“It was a beautiful first step,” said the Rev. Teresa Seagle, the head of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Florida.
She was describing a daylong “convocation” on January 27, the first of three planned sessions aimed at building trust and relationships in the diocese. More than 200 clergy and lay leaders attended the event at Camp Weed, the diocese’s conference center, 80 miles west of Jacksonville.
“There’s a long way to go, and we’ve got some hard conversations ahead,” said the Rev. Elyse Gustafson, assisting priest at Church of the Good Shepherd in Jacksonville, and an LGBTQ advocate. Still, she thought the convocation was a positive experience, and detected “a shift in tone toward gentleness and care.”
The Rev. Matt Marino, rector of Trinity Episcopal in St. Augustine, was decidedly less enthusiastic about the convocation. “Eight rectors and their acolytes are upset,” he told TLC, adding that they have “cost us untold amounts of money and energy, and we’re all sitting there because we care about them.”
Shortly before the convocation, a bishop hired by the Standing Committee as a conflict consultant released a report saying “the climate of the diocese is one currently governed by conflict generally, characterized by deep mistrust, fear, hurt, isolation, and lowered functioning, productivity and innovation.” The Rt. Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves, an experienced mediator who currently serves as managing director of the College of Bishops, based her assessment in part on more than 70 letters submitted during a listening period in September and October 2023. “What was expressed in the letters typifies, I believe, a psychologically unsafe environment,” she wrote.
The discord stems from disagreements about same-sex relationships, and allegedly was exacerbated by the leadership style of longtime Bishop of Florida Samuel Johnson Howard, who retired in late 2023.
Tensions boiled over in the unsuccessful effort to elect Howard’s successor. The Rev. Charlie Holt was declared the winner of two separate elections in 2022, in May and November, only to have both elections challenged by deputies opposed to Holt’s theological positions. Holt, like Howard, holds the traditional view that marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman. However, Holt repeatedly vowed he would do nothing to stand in the way of any priest who wished to perform a same-sex wedding, whereas Howard allegedly discouraged same-sex weddings through intimidation.
“Numerous letters included personal experiences of Bishop Howard and Canon DeFoor and their use of authority,” Gray-Reeves wrote. “These experiences reportedly left individuals and congregations feeling uncared for, confused, sometimes isolated or abused. Many of these same letters reflected that the leadership affect of the bishop was a primary cause of the lack of trust that may be currently experienced across the diocesan system.”
Marino described Gray-Reeves’s letter as “wildly slanted” and unfair to Holt, pointing specifically at reported complaints that “the Rev. Charlie Holt was hired onto the diocesan staff and now serves as a rector in the diocese.”
Howard, who has consistently declined to comment on conflict in the diocese, could not be reached for comment. The Rev. Allison DeFoor, who retired as canon to the ordinary last year, declined to comment.
Holt attended the convocation but declined to discuss it afterwards. “During the past six months, it has been my joy and privilege to serve the great people of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. My focus is on sharing the Gospel and equipping the saints of this wonderful congregation in the heart of Jacksonville,” he wrote. Holt was named rector of St. Mark’s in August 2023, less than a month after his second election was nullified.
Controversy over Holt’s bid to become a bishop ground on for more than a year. The first time Holt was elected as Howard’s successor, an ecclesiastical court declared that no quorum had been present, and that the electing convention should have been adjourned without taking a vote. The court could not directly nullify the election, but the opinion would have been taken into account in the consent process. No bishop can be consecrated without the consent of a majority of diocesan standing committees and a majority of bishops with jurisdiction.
Rather than face the consent process, Holt called for a new election, and the diocese scheduled one for November 2022. Holt again was declared the winner — he was far ahead of the second-place candidate in the clergy order, but he cleared the required majority of all clergy by a single vote. The lay order backed Holt decisively.
A sufficient number of deputies again challenged the election, touching off months of arguments for and against Holt. In both cases, objections were raised both on procedural grounds and on the basis of comments made by Holt that were criticized as insensitive or offensive to Black people and to LGBTQ people.
The second election also was reviewed by a church court — with explosive results.
Unlike the first court, which issued a relatively benign finding of the absence of a quorum, the second court essentially accused Howard of rigging the election pool through a years-long “pattern and practice” of discriminating against LGBTQ clergy, which “cast doubt on the integrity of the election.”
Some progressive bishops and standing committees undoubtedly would have been willing to let a conservative diocese elect a conservative bishop. It’s highly unusual for a diocesan election to fail the consent process. The most recent previous example was in the Diocese of Haiti after a 2018 election.
But the court’s February 2023 report provided a bulletproof justification for withholding consent without passing judgment on Holt’s theology. Nevertheless, the diocese defiantly chose to enter the 120-day consent process in March.
In July, the election was nullified for lack of consent.
The infighting spilled over into the diocese’s annual convention in November 2023, where the gathering was able to pass only two of six proposed resolutions. One of the unapproved resolutions aimed at clarifying the definition of a quorum to prevent disputes over future elections.
Marino alleges that progressive deputies coordinated a series of procedural motions aimed at preventing votes on substantive issues. A review of (parts of) the eight-hour convention on YouTube shows that the last hour or so was indeed devoted to procedural tactics, such as calling for a vote by orders on a matter that appeared to have been overwhelmingly approved by voice vote.
Finally a priest went to the microphone and said, “Why don’t we adjourn this meeting, do the healing process with Bishop Gray-Reeves, and then come back and talk about what kind of canons we should have to do our business.” This was greeted with cheers, and a vote to adjourn was approved.
The healing process will continue in part with two additional convocations, on April 6 and May 18. In the meantime, the Standing Committee remains the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese, and has retained two part-time assisting bishops to make parish visitations and other functions that require a bishop. They are Scott Benhase, retired Bishop of Georgia, and William “Chip” Stokes, retired Bishop of New Jersey.
Gray-Reeves declined via email to discuss the convocation or healing process, referring an inquiry to the Standing Committee. “It is their story to tell and it is a holy one,” she wrote.
The Diocese of Florida is a longtime financial supporter of the Living Church Foundation.
A previous version of this article stated incorrectly that the only previous instance of a bishop-elect failing to gain consent was in Haiti in 2018. That is the most recent instance, but there have been a handful of others. The article has been corrected.
