Dean Timothy Kimbrough (L) reads as Bishop Greg Brewer (C) and the Rev. Dr. David Decosimo (R) pray during Decosimo’s ordination service. | Photo: MOLLY HERMAN-GALLOW

Relationships – with family and friends, with three bishops, with present and future clergy and above all, with the Lord – tell the story of the Rev. Dr. David Decosimo’s ordination to the sacred order of the priesthood by the Rt. Rev. Gregory O. Brewer on the evening of Feb. 18 at the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina.

Relationships With Central Florida Bishops

Of his initial connection with Decosimo, Brewer, fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida and current interim rector at Church of the Incarnation, Dallas, Texas, said, “David was, at the time, serving as a professor in philosophy at Boston University, yet he really was feeling the nudge toward ordination. We met through a mutual friend while I was still diocesan bishop.”

That mutual friend had connected Decosimo with Brewer as he began to discern his call to the priesthood. “He suggested that I get connected with Bishop Brewer because the Diocese of Central Florida had a wonderful track record of working with potential ordinands who were in situations like mine of geographic transition,” Decosimo said. “And it also seemed very clear that, providentially, there was a deep theological fit between where I was and where the diocese was.

“So that was one layer of connection, but there was another layer too, and it related to Bishop Justin Holcomb, who was serving as canon for vocations at the time,” he continued. “While we had never met, we had both lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, and had a number of mutual friends. Almost immediately, it became clear that this was just a beautiful fit.”

Brewer confirmed Decosimo in the diocesan chapel in Orlando on Oct. 27, 2022. “At that point, I didn’t know him very well,” Decosimo said. “But he preached at the confirmation service, and although he didn’t know much of my story, it seemed like the sermon had been written for me in particular. It was extraordinary. He had asked to meet with me after the service, which I was delighted to do.”

The Rev. Dr. Decosimo kneels before Bishop Greg Brewer during the ordination service. | Photo: MOLLY HERMAN-GALLOW

“As we’ve done with other ordinands, we try to see if there is that willingness to take them on and be, in essence, their sponsoring parish here in Central Florida,” Brewer explained. “And so that’s what happened: David entered our ordination process, and also, I really became David’s pastor at a time when he particularly needed one.”

Decosimo agrees. “I immediately felt so deeply, pastorally cared for in a truly remarkable and exceptional way,” he said. “It seemed like there were divine fingerprints all over this. Before I even got back to Boston from the confirmation service, Bishop Brewer had texted me, letting me know that he understood himself to be my pastor and would be there for me, that he’d be praying for me and my family – it was extraordinary, the level of care and his way of making Christ’s love present to me.”

Decosimo had no idea how much he would need a pastor over the next several months. Not only was he contemplating a career transition, but, just 43 at the time, he also suffered a heart attack while on a run in the spring of 2023, followed by successful surgery. “I am healthy, fit, and young, and there was no history of anything like this in my family, so it was incredibly traumatic,” he explained. “But through all of that, even though I was in Boston, both Bishop Justin and Bishop Brewer were very, very present and incredibly encouraging.”

After Holcomb’s consecration as bishop in June of that year, he granted permission for Brewer to serve as Decosimo’s clergy sponsor when he ordained him and six others to the diaconate on Jan. 11, 2024. Soon afterward, the new deacon left Boston University for a position as a tenured faculty member at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

“One of the ways relationships deepen is when you walk together through really hard and deeply difficult things,” he said. “I feel incredibly blessed that both of those bishops have walked so faithfully with me through some extraordinarily challenging trials related to both my health and to my career. They have both been incredibly encouraging and supportive through those times.”

Relationship With Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Duke

Once Decosimo had moved to the Durham area, he connected with the AEHS. “When I let Bishop Justin know that we were going to be moving to this area, as we were brainstorming together about where and how I might be able to exercise my priestly vocation, the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies seemed like an immediate and beautiful possibility to both of us,” he said. “And he reached out to Bishop Sam Rodman, the bishop of North Carolina, and to Dean Kimbrough, and neither of them could have given a warmer and more hospitable welcome, which has been such a gift.”

Father Decosimo is vested by his wife, Harmony, and father, Nick. | Photo: MOLLY HERMAN-GALLOW

Holcomb also stressed the key role Rodman played in Decosimo’s appointment to the AEHS as well as to his later ordination there. “Bishop Rodman made it very welcoming for David to serve there and eventually be licensed, and for Bishop Brewer or me to ordain him there,” he said. “I am grateful for his generosity, hospitality and kindness throughout this process.”

The Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough, dean of the AEHS at Duke, also praised Decosimo’s connection with Rodman and with the house he oversees. “The canons of The Episcopal Church (III.8.7e) indicate that eligibility for ordination to the priesthood in The Episcopal Church is, in part, determined by the appointment of the ordinand (in this case, the ‘priest-to-be’) ‘to serve in a Parochial Cure within the jurisdiction of The Episcopal Church.’

“The canon goes on to describe a variety of circumstances that might prove satisfactory for the canon, including appointment to serve as a chaplain at a seminary,” he said. “Late last year, Bishop Holcomb contacted me, after consultation with the bishop of North Carolina, and asked if Dr. Decosimo might be appointed to the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies in a chaplain’s capacity. We stood ready to accommodate the request in any that would be helpful to David’s ordination process, to the Diocese of Central Florida, to the Diocese of North Carolina and to the AEHS at Duke.”

Decosimo soon became an official part of the AEHS. “I can’t speak highly enough of Father Kimbrough or the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies,” he said. “It’s a really beautiful site for theological education, and then particularly because I am a philosopher and a theologian professionally, such a great place for me to live out vital aspects of my vocation and unite my priestly and scholarly callings.”

Ordination Service

The ordination itself also came about as a result of cooperation between Decosimo, Kimbrough and the three bishops, with Holcomb requesting permission from Rodman via letter for either himself or Brewer (whom he described as a “valued mentor” for Decosimo) to perform the ordination. Once the North Carolina bishop granted that permission, and since the proposed ordination date fell only a few days before the Diocese of Central Florida’s annual Diocesan Convention, Holcomb invited Brewer to perform the ordination on his behalf.

Brewer, for his part, was delighted to accept. The former Central Florida bishop also spent time with Kimbrough and students from the AEHS before presiding at the ordination.

“I’ve been to the AEHS at Duke twice prior to coming this time, and in both cases, I had great conversations with students who wanted to meet with me individually,” he said. “They did a brown-bag Q&A that went really well. I had some good time individually with the dean as well; I believe he’s doing a very fine job.”

The Rev. Dr. Decosimo lies prostrate during the ordination service. | Photo: MOLLY HERMAN-GALLOW

Decosimo said the entire experience of ordination was “incredible.” He found particular meaning in the portion of the service in which he lay prostrate in what he described as a posture of “absolute worship, absolute vulnerability and absolute dependency in relationship to Jesus.” Brewer’s sermon challenged him to pray, surrender and seek the Lord after the pattern of the prophet Isaiah, which would grant him, Brewer said, “the fiery courage to enter the heartbreak of others’ lives with the warm and deeply tender words of the gospel.”

“The night of David’s ordination was bright, brilliant and uplifting,” Kimbrough said. “At the request of Bishop Holcomb, Bishop Brewer visited Duke over a period of 48 hours to meet with students, offer encouragement and to preside at David’s ordination. Students provided a music ministry team. The Litany for Ordinations was chanted, and Bishop Brewer preached a Spirit-filled sermon on the call to priesthood.

“It was one of those rare moments when students preparing for church leadership, no matter which side of the Communion rail they are being called to, were able to experience an ordination up close,” he said. “They were able to see, hear and feel the descending of the Holy Spirit on yet another ordinand made priest in the church of God. It was a privilege for the community at Duke to be there for David’s ordination and a privilege to so partner with the Diocese of Central Florida.”

“Just as was the case at my confirmation, Bishop Brewer’s sermon could not have been more providentially and spiritually precise and on topic,” Decosimo said. He also expressed delight in the number of friends from diverse church backgrounds present at his ordination, which he said was both “a faithful, rich, and profoundly Episcopalian” service and a time of “beautiful, ecumenical” fellowship and celebration.

Ministry, Gratitude and Gospel

Decosimo’s call to the priesthood remains folded into and alongside his primary professional vocation as scholar, philosopher and ethicist. “The heart of my scholarly work is reflecting on what it is to live well as human beings and how we should think about and navigate deep difference and disagreement and move across those disagreements into deeper understanding and even friendship,” he said. “My hope is that in coming years I will be a pastoral presence and theological resource for students of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Duke.”

The Decosimo Family (minus baby Paul, who was at home with a sitter) L-R: Lucy, Harmony, Father David, Myles, Nora | Photo: MOLLY HERMAN-GALLOW

“To date, David has participated in a variety of AEHS special events, including our festival of John Henry Newman last October, and he makes himself available for the worship life of the House (Morning Prayer, Monday through Friday; Holy Eucharist, Tuesdays),” Kimbrough said. “His relationship with the House is nonstipendiary. His work as a full-time member of the faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill provides for but modest involvement with the House at the moment.”

Decosimo expressed thanks for the support he has received from his wife, Harmony, and their four children: Myles, 16; twins Lucy and Nora, 15; and baby Paul, who joined the family in July. He also said both current and former rectors of the Church of the Incarnation, Oviedo, the Rev. Tom Phillips and the Rev. Josh Bales; along with the Rev. Michael Dangelo, his rector from Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, in Boston, Massachusetts, have been helpful and encouraging to him throughout the ordination process.

Over all, he remains grateful for his strong relationship with the Diocese of Central Florida. “I continue to be so deeply, deeply thankful to God for the Diocese of Central Florida, and I love for people to encounter it, because, in the most beautiful way, it opens up their eyes and defies their expectations about what The Episcopal Church is and can be,” he said. “And at the very heart of that is the way in which the diocese puts the good news of God in Jesus redeeming human beings and making all things new at the very center, and does so in an unapologetic, winsome and vibrant way. Among much else, a huge part of what was so special about the ordination was this: the light of the gospel as it shines in the Diocese of Central Florida was shining so brightly that evening for all to see.”