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Central Florida nominates seven priests for bishop election

Episcopal News Service. September 16, 2011 [091611-04]

ENS staff

The Diocese of Central Florida announced Sept. 15 that seven priests had been nominated to stand for election as the diocese's fourth bishop.

The nominees are:

Further details about the nominees are available here.

The diocese will hold an electing convention Nov. 19 at Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park. A notation on the timeline posted on the bishop search website says that "the first ballot will determine the final slate of the nominees."

The priest elected will succeed Bishop John Howe, 68, who announced in January that he would retire in 2012. The diocese has said that Howe's retirement will occur on March 24, 2012, the day that his successor is due to be ordained and consecrated. Howe will have been bishop in Central Florida for 20 years at that point.

The Orlando-based diocese has 88 parishes and missions with 30,644 baptized members and an average Sunday attendance diocesanwide of 153, according to the diocesan profile. The diocese was created in January 1970 when the then-Diocese of South Florida was divided into the current Central Florida, Southeast Florida and Southwest Florida dioceses.