The other candidates had months to prepare their nomination documents. He had two weeks. The other candidates went through a protracted selection process similar to that of the Diocese of Central Florida in its recent bishop search and election. He was a petitioned nominee whose candidacy became official only after review at the end of the 14-day window for additional names to be added to the slate. But as 1 of 5 candidates seeking election on Sept. 30 as the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio, the Rev. Dr. José Rodríguez sees not obstacles, but God at work.
“I was on vacation with my family, and I got a call from priests I had never met before, asking me if I would prayerfully consider getting to know them, answering some questions for the possibility of being their petition candidate for the Diocese of Southern Ohio,” he explained. Now 43, should he be elected, he will be one of the youngest bishops in The Episcopal Church.
“I’ve always worked closely with clergy here in Florida,” said Rodríguez, rector of Christ the King and vicar of Jesús de Nazaret, both in Orlando. “And there’s a difference between working with your friends and colleagues and having perfect strangers approach you and say, ‘We see something that we’d like to consider.’
“I personally believe that life is too chaotic and the world is too chaotic for things to come together the way they did in this process,” he added. “So when I see order to the chaos, when I see different places coming together, when I see such a broadly representative group as the people in Southern Ohio, representing about 15 of 71 churches, approaching me with the same message – that they would want me to be their candidate – it’s almost impossible not to hear the Holy Spirit in their voice.
“At first, I was pushing it off,” Rodríguez said. “And then I very clearly heard God’s voice through them, that this was something to pay attention to. And in paying attention and listening and learning, I heard God’s call to offer myself up as a candidate. And then I started getting my own visions and dreams of being their bishop. And we’ll see what the [Special Electing] Convention says.”
“I’ve been working with Father José through this process since he first told me and have been praying regularly for and with him, for his family and for the Diocese of Southern Ohio as they discern their next chief pastor,” said the Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin S. Holcomb, bishop of the Diocese of Central Florida.
Rodríguez noted that his prayers and attention are on both the opportunity in Southern Ohio and the two churches he serves in Central Florida. “This isn’t something I looked for,” he said. “I didn’t even know they had a bishop position open. So it is something brought to me, something that really has been by the grace of the Holy Spirit, because all the prayer that went into those two weeks [between receiving the phone call and submitting his application] was some of the most intense prayer in my life.”
Although his first official visit to the Diocese of Southern Ohio will take place this month, when he and the other candidates will participate in meet-and-greet sessions, he believes his work in Central Florida has prepared him for his potential episcopacy. “Central Florida is a slice of America,” he said. “Serving in Central Florida has given me enough experience that I was able to find parallels, intersection, connection to Southern Ohio.”
In addition, “Bishops are called to be bishops for the whole church,” said Rodríguez, who was born in Puerto Rico but grew up in Central Florida. “This is true in the same way that as a Latino, as a Puerto Rican, my first cure was in English-speaking and Anglo communities. There wasn’t necessarily a connection between me being Latino and automatically going into Hispanic ministries. I went to where the Holy Spirit called me.”
“What Southern Ohio offers me is an opportunity for me to minister to the whole church,” he emphasized. “While I love being part of the Hispanic Ministries here in Central Florida, many of my colleagues see me as the Hispanic Ministries guy, and they forget that I also serve an Anglo congregation and that I also did college ministry. They forget that I’m also in a multicultural marriage. And so here in Central Florida, where the ministries I serve are thriving, I’m still kind of backed into a corner. And for the folks in Southern Ohio to see me backed into my little corner, I really felt like Hagar: ‘the God who sees me.’
“It was profoundly affirming of my call to the priesthood that individuals in a region very different from this one saw my ability and the gifts the Lord has given me to serve all of God’s people, not just the Hispanic parts of Central Florida,” Rodríguez said.
Regardless of the outcome of the election, he sees value in his nomination that extends beyond himself and his family. “I’m hoping that my call challenges many of my colleagues to see that they’re called to be priests and ministers to God’s people who are different than they are. … We have to acknowledge that Central Florida is a majority of minorities, and the demographics of our clergy don’t reflect the demographics of our community. What I’m hoping is that the Holy Spirit moves the clergy to reach out to the expanding demographic of Central Florida.”
And Rodríguez has a vision for his current colleagues that also reaches beyond the diocese. “I’m not the only priest in Central Florida who is able to answer this call,” he said. “And my vision for our diocese is for many of us to answer this call throughout the country. … I hope that this leads to a chain reaction of our priests offering themselves up to service throughout The Episcopal Church.
“I have a vision; I have a dream that I’m going to be serving alongside many of my fellow colleagues for a long time,” he said. “And if I’m called to be in the House of Bishops, I hope they go into the House of Bishops with me throughout the country.
“I was born in what was then Province IX,” Rodríguez said. “Even though I was born an American citizen, for Southern Ohio to consider a foreign-born person to be their bishop in one of the domestic dioceses, that is significant. And they should be honored for that whether or not I become their bishop.”