Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (ACNA) bishop. Following the vote of diocesan convention to leave the Episcopal Church, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, declared that Bishop Iker was inhibited from exercising his office as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, on the grounds that he had violated Title IV, Canon 9, by abandoning the Doctrine, Discipline or Worship of the Church. In response, Iker rejected the authority of the Presiding Bishop. Thus, the Presiding Bishop, on December 5, with the advice and consent of her Council of Advice (bishops who are the presidents or vice-presidents of each province), deemed that Iker
Episcopal conference of episcopal conferences are currently governed by the 1983 Code of Canon Law (see especially canons 447-459) In addition, there are assemblies of bishops which include the bishops of different rites in a nation, both Eastern Catholic and Latin Catholic; these are described in canon 322 §2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The nature of episcopal conferences, and their magisterial authority in particular, was subsequently clarified by Pope John Paul II in his 1998 "motu proprio", "Apostolos suos", which stated that the declarations of such conferences "constitute authentic magisterium" when approved unanimously by the conference; otherwise