New bishop search remains on hold as Diocese of Florida keeps focus on healing process

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Florida will remain without a diocesan bishop for the foreseeable future, after some Florida Episcopalians’ request for a new bishop search was tabled indefinitely at its recent diocesan convention.

The Florida Standing Committee, in a statement to Episcopal News Service after the convention, said it is “continuing to lead a very productive process of healing and strengthening of our diocesan body.” While some delegates were in favor of calling for a new bishop, “the larger body of delegates sees the opportunity for further healing and strengthening.”

A year ago, the Jacksonville-based diocese failed to receive the necessary churchwide consents for its previous bishop election. This year’s convention also took place nearly a year after the retirement of its last bishop, the Rt. Rev. John Howard.

The standing committee has been the diocese’s ecclesiastical authority since Howard’s retirement at the end of October 2023, and two other retired bishops are assisting the diocese in the interim.

The diocesan convention was held Sept. 20-21 at Camp Weed & Cerveny Conference Center in Live Oak. Seven out of eight resolutions – including two special resolutions – were passed during the diocesan convention. 

Resolution 6, which called on the standing committee to launch a new bishop election process, didn’t pass. It was instead voted to be postponed indefinitely. The resolution didn’t specify any timeframe to begin the bishop search process.

“The continued success of this process will reveal the best election timing to the Standing Committee,” the standing committee said in its emailed statement to ENS.

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.)

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 blocked by objections filed by some Florida clergy and lay leaders, leaving Florida unable to consecrate a new bishop.

Earlier in September, the standing committee told ENS in writing that “everything we have done is an effort to promote healing. 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.”

The standing committee told ENS this week that delegates may reconsider Resolution 6 later. “We are blessed by the remarkable efforts of our laity, clergy and the staff of the Diocese that are moving our ministry forward with a sense of renewal, optimism and unity.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.