishop Pope's old news obituary: "Clarence Pope, second bishop of Fort Worth, dies." But no mention is made of Bishop Iker's most recent death.
Although in charity Bishop Scott Mayer (IV TEC Fort Worth Provisional) asked for prayers for Bishop Jack Iker as he battled his initial onset of lymphoma in 2018.
However, The Living Church, an Episcopal-based news magazine, did post an obituary simply entitled: "Bishop Jack Leo Iker (1949-2024)" written by Douglas LeBlanc. His is the only mention by an Episcopalesque publication of Bishop Iker's death.
LeBlanc is listed as The Living Church's Associate Editor for Book Reviews and he writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife attend St. John's Parish Church on Johns Island, an ACNA Parish in South Carolina.
On October 11, Bishop Iker's funeral was held at his diocesan cathedral -- St. Vincent's in Bedford, Texas. A total of 13 ACNA and Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) bishops dressed in mitre and cope or rochet and chimere came to pay respects to their brother bishop. They were some of the upper echelons of the growing Anglican Church in North America College of Bishops including: Archbishop Robert Duncan (I ACNA); Bishop William Wantland (IV Eau Claire); and Bishop Keith Ackerman (VIII Quincy) all who also sat with Bishop Iker in the Episcopal House of Bishops.
Also attending Bishop Iker's funeral rites were: Archbishop Steve Wood (III ACNA); REC Presiding Bishop Ray Sutton; Bishop Ryan Reed (IV Fort Worth); Bishop Eric Menees (V San Joaquin); Bishop Clark Lowenfield (I Western Gulf Coast); Bishop Allen Kevin (I Cascadia); Bishop Julian Dobbs (I Living Word); Bishop Steven Breedlove (I Christ Our Hope); William Atwood (I international); and Bishop Charlie Camlin (REC suffragan).
Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline
