Bishop Iker on Continuing Anglicans

At the final press conference of the Network meeting just completed (which can be seen here), the Bishop of Fort Worth Jack Iker, sitting between Primate Venables and REC Bishop Ray Sutton, said the following:

We’ve been given an opportunity to make a common cause with groups that have largely been ostracized by the Episcopal Church, certainly excluded, looked down upon, and regarded in a condescending kind of way. I mean The Episcopal Church would say that the people we are making common cause with are largely not really Anglicans. . . . they don’t really matter. . . . That’s been demeaning to those bodies of Christians and fellow pilgrims. I think this is an opportunity for us to reach out to them and to affirm them and be enriched by the gifts they bring to us as fellow Anglicans.

I don’t think Bishop Iker was responding even indirectly to Ephraim Radner. But the contrast with Dr. Radner’s statement today is obvious.