St. Vincent's Cathedral is an Anglican church in

Bedford, Texas Bedford is a city located in northeast Tarrant County, Texas, in the "Mid-Cities" area between Dallas and Fort Worth. It is a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. The population was 46,979 at the 2010 census. Bedford is part of the Hurst-Euless-B ...

. It is the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

of the

Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America. The diocese comprises 62 congregations and its headquarters are in Fort Worth, Texas. The diocese is divided in six deaneries, each headed by a dean, whic ...

. The cathedral played a major part in the

Anglican realignment The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States ...

by hosting the inaugural assembly in 2009 where the

Anglican Church in North America The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cu ...

was constituted.

History

Named in honor of St. Vincent of Zaragoza, St. Vincent's was founded in 1955 as part of the

Episcopal Diocese of Dallas The Episcopal Diocese of Dallas is a diocese of the Episcopal Church (United States) which was formed on December 20, 1895, when the Missionary District of Northern Texas was granted diocesan status at the denomination's General Convention ...

. It moved to its current site in 1989. In 1995, the church—built in a stripped modern Gothic style with a three-sided

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church (building), church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many ...

—was designated the

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefecture or apostolic ...

of the Diocese of Fort Worth, which had been formed out of the Dallas diocese in 1983. St. Vincent's was consecrated as the cathedral in December 2007. In 2005, St. Vincent's hosted an

Anglican Communion Network The Anglican Communion Network (ACN; officially the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes) was a theologically conservative network of Anglican and Episcopalian dioceses and parishes in the United States that was working toward Angl ...

meeting to respond to the

Windsor report In 2003, the Lambeth Commission on Communion was appointed by the Anglican Communion to study problems stemming from the consecration of Gene Robinson, the first noncelibate self-identifying gay priest to be ordained as an Anglican bishop, in the ...

. Participants in that meeting agreed to a covenant of actions in response. In 2019, the cathedral's dean, the Very Rev.

Ryan Reed Ryan A. Reed (born August 12, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver and driver coach who previously competed part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Reed previously competed full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series ...

, SSC, was elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Fort Worth. He succeeded Jack Iker as diocesan bishop later that year.

Role in ACNA founding

St. Vincent's hosted the inaugural assembly of the Anglican Church in North America on April 21–25, 2009. Representatives of the Dioceses of Fort Worth,

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Quincy and San Joaquin, plus the Common Cause Partnership (at the time, the

American Anglican Council The American Anglican Council began as an organization of theologically conservative Anglicans from both the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and The Episcopal Church in the United States. According to its membership brochure, it was found ...

, Anglican Coalition in Canada,

Anglican Mission in the Americas The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) or The Anglican Mission (AM) is a self-governing church inheriting its doctrine and form of worship from the Episcopal Church in the United States (TEC) and Anglican Church of Canada with members and chu ...

Anglican Network in Canada The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) is a group of Anglican churches in Canada and the United States established in 2005 under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, a province of the Anglican Communion. It was a found ...

Convocation of Anglicans in North America The Church of Nigeria North American Mission (CONNAM) is a missionary body of the Church of Nigeria (CON). It has been in a ministry partnership with the Anglican Church in North America but no longer affiliated with it beyond mutual membership in ...

, Forward in Faith North America, missionary convocations from the Anglican provinces of Kenya, the Southern Cone and Uganda, plus the

Reformed Episcopal Church The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) is an Anglican church of evangelical Episcopalian heritage. It was founded in 1873 in New York City by George David Cummins, a former bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The REC is a founding member o ...

and the Reformed Communion) met at St. Vincent's to ratify the constitution and

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

s of the new province. At this meeting, a number of major steps were taken to officially establish the new denomination, including the election of Robert Duncan, bishop of Pittsburgh, as ACNA's first archbishop.Conger, George. "New US Province is formed". ''Religious Intelligence''

Rick Warren Richard Duane Warren (born January 28, 1954) is an American Southern Baptist evangelical Christian pastor and author. He is the founder of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention in Lake For ...

, a leading American evangelical, and Metropolitan

Jonah Paffhausen Metropolitan Jonah (born James Paffhausen, Jr.; October 20, 1959) is a retired American Eastern Orthodox bishop who served as the primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) with the title ''The Most Blessed Archbishop of Washington, Metropo ...

, leader of the

Orthodox Church in America The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church based in North America. The OCA is partly recognized as autocephalous and consists of more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions i ...

, addressed the audience. There were nine provinces in the Anglican Communion that sent official representatives to the assembly, namely the

Church of the Province of West Africa The Church of the Province of West Africa is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 17 dioceses in eight countries of West Africa, specifically in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Ghana is th ...

, the

Church of Nigeria The Church of Nigeria is the Anglican church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptised membership (not by attendance), after the Church of England. it gives its membership as "over 18 ...

, the

Church of Uganda The Church of Uganda is a member province of the Anglican Communion. Currently there are 37 dioceses which make up the Church of Uganda, each headed by a bishop. Each diocese is divided into archdeaconries, each headed by a senior priest known a ...

, the

Anglican Church of Kenya The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) is a province of the Anglican Communion, and it is composed by 41 dioceses. The current Primate and Archbishop of Kenya is Jackson Ole Sapit. The Anglican Church of Kenya claims 5 million total members. Accordin ...

, represented by Archbishop

Benjamin Nzimbi Benjamin Paul Mwanzia Nzimbi (born 1945 in Kitui District) is a Kenyan Anglican archbishop. He was the archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya and Bishop of the Diocese of All Saints Cathedral, from 2002 to 2009. He is married to Al ...

, the

Anglican Province of the Southern Cone The Anglican Church of South America ( es, Iglesia Anglicana de Sudamérica) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Formed in 1981 ...

, including Archbishop

Gregory Venables Gregory James Venables (born 6 December 1949) is an English Anglican bishop. He has served as the Primate of the Southern Cone in South America from 2001 until 2010, and once again since 2016 until 2020. He is the former diocesan bishop of Arge ...

, the

Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East The Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East is a province of the Anglican Communion. The primate of the church is called President Bishop and represents the Church at the international Anglican Communion Primates' Meetings. The Central ...

, the

Church of the Province of Myanmar The Church of the Province of Myanmar in Asia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. The province comprises the entire country of Myanmar. The current archbishop of Myanmar and bishop of Yangon is Stephen Than Myint Oo. Official name Th ...

, the

Church of the Province of South East Asia The Church of the Province of South East Asia is an autonomous member of the Anglican Communion, created in 1996 with the four dioceses of Kuching, Sabah, Singapore and West Malaysia. There are approximately 98,000 Anglicans within the ...

and the

Church of the Province of Rwanda The Anglican Church of Rwanda (French: ''Église anglicane du Rwanda'') is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 11 dioceses in Rwanda. The primate of the province is Laurent Mbanda, consecrated on 10 June 2018. Official names The Provin ...

. Other ecumenical observers included Bishop Walter Grundorf of the

Anglican Province of America The Anglican Province of America (APA) is a Continuing Anglican church in the United States. The church was founded by former members of the Episcopal Church in the United States in order to follow what they consider to be a more truly Christian ...

, Samuel Nafzger of the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The L ...

, and Bishop

Kevin Vann Kevin William Vann (born May 10, 1951) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was named bishop of the Diocese of Orange in Southern California by Pope Benedict XVI, succeeding the retiring bishop, Tod Brown, on September 21, ...

of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth in the United States was established on August 9, 1969, after being part of the Diocese of Dallas for 79 years. At present, the diocese has more than 1,200,000 Catholics in 92 parishes, served by 132 priests, 106 ...

. Leaders from three Anglican provinces,

John Chew John Chew Hiang Chea (; born 4 October 1947) was the third Metropolitan Archbishop and Primate of the Province of Anglican Church in South East Asia as well as Bishop of Singapore. He retired as the 8th Bishop of Singapore on 4 October 2012. He ...

of the

, Archbishop Peter Jensen of the

Anglican Diocese of Sydney The Diocese of Sydney is a diocese in Sydney, within the Province of New South Wales of the Anglican Church of Australia. The majority of the diocese is evangelical and low church in tradition. The diocese goes as far as Lithgow in the w ...

and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and Mouneer Anis, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, formally announced support for the ACNA."More Anglican Leaders Join Supporters of the Anglican Church in North America"
From England, Bishop

Wallace Benn Wallace Parke Benn (born 6 August 1947) is a bishop of the Church of England. He was the area Bishop of Lewes in the Diocese of Chichester from May 1997 until his retirement in October 2012. Early life and education Benn was born in Bray, Coun ...

and Archdeacon Michael Lawson sent greetings from the

Church of England Evangelical Council The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) is an association of evangelical Anglican members of the Church of England. It self-describes as the collective voice of all evangelicals within the Church of England, and states its aim "to promote ...

. Archbishop of Canterbury

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bi ...

sent retired Seychelles Bishop Santosh Marray of the

Province of the Indian Ocean The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean is a province of the Anglican Communion. It covers the islands of Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles. The current Archbishop and Primate is James Wong, Bishop of Seychelles. Anglican re ...

to serve as his observer. JackIkerGoldHat

Churchmanship

As part of the Diocese of Fort Worth, St. Vincent's is a hub for

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglica ...

worship and practice. The cathedral uses the 2019 Book of Common Prayer and

The Hymnal 1982 ''The Hymnal 1982'' is the primary hymnal of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is one in a series of seven official hymnals of the Episcopal Church, including ''The Hymnal 1940''. Unlike many Anglican churches (including th ...

. The cathedral has hosted events for Forward in Faith North America and is a member of the American Anglican Council.

Facilities

St. Vincent's includes an on-site columbarium. The cathedral formerly hosted St. Vincent's Cathedral School, which has since closed.

References

External links

Cathedral homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Vincent's Cathedral Christian organizations established in 1955 Churches completed in 1989 1955 establishments in Texas Anglican Church in North America church buildings in the United States Anglican cathedrals in the United States Former Episcopal church buildings in Texas Anglican realignment congregations 20th-century Anglican church buildings in the United States