Jack Iker, founder of ACNA and former bishop, dies at the age of 75

Jack Iker, a former bishop who led his Texas diocese to leave the Episcopal Church over its support for same-sex marriage and helped found the Anglican Church in North America, has died at the age of 75.

According to The Forth Worth Report, Iker died on Saturday, and the retired bishop is survived by his wife, Donna Iker, three daughters and four grandchildren.

priest Mark Polley, rector and dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Vincent in Bedford, Texas, expressed his condolences on his Facebook account, calling the deceased bishop “an amazing example of a pious man faithfully living the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“God only knows how many people he positively influenced with his faith, courage, steadfastness, but perhaps most of all, his love for those in his care and his sense of humor about the goodness of this life,” Polley wrote.

“To say he is loved and will be missed would be a huge understatement. Rest well, Bishop. “I cannot thank you enough for your ministry and your years of love and support, both personally and globally in Anglicanism.”

Born in 1949 and a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Iker served as rector of a church in Florida before being consecrated coadjutor bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth in April 1993. Then, on January 1, he became bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth. , 1995.

Iker, a theological conservative, joined most of the diocese’s clergy and lay representatives in voting to leave the Episcopal Church in November 2008 over the denomination’s theologically liberal direction.

Iker is credited with co-founding the Anglican Church in North America, a theologically conservative denomination that became home to many Episcopal congregations that left the mainline liberal Protestant church.

However, the national religion refused to recognize the dismissal, which led to several years of dispute over which party was the rightful owner of the property and signs of the diocese.

In May 2020, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the breakaway group, finding that it had assets worth approximately $100 million, not domestic assets.

A few months earlier, in December 2019, Iker retired as bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth and was succeeded by Fr. Reverend Ryan S. Reed.

Iker previously battled cancer in 2018 while still serving as bishop, ultimately surviving the battle and was declared “cancer-free” by May 2019 after treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

In early August, on Bishop Jacek Leo Iker’s Facebook page, his family published a short statement explaining that “Bishop Iker had a recurrence of cancer that metastasized” and noted that he was entering hospice.

“He was a pastor,” Bishop Reed said of Iker, as quoted by The Fort Worth Report. “His first loyalty was to the clergy and their families. If you did something wrong, he would discipline you, but the goal was to fix you out of love or hold you accountable.”