Florida Bishop inhibits priests, pledges to be responsible steward

In a letter posted on the diocese's website January 11, Bishop John Howard of Florida said that, since several priests and lay leaders have decided to leave the diocese, "it is vital that we as a Diocese and I as your Bishop be responsible stewards of the mission of the Episcopal Church in Florida."

"Our thoughts and prayers can only be that they find a spiritual place more suited to the judgments they make," he wrote.

Howard wrote that he, with the consent of the Standing Committee, has inhibited the rectors who announced that they have left the Episcopal Church. The order prevents them from performing priestly duties in the Episcopal Church.

The priests inhibited were: the Rev. Neil Lebhar, Church of the Redeemer, Jacksonville; the Rev. Samuel Pascoe, Grace Church, Orange Park; the Rev. C. Alexander Farmer, Servants of Christ, Gainesville; the Rev. James Needham, St. Luke's Community of Life, Tallahassee; the Rev. James McCaslin, All Souls, Jacksonville; the Rev. David Sandifer, Calvary, Jacksonville; and the Rev. Robert Sanders, Jacksonville Anglican Fellowship, Jacksonville.

Howard said that all involved in the leave-taking must return real and personal property to the diocese. "Any refusal to do so will be at their collective and individual legal peril. As a matter of Christian ethics, the responsibility is not only a fiduciary one but a solemn one," Howard wrote.

"It should also be noted that in the Episcopal Church, churches don't leave, although people might," he wrote.

The Rev. Canon Kurt Dunkley told the Florida Times-Union January 17 that the diocese expects the breakaway leaders "to turn over all symbols of possession, like keys, the books and records."

"If they are unable to do that, if they need some time, of course we'd be willing to work with them," Dunkley told the newspaper. "But that would be a short amount of time."

"The vast majority of the members of the Diocese of Florida do not share the views of those who are leaving," Howard wrote, noting for instance that at St. John's in Tallahassee, many may have left, but more than a thousand have stayed.