A diocese of The Episcopal Church that has been without a bishop for nearly three years amid concerns over voting and LGBT issues has finally elected a new leader. The Episcopal Diocese of Florida elected the Rev. J. Randolph Alexander Jr., rector of Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill in Alexandria, Virginia, last week to serve as its ninth bishop.
Alexander was elected at a convention of over 200 clergy and lay delegates held at the Camp Weed & Cerveny Conference Center in Live Oak. He received 86 clergy votes and 78 lay votes on the third ballot to secure the position. Other candidates included the Rev. M. Dorian Del Priore, rector at Holy Cross Church of Simpsonville, South Carolina; and the Very Rev. Thomas Clayton Purdy, rector at Christ Church, Frederica of St. Simons Island, Georgia.
The next step will be for the diocese to ask the bishops and standing committees of The Episcopal Church to officially consent to the election, which the denominational leaders will have 120 days to finalize.
In a statement released by the diocese, Alexander said he was “humbled, beyond words, by this decision from the people of God in the Diocese of Florida.” “The harvest field is ripe unto the harvest, the potential is immense, and God’s love for us is beyond our limited imagination,” he said.
“I ask the prayers of the diocese, as well, for my amazing wife, the Reverend Patricia Alexander, and for our sons, William, Peter, and Andrew, and our future daughter-in-law, Bailey.” “May all that we do honor God and build up God's beloved people in the Diocese of Florida. May we walk together as God's beloved, in the name of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit.”