During the 56th annual Diocesan Convention, held Jan. 24-25 at Trinity, Vero Beach, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin S. Holcomb made more than one important announcement. One of several that are already having an impact on the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida is the appointment of the Rev. Canon Ellis Brust to a new position on the diocesan staff: the quarter-time role of canon for clergy in transition.
“It is a joy to announce that Canon Ellis Brust, rector of St. Andrew’s Ft. Pierce, has agreed to join my team quarter-time to focus his attention on transition ministry, searches and coaching for clergy,” the bishop told Convention attendees. “On top of being the rector for a thriving and growing congregation, he’s adding quarter-time responsibilities to his plate in which he’s going to be helping us.”
Brust is excited about his new duties. “When the bishop calls, I try to say yes,” he explained. “Bishops need all the support and help they can get because it’s a big job. I will work collaboratively with Canon Smith and the staff in transition ministries, helping congregations find the best ordained leader in their particular setting.”
“The reason behind this appointment is that we as a diocesan staff take any search process incredibly seriously,” said the Rev. Canon Dan Smith, canon to the ordinary. “We want to devote significant time and energy to those congregations as they seek new clergy leadership. We do that in part because we believe the most important factor as a church goes through this process is that the new leadership be an excellent fit. There is no ‘one size fits all.’ To provide the best opportunity for a long-term relationship – which is what we all want – the priest who’s moving and the new congregation need to fit together incredibly well.”
Experience and Calling
Brust brings a wealth of experience to this new position, as Holcomb pointed out when he shared the announcement at the Convention. Not only has he been in ordained ministry for more than 40 years, working in churches coast to coast, but he has served as canon to the ordinary for the Diocese of Florida and canon for Anglican Communion relations for the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, among other positions. His wife, the Rev. Cynthia Brust, is rector of Christ Church, Suntree-Viera, and the two make their home in Indialantic.
“I think clergy couples have a unique gift to bring to the church,” Canon Brust said. “I believe it’s going to be one of the unique opportunities that the Diocese of Central Florida has to see couples, sometimes serving in different parishes as Cynthia and I do, and sometimes ending up in the same parish as other clergy couples have. It’s a unique calling. It’s a joyful calling. Cynthia and I have so much fun being partners in life and partners in mission and ministry. Because there are so many well-qualified clergy couples already in the diocese, we hope to see more joining our ranks.”
At the 2025 Diocesan Convention, Bishop Holcomb presents Canon Ellis Brust with a purple cincture signifying his appointment to the role of canon for transitions. | Photo: STEPHANIE GAMBLE PHOTOGRAPHY
Brust also sees God at work in the bishop’s appointing him to his new role. “Mentoring is at my heart,” he said. “I have a personal vision statement for my life that God gave me probably 40 years ago, and it is, ‘Making and equipping disciples to take the eternal gospel of Jesus Christ into a changing world.’ That’s what I try to do every single day. Part of that is helping clergy and mentoring them, coaching them, being a friend to them as they are discerning God’s next call on their life. And part of that is helping parishes as they discern God’s call on their collective life at a time of transition.
“It’s something I enjoy,” he added. “I don’t know how many searches I’ve been part of in the last 25 years, but I would estimate north of 200. Sometimes that’s a casual thing, like a phone call, ‘Do you know somebody?’ or sometimes it’s in a formal capacity, as I will do here in the Diocese of Central Florida. At other times, it’s been a church that was a bit stuck in its search process, and I’ve been hired to fly across the country to help them get unstuck. So I’ve done and enjoyed this kind of work for decades.”
Smith affirms the need for Brust’s expertise as well as his calling to this role. “Canon Brust’s specific responsibility is to coach congregations through the search process,” he said. “In a diocese our size, with the number of openings that we typically have, the canon to the ordinary just can’t do justice to what the search process calls for in terms of time. At some point along the way, we want this [canon for transitions or transitions officer] to be a full-time position on our staff. … the work that I do, where I’m traveling all over the diocese to assist with congregational development, addressing conflict, legal matters and advising the bishop, doesn’t allow me to give to each congregation the time it deserves in the search process.
“And so we brought on Canon Brust, who has great expertise in conducting searches, congregational development and in leadership coaching,” Smith continued. He said he and Brust have a regularly scheduled two-hour phone meeting once a month, with frequent emails and calls in between.
“He really is a terrific bridge to get us from where we currently are to that point where we could have a full-time staff person dealing with transitions,” he said. “We have six clergy openings in our diocese right now. Canon Brust is handling four of them, and I’m handling two.
“I’m actually turning over [to Canon Brust] what is my favorite part of the job because it’s just so exciting to see new leadership develop and to watch the excitement of a congregation as the people dream about the future and then take steps to make that future come to fruition, to watch the excitement of a new priest coming into a church community,” Smith said. “It’s also rewarding to coach congregations through the time of grief that comes when a priest leaves and they have to go through the search process.
“It’s almost a death-and-resurrection experience: the grief of loss and then the wonder and excitement all wrapped up in the search process, and that all demands significant attention,” he continued. “Canon Brust’s appointment to this position allows us to devote the energy and time that those churches who are seeking new leadership truly deserve.”
Uniqueness and Significance
And the transition process for clergy is unique. “I tell search committees, vestries and congregations all the time that they are not hiring somebody,” Smith said. “They are calling someone – they are hoping to call a respected leader to come in and be a part of them. So many of our folks, in their business lives, have hired people. But hiring somebody is a different thing than calling somebody. And so when we go in and support a church in the process of a clergy call, we can base it in prayer. We can base it in congregational development. We can base it in the theology and spirituality of the church, as opposed to a hiring process that you can go through in the business world. They’re just different.”
Brust agrees as to the distinctive nature of clergy transition. “It’s a clarifying moment, an inflection point in the life of a church,” he said. “I’ve believed this for my entire ministry: Clergy are stewards of the office that they hold for a very short time. … It’s not our parish; it’s God’s parish.
“And the primary stakeholders in that parish are the lay leaders of the local church,” he said. “Clergy are there to answer God’s call to serve that local parish for a time and a season, and when that time and season are up, that’s when a transition officer comes in and helps the lay leadership find that new leader for a new season of mission and ministry.”
Changing Times and Cooperative Efforts
“The times we’re in are very different from the times when I started doing this back in 1998 in the Diocese of Florida,” Brust said, recalling the days when he and the Rev. Canon Ernie Bennett, then canon to the ordinary for the Diocese of Central Florida, would collaborate to work on transitions.
“One of the major changes is we are now ordaining half the number of people that we are retiring every year,” he said. “In other words, The Episcopal Church is retiring twice as many people as it is ordaining every year, and there is a clergy shortage. … it’s no longer just that we’re in the Sunshine State, so it’s an attractive option. For Bishop Holcomb’s vision to be fulfilled – that we’re going to be a diocese focused on the gospel – we’ve got to bring in clergy who are going to be aligned with that vision, who want to do this type of ministry in the Diocese of Central Florida. And we need to have our parishes ready to jump in and help those clergy in ways that maybe in the past we didn’t have to.”
As part of their shared role in clergy transition, Smith and Brust will attend the National Transition Officers Meeting March 25-28 in Baltimore, Maryland. “My counterparts from as far away as Hawaii, Oregon and Washington state, and virtually every one of them from Province IV [province for the Diocese of Central Florida and 19 others in nine states] are going to gather in Baltimore at the end of the month,” Smith said.
“The Episcopal Church is still an organization where you support each other,” Brust said of working with other transition officers. “There may be some differences in the way we do things, even theological differences. But generally speaking, what I have found is bishops tell the truth to each other, canons to the ordinary tell the truth to each other, and transition officers definitely have to tell the truth to each other.”