The Rev. Canon Dr. Dan Smith setting up his new workspace in the diocesan office.

What would bring a priest out of semi-retirement and back into full-time ministry? In the case of the Rev. Canon Dr. Dan Smith, who began his tenure as canon to the ordinary for the Diocese of Central Florida on July 1, 2023, it all boils down to one thing. As he puts it, “The opportunity to help Bishop Justin Holcomb build a foundation was too good to pass up.”

Smith comes to his new position with a wealth of experience both in Central Florida and outside it. A cradle Episcopalian who grew up at Christ the King, Azalea Park, he said his call to the priesthood was “pretty organic,” with one step leading to the next.

“I didn’t have any great big flash of light; I just started the process, walking that path, and doors kept opening,” he explained. Two weeks after graduating from the University of Central Florida, he married Evelyn, his wife of (now) 45 years, whom he met while both were working at Disney World. And two weeks after that, he began seminary at Nashotah House in Nashotah, Wisconsin.

“I was one of the first to do that under Bishop Bill Folwell,” Smith said. “He generally liked people to have some time in the business world or some profession before they went to seminary, but he saw something, I guess, and I went to seminary straight from college.”

The Smiths’ son, the Rev. Mitchell Smith, born just after his father graduated from seminary, is now married with two teenagers. He also serves in The Episcopal Church as rector of St. Martin’s in-the-Fields, Columbia, South Carolina. The Smiths’ daughter, Shannon, lives in Tampa and is married with three children.

After seminary, Smith worked primarily in youth ministry at St. Sebastian’s-by-the-Sea, Melbourne Beach, leading a group of about 100 students. After that church’s rector retired, Smith took an interim role there before being called to Emmanuel, Orlando. “This was with Frank Gray, now Bishop Gray, when he was the rector there,” he said. “In some ways, I really learned the craft of being a priest from him; I spent three years there.”

Smith then became founding vicar of St. Matthew’s, Orlando, where he also served for three years, and then took a position at St. Christopher’s Episcopal, Kailua, on the windward coast of Oahu, Hawaii. During his eight years there, he began ministering to women in domestic violence situations, later taking a leadership role in various aspects of dealing with clergy misconduct.

Because of that expertise, the Rt. Rev. Chris Epting, then bishop of Iowa, asked Smith to come and “help put back together a church that had been decimated by both sexual and financial misconduct,” Smith said. God used him in great ways to help rebuild that church both spiritually and financially, and he also worked on his doctorate in congregational development at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Chicago, completing his degree in 2001.

When the Rt. Rev. Wayne Smith became bishop of Missouri in 2002, he asked the Rev. Canon Dr. Dan Smith to serve as his canon to the ordinary, handling candidate searches, congregational development, conflict resolution and more. The new canon to the ordinary began that role in 2003.

But 30-plus years of ordained ministry, much of it in leadership roles, took their toll. In 2015, recognizing symptoms of burnout, he chose to take the early retirement offered by The Episcopal Church. He and his wife returned to Florida, where, he said, “I really did some work to get myself healthy again. I am grateful for the support of both Bishop Smith and Bishop Brewer as I did my personal work toward health.”

Renewed and restored, Smith went on to serve as priest-in-charge for Holy Cross, Sanford, a part-time position that began in 2016, and in various consulting roles for the diocese. He and the Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin Holcomb, then canon for vocations, facilitated Ministry, Leadership and Mission classes for newly ordained clergy and clergy new to the diocese.

“That’s where I really got to know Bishop Holcomb,” he said. “We did those classes together for about six years.” He added that he and the bishop have had multiple conversations about bringing their past experience to the present and future of the diocese.

“The fact is, I’ve had a wonderful career,” Smith said. “I don’t need a career at this point. … I really believe [Holcomb] has the possibility of a 20-year episcopacy in front of him, and I really think he’s going to be good. Just the opportunity to help him get started and help him build what I call a foundation was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

“I do have some skills that I think will be useful to him,” Smith added. “I actually loved being canon to the ordinary in Missouri, and I enjoyed all of that time … I’m grateful to be healthy and grateful to have the chance to reenter that particular type of ministry.”

“One of the things that Bishop Holcomb and I share is the knowledge that his offices really exist for the benefit of the congregations, not the other way around,” he explained. “Our work is to serve the congregations and the clergy of the diocese, and I really look forward to that aspect of working with clergy and working with congregations in their searches. And if they enter other kinds of things where my help is needed, I’m grateful to do that.

“I’m looking forward to the developing of leadership both in terms of clergy that we’ll raise up and in terms of clergy that will come into the diocese; I’m very much looking forward to that aspect of the job,” Smith said. “And I’m looking forward to helping people be able to share the gospel and whatever I can do to support the clergy in their primary task of leading congregations.”