Episcopal Press and News
Howe Elected Central Florida Coadjutor
Episcopal News Service. December 15, 1988 [88276]
NEW YORK (DPS, Dec. 15) -- On December 10 at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida, the Rev. Canon John W. Howe, rector of Truro Episcopal Church, Fairfax, Virginia, was elected Bishop Coadjutor of Central Florida. Howe was elected in the thirteenth ballot.
The Rev. Canon Thomas A. Downs, Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Central Florida, was the first runner-up in the election. Second runner-up was the Very Rev. Bertram Nelson Herlong, Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit.
Howe, the Coadjutor-elect, started his ministry as a school and university chaplain in Connecticut. He then served as associate rector of St. Stephen's Church in Sewickly, Pennsylvania, before being called, in 1976, as rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. During Howe's tenure at Truro, the congregation tripled in size -- from 1,000 to 3,000 parishioners.
Howe is the author of a number of books and articles. He was the editor of Kerycma Magazine and the co-author of the 1988 General Convention Resolution on Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life. He is currently president of the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life (N.O.E.L.), and is active in Episcopal Renewal Ministries.
The Coadjutor-elect is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and of Yale Divinity School. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Diocese of New Hampshire in 1968.
Howe and his wife of 26 years, Karen, have three children.
The consecration of the new Bishop will take place on the morning of April 15 at Calvary Assembly of God Church in Winter Park, Florida.
The Bishop Coadjutor will succeed Bishop William Hopkins Folwell, the diocesan, upon his retirement on December 31, 1989.