Home Care In Holt, FL

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Florida, with less than a month left in the consent process for the ordination of its bishop coadjutor-elect, has persuaded at least one of the church’s 110 standing committees to change its “no” vote to “yes.”

The Diocese of Spokane Standing Committee, after initially opposing the ordination and consecration of the Rev. Charlie Holt as Florida’s next bishop, voted on June 21 to change its position to “yes,” according to information shared this week by a Diocese of Florida spokesman.

The Diocese of Spokane includes the eastern half of Washington and the Idaho Panhandle. Its standing committee voted on the reversal after receiving Holt’s responses to its own series of questions. The reversal comes after the Diocese of Florida appealed to all Episcopal standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction to spend more time considering the request for consents to Holt’s ordination.

The Jacksonville-based Diocese of Florida has until July 20 to persuade a majority of bishops and standing committees to give their consent. Without both majorities, Holt’s November 2022 election to succeed retiring Bishop John Howard will be negated. The current vote tallies are not publicly available, though Florida leaders said last month that they still had work to do.

Holt, formerly a priest in the Diocese of Texas, was first elected in May 2022. After he was declared the winner, some Episcopalians from across the church raised concerns on social media about past statements by Holt that they interpreted as insulting to Black and LGBTQ+ people. Holt apologized for what he described as poor word choices but defended his record as a priest who worked to bridge cultural divides.

The election, however, also faced formal objections over procedural issues, which prompted an investigation by a churchwide Court of Review and ultimately led the standing committee to schedule a second election in November 2022. Holt was again declared the winner, elected on the first ballot.

Clergy and lay delegates in the diocese raised new objections to the second election, including allegations that a pattern of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination during Howard’s two decades as bishop had skewed the pool of vote-eligible delegates, potentially affecting the election outcome. Again, a churchwide Court of Review investigated and, in issuing its findings in February, partly sided with the objectors.

Howard will reach the church’s mandatory retirement age of 72 in September. If Holt fails to receive the necessary consents, the standing committee will become the diocese’s ecclesiastical authority and will continue navigating the diocese through its leadership transition.

Various groups of Episcopalians in the Diocese of Florida have launched efforts to support Holt in the consent process. In May, for example, members of the Latino Hispanic Ministries of the Diocese of Florida released a video appeal to Episcopal bishops and standing committees, asking them to vote yes. Another group, calling itself “Laity for Rev. Charlie Holt” produced a petition with hundreds of signatories urging churchwide leaders to honor the result of the diocese’s election.

This month, the Rev. Justin Yawn, rector of St. Francis in-the-Field Episcopal Church in Ponte Verde, released a personal video to draw attention to a letter signed by hundreds of clergy and lay leaders in the diocese in favor of Holt’s ordination as bishop. “We believe, I believe that with Charlie as our bishop, we can move into a new phase of reconciliation and growth,” Yawn said.

The diocese also released a letter to The Episcopal Church’s nine Black diocesan bishops from Alma Flowers, a lay leader in the local chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians. She said she was writing not as a UBE member but as a Florida Episcopalian.

“My diocese is broken, and we desperately need a leader to unify us and move forward. I personally believe that person to be Rev. Charlie Holt,” Flowers said.

On June 27, the Diocese of Florida Standing Committee released its latest update on the consent process but offered few new details.

“We continue to communicate with other standing committees and bishops, providing more information about our election process and associated events and circumstances as we have opportunity to do so,” the update said. “As the standing committee, we are also working diligently to chart a course that will guide us after the consent process concludes next month.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at [email protected].

When Lester Holt visits Florida next week, it won’t be for a vacation. But he will take the regular format of “NBC Nightly News” on a short trip.

The veteran anchor will visit Fort Myers Beach and Miami early next week, and on each of two nights will spend a significant amount of time delving into news and issues pertinent to those locations.

“There are a lot of stories to be told in Florida, not just from a political standpoint, but environmental and tourism and recovery from storm disaster,” Holt says in an interview. He’s traveled to Fort Myers before, when a hurricane was making its way through the city, but “the idea is to visit places when they are not necessarily going through their worst day,”

On Monday, Holt will probe how insurance companies may have shortchanged residents whose properties were damaged severely by Hurricane Ian, and Sanika Dange, an anchor at Orlando-area NBC affiliate WESH, will report on how climate change is affecting Florida’s tourism industry. On Tuesday, Holt will examine blue-state families who moved to red-leaning Florida, while NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez looks at the state’s growing national political profile and Constance Jones of NBC-owned WTVJ profiles Barrington Irving, the first Black and youngest pilot to fly solo around the world.

Viewers won’t miss out on the big news of the day, says Holt, and “Nightly” can pivot if a national story is dominating the cycle. Yet the focus on Florida is emblematic of the anchor’s continued willingness to experiment with a format that many perceive as being one of the most hidebound in the industry. With just 22 minutes or so of air — the remainder of the half-hour running time is devoted to commercials — evening newscasts are largely hemmed in by their mandate to give viewers synopses of the day’s most important stories, in fact-checked and succinct fashion.

There’s nothing wrong with exploring the terrain. “We are in a state where we need more ways we can find to report the news,” says Bob Schieffer, who anchored both “CBS Evening News” and “Face The Nation” over the course of a long career. “I wish anyone well who’s got an idea like that,” especially one that takes viewers away from the familiar environs of New York and Washington, D.C.

Holt has tried to stretch new muscles. In 2020, he launched a “Kids’ Edition” of “Nightly” that continues to this day. In recent broadcasts, Holt has talked to Sesame Street characters about mental health awareness, and looked at the birth of a rare antelope at the Oregon Zoo. He has also tinkered with the “Nightly” ‘closing, delivering in somber national moments something more reflective and nuanced than the typical anodyne sign off. One day before the 2020 presidential election, he told viewers, “democracy is messy, but we’ve got to let it work,” particularly for “our children, who you know are watching us.”

His latest initiative takes place as a restructuring of NBC News might leave more room for being nimble. Under the aegis of Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal’s news operations, NBC News has been broken up into three distinct units, with “Nightly” and the streaming outlet “NBC News Now” placed in the same group led by executive Janelle Rodriguez. She has pushed “Nightly,” says Holt, to “take more big swings on the broadcast.”

Still, even Lester Holt can’t shake things up too much. “My feeling has always been that the way people receive our news is going to continue to evolve,” but the program itself must meet the expectations of its audience. “NBC Nightly News” is, like its counterparts at ABC and CBS, one of the most-watched properties on broadcast TV, which means there’s only so much change any anchor or producer can make, and little of it can be of the radical sort. When Katie Couric took over “CBS Evening News” in the fall of 2006, the network made several tweaks aimed at bringing the show into the modern era, complete with a segment for guest opinions. She recounted in her 2021 memoir “Going There” how CBS eventually the steered the newscast back to its regular format.

“It’s hard to change the format for the demographic that is watching the evening news,” says Couric, reacted by text message. “You can’t do anything too dramatic as I discovered when I was given that edict at CBS.”

Some have tested new ground. In February, Norah O’Donnell broadcast two episodes of “CBS Evening News” live from the U.S.S. Nimitz aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. Couric once did an entire program focused on the war in Afghanistan. Holt once anchored “Nightly” from a helicopter for an entire broadcast, despite a sheaf of papers that got strewn all over the cockpit.

The “Nightly” crew has tried deep dives before. Holt did a series called “Across America,” where he traveled to a new place each day and offered a longer look. But doing it over the course of many days proved taxing, he says, and he thinks a shorter period might work better. He says he would consider examining issues in New England, or, perhaps, diving deep into a particular topic rather than a region of the country.

“We have a little more room” to try new things, says Holt. “Audiences are changing,” he says, “and we try to meet them wherever they are.”

NBC anchor Lester Holt is bringing his “Nightly News” program to Florida, where he’ll enlist the help of local journalists this week in reporting to the nation about the state’s political, cultural and post-hurricane landscape.

Titled “Nightly News: Lester Holt Reports Live from Florida,” the two-night series begins Monday in Fort Myers Beach and continues the following day in Miami. It will feature “on-the ground coverage of the lasting impacts of Hurricane Ian” and “deep-dive reporting” on several forces shaping the state, an NBCUniversal press note said.

“There are a lot of stories to be told in Florida, not just from a political standpoint, but environmental and tourism and recovery from storm disaster,” Holt said Friday in an interview with Variety.

Holt is bringing cameras back to Fort Myers Beach for the first time since September, when he visited Southwest Florida to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. While there Monday, he’ll follow up with residents he profiled after the storm struck for an update on how they’re recovering and delve into accusations insurance companies have faced about shortchanging homeowners.

Sanika Dange, an anchor for the Orlando-based NBC affiliate WESH, will report on the impact climate change has had on tourism and ongoing efforts to rebuild across historic Sanibel Island.

Then on Tuesday, NBC News national correspondent Gabe Gutierrez will hit Miami for a look at Florida’s political environment ahead of the 2024 elections. Constance Jones of NBC-owned WTVJ will also profile Captain Barrington Irving, a Miami resident who in 2007 became the first Black pilot and youngest person at the time to fly solo around the world.

NBC’s “Nightly News” program reaches nearly 30 million people weekly by broadcast and millions more through its numerous online offerings, including NBC News Now, “The Nightly” newsletter, “Nightly Films” docuseries, podcasts and on social media.

Editor’s note: This story was updated later Aug. 14 to include changes St. Mark’s made to its website to identify the Rev. Charlie Holt as its new rector while linking to an announcement from the vestry.

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Charlie Holt is now serving as rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida, according to an announcement by Holt on his personal Facebook page on Aug. 11, three weeks after the Diocese of Florida had announced Holt’s consecration as bishop coadjutor did not receive the necessary churchwide consents to proceed.

Last year, Holt was declared the winner of two successive bishop elections in the Diocese of Florida. He withdrew his acceptance of the first result after an inquiry into formal objections found procedural problems with the diocese’s election. His second election, in November 2022, also generated objections from some clergy and lay leaders in the diocese and across the church, including allegations that a pattern of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination toward clergy by retiring Bishop John Howard had skewed the results. On July 21, the diocese announced that churchwide majorities of bishops and standing committees had withheld their consents to Holt’s ordination as an Episcopal bishop.

Holt previously served as associate rector of teaching and formation at the Church of St. John the Divine in Houston, Texas. The Diocese of Florida had hired him last year as a diocesan staff member while the first of its two bishop elections was under review. He is originally from the Jacksonville area, and after his election was nullified, he said he and his wife intended to remain in the diocese.

In his update on Facebook, he said he had been called as rector at St. Mark’s, preaching for the first time there on Aug. 13.

“The journey to get here has been long, and not without its challenges, but we are thrilled and delighted to report that we have reached a beautiful destination and a bright new beginning,” Holt said. He described the congregation as “such an amazing group of Christian people who are eager to go deeper in faith and witness to God.”

After Episcopal News Service messaged St. Mark’s leaders seeking comment and then published this story in the afternoon Aug. 14, St. Mark’s updated its website to list Holt as its rector. It also linked to a separate announcement, an Aug. 10 email message from the vestry to the parish about Holt.

“Throughout his career, Father Charlie led strategic growth and member engagement efforts for his congregations,” the vestry said. “These efforts included launching a small group ministry that resulted in a 50% increase in average Sunday attendance, developing creative ministry programs for young children and families, establishing multiple plant churches, and coordinating dozens of city-wide outreach and international missionary programs.” The vestry added that it “led the discernment process over the past several months with care, commitment and the support of Bishop Howard” before calling Holt as rector.

The congregation also livestreamed the 10 a.m. Aug. 13 service that featured Holt as preacher.

“‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ It’s the question that’s ringing in the Gospel passage today,” Holt said in his sermon on Matthew 14:22-33, the story of Jesus walking on the water. “The Lord sometimes sends us through very challenging situations and difficulties.”

Holt briefly mentioned his own call as rector in his sermon, in which he spoke of embarking on “this new relationship as a rector and a congregation.” He also appeared at some points to allude to last year’s bishop election and the consent process that ended in no bishop consecration.

“Personally, we’ve been through a lot over this last year, turbulent waves and wind,” Holt said. “We don’t always know the answers to why the Lord makes us do these things, but we trust in the sovereignty of God and in the lordship of Jesus Christ and his command to be those who walk with him in faith.”

Howard, Florida’s sitting bishop, will reach the mandatory retirement age of 72 on Sept. 8. Episcopal Church canons allow bishops to serve up to three months more based on an effective retirement date accepted and announced by the presiding bishop. Florida’s next diocesan convention is scheduled for Sept. 30, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether Howard would be expected to step down before that convention.

Because no successor has been elected and consecrated, the Florida Standing Committee will become the diocese’s ecclesiastical authority after Howard retires. The standing committee has said it will invite outside bishops to assist with confirmations, ordinations and other pastoral roles after Howard retires. Longer-term options are under consideration and include seeking an assisting bishop, launching a new search for a diocesan bishop or electing a bishop provisional to serve for a limited time as a transitional leader.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said last month that he would be “in consultation with leaders in the Diocese of Florida, and with others around The Episcopal Church, as we look for the best next steps.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at [email protected].

The Episcopal Church is thinking and praying a lot about the Diocese of Florida now that the time has come for bishops and standing committees to give or withhold their consent to the election of the Rev. Charlie Holt to serve as Bishop Coadjutor and then Bishop of Florida. This moment has raised questions, not only about Father Holt, and Florida, but about our canonical process of consent, about what we are doing, and on what grounds we ought to do it.

I want to share my personal wrestling about whether to consent and my understanding of what the consent process is, and offer some ideas about how we might improve it. The question before us now is what might be done to ensure the greatest possible unity in the Diocese of Florida, the Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Communion.

I know Father Holt. We were in seminary together 27 years ago, but my sending him a draft of this article was the first time we had communicated since then. That he is a child of God with gifts for ministry, who is doing his best to serve God and our church, is always before me. We must always speak and write as though he were sitting in the room with us, for he is.

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I begin with an overview of the consent process.

There are two important principles at play when we elect bishops. The Holy Spirit speaks through the clergy and people to identify the person from whom they wish to hear as teacher, the person they wish to care for them as their pastor, the person they wish to follow as their shepherd. But the choice of the clergy and people of the local church is only part of the discernment.

The bishops from surrounding dioceses, those already exercising episcopé, do the ordaining. As they make the journey to the diocese and lay their hands upon the ordinand, those bishops ask the Holy Spirit to make this person a bishop of Christ’s one holy catholic and apostolic Church. They welcome the new bishop into the community of bishops, thereby stating that they trust the teaching and pastoring and leadership of this individual, and they also take responsibility to correct that bishop should they stray from the teachings of the Church.

The process of consent, which we use in the Episcopal Church today, is our particular embodiment of this ancient practice in the Church, and one of the few that survives in this way in any church. Our particular way of doing this is not so much a reflection of American democratic practices with origins in the 18th century; it is rather our way of doing what was done, for example, in 374, when the people of Milan called Ambrose to be their bishop by acclamation, shouting his name and refusing any other candidate.

After he hid from the crowd, trying not to be ordained, he was found and finally agreed to serve. But the people could not make him a bishop of the church. Bishops from the surrounding dioceses came to ordain him. We now do this process through the web. And, in recognition of the fact that in our church lay people and clergy work and lead together, standing committees, not just bishops, either consent or they don’t.

Whether to consent is more than a matter of whether the people of a diocese “can have the bishop they want” or not. Withholding consent is not “disenfranchisement,” because the church is not a democracy. By electing a bishop, the people of a diocese are offering that bishop for ordination by the Church. Each bishop is not just a bishop for a diocese; bishops are bishops for the whole Church, and have ministries and responsibilities and relationships beyond the boundaries of their dioceses.

What bishops say, what they teach, how they act, ought to reflect Christ himself and a holiness of life. This is not a political election in which one party or ideology wins and another loses. We must check our political thinking at the door of the church, and remember that what we are doing is the holy business of recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit in calling those who are “one with the apostles,” sent by Jesus, to lead the Church whatever may come.

Bishops are human beings, yes. And they are human beings called by God to guide the Church in each generation — ordaining deacons and priests, guarding the faith, preaching the Word of God, teaching the faith, and offering moral guidance by example and by what they say. I do not wish to elevate bishops to a lofty level. Bishops are simply those the Church has chosen to live a particular life, to embody a particular role, and to do particular work. They are entrusted with a specific responsibility. They are accountable to all of us but, first and foremost, they are accountable to God.

Of course this process has often been messy. Throughout history there has been conflict and even war over who was the legitimate bishop of a place. In the fourth century, Athanasius was exiled multiple times for half of his tenure as a bishop. But still, when things go well, the whole Church celebrates the ordination of a new bishop. A new bishop strengthens the unity of the whole Church. And when things do not go well, the bishops have the responsibility of correcting the behavior of the bishop who has gone astray. This is the way it has been for centuries before the Episcopal Church existed.

The particular situation of the Diocese of Florida and the election of Father Holt is complicated, and we must all remember that it is not a simple thing. Two elections have taken place, and each has met objections. The Court of Review has upheld some of the objections in both. But the court’s opinion does not nullify a particular election. It simply provides information for bishops and standing committees to consider as they decide whether to consent.

Given all of the tension, and all of the commentary on social media, I want to remember that ultimately this process must unite us all as the Church. Bishops have historically been given the title “pontifex,” which means “bridge-builder.” This is central to our task. We are symbols of unity within our diocese, connecting the diocese to the rest of the Church, and connecting today’s Church with the Church in every generation before it, and bearing the responsibility to guard the historic faith as we have received it.

One question before us today, with respect to the election in Florida, is what might be done to preserve the unity of the Church. Will whoever is elected bishop unify the Diocese of Florida? Will this bishop maintain and deepen the unity of the Diocese of Florida with the Episcopal Church? Will this bishop help to deepen the unity of the Episcopal Church with the wider Anglican Communion? These are the actual questions in every episcopal election, but this particular election, with all of its controversy, has made the truth of every election more evident.

In the next part of this series, I will “discern out loud” and give my reasons for and against consenting to Father Holt’s election.

The Rt. Michael B. Hunn is Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande.