Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (Episcopal Church) Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Along with its parent Diocese of Dallas, the Diocese of Fort Worth was one of the originators of a strong conservative movement within the Episcopal Church. Fort Worth and Dallas clergy and parishes have both had a long history of leadership in the Anglo-Catholic faction within American Anglicanism. After the consecration of an openly gay New Hampshire bishop, Gene Robinson, most of the parishes in the diocese affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network, an association of dioceses, parishes, and clergy opposing what its members considered a liberal shift in doctrine and practice that abandoned what they
Episcopal polity presbyterian form, except that their councils of bishops have hierarchical jurisdiction over the local ruling bodies to a greater extent than in most Presbyterian and other Reformed churches. As mentioned, the Lutheran Church in Sweden and Finland are exceptions, claiming apostolic succession in a pattern somewhat like the Anglican churches. Otherwise, forms of polity are not mandated in the Lutheran churches, as it is not regarded as having doctrinal significance. Old World Lutheranism, for historical reasons, has tended to adopt Erastian theories of episcopal authority (by which church authority is to a limited extent sanctioned by secular government). In the