Diocese of Florida prepares for convention with request for new bishop election on its agenda

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Florida will consider a resolution at its Sept. 20-21 convention calling on the Florida Standing Committee to launch a new bishop search a year after the diocese failed to receive the necessary churchwide consents for its previous bishop election.

The upcoming diocesan convention also follows nearly a year after the retirement of its last bishop, the Rt. Rev. John Howard. Over the past 10 months without a diocesan bishop, the diocese has engaged in a series of listening sessions and convocations intended to heal some of the divisions that had widened during Howard’s 20-year episcopate, particularly over Howard’s opposition to greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church. (Howard now faces two Title IV disciplinary cases related to his leadership.)

Members of the Jacksonville-based Diocese of Florida have been invited this month to four pre-convention meetings to learn more about the six resolutions that will be voted on, along with other items on the convention’s agenda. The first pre-convention meeting was held Sept. 3 at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Palm Coast and was livestreamed on YouTube. A video of the session can be viewed on the diocese’s channel.

The Rev. Sarah Minton, rector at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Green Cove Springs and a member of the standing committee, was among the diocesan leaders who welcomed those attending the meeting at St. Thomas.

“You care about our diocese. You care about the governance of our church. You care about one another,” Minton said.

The standing committee, which has been the diocese’s ecclesiastical authority since Howard’s retirement at the end of October 2023, responded at length in writing to Episcopal News Service’s questions about the diocese’s healing process, its convention and the resolution calling for a new bishop search.

In the past year, “everything we have done is an effort to promote healing,” the standing committee told ENS. “We have listened. We have prayed. We have sought counsel. We have worked tirelessly on the areas we knew needed attention to heal relationally and organizationally.”

As it navigates a tumultuous leadership transition, the standing committee retained as a consultant the Rt. Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves, the former bishop of the Diocese of El Camino Real, who is trained in conflict mediation. In January 2024, she released a summary of her initial listening sessions and dozens of letters lamenting a “culture of acrimony and distrust” in the diocese.

Some of those tensions had risen to the surface in 2022 when the diocese twice tried to elect a bishop to succeed Howard. Both elections were successfully blocked by objections filed by some Florida clergy and lay leaders, leaving Florida unable to consecrate a new bishop.

Gray-Reeves has continued to work with the Diocese of Florida, including at two convocations, a clergy conference, a clergy day and a day of prayer, the standing committee said. In addition, retired Georgia Bishop Scott Benhase agreed to serve Florida as a part-time assisting bishop with help from retired New Jersey Bishop Chip Stokes.

“We have not stopped working to heal our diocese,” the standing committee said in its responses to ENS for this story. “Healing is our top priority and we recognize it takes time.”

Gray-Reeves will join the diocese for its convention at Camp Weed & Cerveny Conference Center in Live Oak. Along with the typical votes on a diocesan budget and diocesan leadership, delegates will consider six resolutions – five proposing changes to the diocese’s charter and canons and the final resolution relating to a new bishop election.

The sixth resolution, a delegate-generated proposal, was submitted by the Rev. Jon Davis of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palatka and the Rev. Matt Marino of Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Augustine. Their proposed resolution commends the standing committee’s work “moving the diocese forward with improved communication, transparency and leading us through convocations in order to better understand each other across our theological and contextual differences.”

While the healing process continues, the resolution asks the standing committee to “act with haste to begin the process of creating a search process for electing our next bishop for the Diocese of Florida in the first quarter of 2025.”

Marino, in an interview with ENS, described the standing committee as hard-working and “heroic” in taking over leadership of the diocese in the absence of a diocesan bishop. He also expressed gratitude to Gray-Reeves, Benhase and Stokes.

“We’ve had three bishops who are moderating, healing presences with us, and we’ve had a really, really active standing committee,” Marino said. The resolution requesting a new bishop search is not binding, but Marino suggested it reflects an eagerness among some in the diocese to return to formal episcopal leadership.

“At some point, you deal with all the question marks, and now you’re back on track,” Marino said.

The standing committee did not respond directly to the proposed resolution but outlined the steps that need to occur before calling for a new election: “The plan includes, but is not limited to, the following areas: the ordination process, audits, financial policies and procedures, website and communications, canons and constitution and the care and wellbeing of our people.”

“We do not yet have a specific date when we will call for an election, but we are much closer than we were in November,” the standing committee said. “While working to ensure we can have a successful election, we continue to seek counsel on moving forward to call for election. Our goal is to host an election that is procedurally correct and fosters trust, confidence and healing across our diocese.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.