At the conclusion of a convention that included extensive discussion of the Diocese of Florida’s efforts to heal from its contentious 2022 bishop elections, delegates ultimately voted to postpone a resolution calling on the Standing Committee to begin the search for a new bishop.
Delegates considered the resolution at the diocese’s September 20-21 convention, more than a year after a majority of the church’s bishops and standing committees withheld their consent to the election of the Rev. Charlie Holt as Florida’s next bishop, and more than two years since Holt’s first disputed election.
The resolution called on the Standing Committee “to act with haste to begin the process of creating a search process” for electing the next bishop. The diocese has been without a bishop ordinary since the retirement of longtime Bishop Samuel Johnson Howard in late 2023.
The resolution’s authors, the Rev. Dr. Jon Davis of St. Mark’s Church in Palatka and the Rev. Matt Marino of Trinity Parish in St. Augustine, cited the need for a bishop to build a diocesan culture, recruit “A-list clergy,” raise up ordinands, increase the sustainability of the diocese’s struggling summer camp, and cast a “unifying vision” for the diocese.
Marino said the resolution wasn’t binding, acknowledging that “no one can tie the Standing Committee’s hands.”
An earlier version of the resolution, which was submitted through the diocesan call for resolutions, specified that steps should be taken toward beginning a search process in the first quarter of 2025. But at the convention, Davis proposed an amendment removing that timeframe from the resolution.
“This is a purely aspirational resolution,” Marino said. “It has no teeth. The only people who can call for the election of a bishop are the Standing Committee. It’s aspirationally saying, ‘You guys are doing an awesome job at this, and our name is the “church with bishops,” so we ought to have one of those. So, when you’re ready, we would love for that to happen, aspirationally.’”
The Rev. Lisa Meirow of St. Andrew’s in Jacksonville deemed the resolution unnecessary.
“I have complete faith that our Standing Committee is privy to information that the rest of us are not privy to, and that when the Holy Spirit moves their heart to tell them it is time for an election, that our diocese is to the point where we can have a solid election, when we can elect a bishop that won’t just have a mess dropped into his or her lap, I trust the Standing Committees to make that call,” Meirow said.
The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead Carroll, dean of St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, moved to postpone the resolution “in the spirit of unity.”
“It’s a great resolution; it may not be quite the right time to vote on it,” she said.
Delegates ultimately cast a 131-56 vote to postpone the resolution indefinitely.
The timing for electing a new bishop remains unchanged, the Rev. Sarah Minton, president of the Standing Committee, said via email after the convention.
“Our Standing Committee is continuing to lead a very productive process of healing and strengthening of our diocesan body. As already established, the continued success of this process will reveal the best election timing to the Standing Committee. Until then, 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,” Minton said.
The decision to postpone the resolution “reaffirmed that our process has been well received, wide reaching, and effective,” she added.
While delivering a report to the convention, the Rev. Teresa Seagle, completing her term as Standing Committee president, said several areas are being addressed to set the stage for a new bishop election, including “the ordination process, finances, website and communication, caring for souls, human resources and the canons and constitution.” Each of those areas played some role in the two failed bishop elections, she said.
The Standing Committee has served as the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese since Howard’s retirement in late 2023. The Rt. Rev. Scott Benhase, former Bishop of Georgia, began serving in January as a part-time assisting bishop in the Diocese of Florida.
The diocese held two separate elections in 2022 to name Howard’s successor, with the Rev. Charlie Holt being twice declared the winner. Those elections were challenged on procedural grounds by those opposed to Holt’s traditional theology on marriage.
Concerns also emerged over Holt’s past comments that were considered offensive to Black people and LGBTQ people. The failed elections revealed fault lines in the diocese related to the issue of same-sex relationships.
After the contested elections, the Standing Committee hired Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves to help mediate conflict within the diocese.
Gray-Reeves published a report, based on several listening sessions, in December 2023 that described a diocesan climate of “deep mistrust, fear, hurt, isolation, and lowered functioning, productivity and innovation.” Last year’s diocesan convention shone a light on existing tensions, with delegates only passing two of six resolutions on the agenda.
In an opening address at the convention, Gray-Reeves recounted the steps taken to promote healing and reconciliation over the past year, including the convening of three convocations with the goal of creating a “psychologically safe space” to build trust and have facilitated conversation across the diocese’s dividing theological lines.
Gray-Reeves commended the diocese on those efforts.
“It may not seem like much, but you have made great strides in these past months as a diocese,” she said. “More than that, you are a powerful witness in the world where people give up on each other all the time. Thank you for not giving up on each other.”
In her report to convention, Seagle said the diocese is in a “different place than it was one year ago,” though work remains to repair relationships.
“Not all in our diocese … are experiencing the big tent,” Seagle said. “We have people who were not welcome in our diocese and, though the door is now open, the trauma of the past needs healing. We have people whose theological beliefs are now among the minority in the Episcopal Church. While they want to reside under the big tent, they feel they have been pushed out of the tent.”
Meanwhile, on the matter of moving toward a new bishop election, Gray-Reeves said the feedback from small-group discussions at the convocations indicate there is disagreement about whether the diocese is ready.
“Responses to questions about underlying issues in the diocese concluded recommended actions such as ‘call an election for another bishop,’ ‘don’t call an election for another bishop,’ ‘stop talking about this or that,’ or ‘please pay attention to this issue or that issue,’” she said.
Minton said in her statement by email that the Standing Committee was “heartened by the confidence in its process that [the failed resolution] expressed,” but that delegates see the “opportunity for further healing and strengthening.”
Some feel more urgency. Speaking in support of the resolution, a delegate from St. Paul’s Church, Federal Point, urged the convention to proceed with the search process, saying the diocese’s lack of a bishop has caused challenges in her parish’s finding applicants for an open priest position.
“We need to move forward,” the delegate said. “We need to have a vision.”
Gray-Reeves encouraged the diocese to keep working toward reconciliation.
“Keep perspective of where you have been and where you are going. It is easy to forget that conflict has stages and generations,” she said. “Where you are now is not where you will be in a year.”
