ST. PETERSBURG -- The new year finds Bishop John B. Lipscomb, spiritual leader of 39,000 Episcopalians along Florida's southwest coast, focused on a changing flock.

Predominantly white, the diocese that stretches from Brooksville to Marco Island and east to Plant City is changing with the arrival of Hispanic, West Indian, Asian and other immigrants. With change comes challenge.

For the newcomers, Lipscomb's dream is to provide more than a place in the pews and appropriate translations of the Episcopal prayer book. He wants congregations to embrace their cultures, gifts and needs.

Lipscomb, 51, discussed this and other topics relating to the state and future of the Diocese of Southwest Florida during two recent interviews, one at his seat at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in downtown St. Petersburg.

Besides continued focus on tolerance and diversity, Lipscomb predicts increased leadership roles for women clergy and new missions in areas that are growing. Additionally, said the bishop, the diocese will continue to adhere to the policies of the national church in regard to the blessing of gay unions. Lipscomb also talked about encouraging continued cooperation among congregations and spoke optimistically about the diocese's finances. He did not, however, rule out the possibility that churches in decline will be closed.

Farther afield, Lipscomb said the Episcopal Church, a part of the worldwide Anglican communion along with the Church of England, has an important role to play.

"I think that the Anglican church is trying to be an agent of reconciliation in crisis, in places like the Sudan, to bring healing and also relief to the poor," he said.

"I think one of the most exciting things is our continued work at ground zero, through St. Paul's Chapel."

In uncertain times, Lipscomb added, it is at the local level that the church's work is most meaningful.

"I was overwhelmed by the numbers that were here at the cathedral the night of Sept. 11," he said.

"I think that as the church continues in its daily life and ministry, it prepares for these crisis moments."

Lipscomb, though, also believes the church must be prepared to welcome those outside the majority culture.

"We are watching, I think, a richness and a diversity of cultures beginning to grow within the boundaries of the diocese that will certainly reflect on the life of the church. I think one of the things that it does for the church is it causes us to ask serious questions about what it means to be open to all sorts of conditions of the human family and to realize that we simply don't translate the Anglican liturgy into Spanish or Creole or Asian languages and expect that to be the end of it," Lipscomb said.

"We have to find ways of bringing the diversity of cultures to the very heart of the church's life."

His words likely would be applauded in many parts of the 73-million-member Anglican communion, whose growth is strongest outside the West. Further, many are predicting that Pakistani-born Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali will be the church's next leader when the current archbishop of Canterbury, British-born George Carey, retires this year.

Lipscomb said he understands that some parishioners might be uncomfortable with change but that he will continue to preach his "message of love."

"I know that it is a struggle for some people, because it means their world is changing. For so many people, the church is the last rock on which they cling and to see that rock changing just creates enormous difficulty and I understand that," Lipscomb said.

"I think it is a matter of continuing to provide opportunities within the diocese for people to come together in various settings and to find their common humanity," added Lipscomb, who after his institution as diocesan bishop in September 1997 initiated a relationship between parishioners in his diocese and those in the Dominican Republic.

Continuing on the topic of diversity, the bishop said he also was pleased that Tampa's St. James House of Prayer has moved from mission status to that of a parish. The historical St. James Episcopal Church was organized by black Bahamians and Afro-Cubans in 1892. In 1992 the church property was sold to make room for Blake High School and the congregation merged with the House of Prayer in 1996. Today the multicultural parish is headed by the Rev. Denniston Kerr, a Jamaican-born priest.

Of women and gays

Lipscomb also is a firm advocate of female clergy. Of the diocese's 220 resident clergy, 44 are women, a number that reflects a net increase of 13 in the last five years, said the Rev. Gary Cartwright, the bishop's chaplain and director of ministry development.

Congregations are finding it "more and more acceptable" to have female priests, Lipscomb said. Even so, there still is some confusion about how to address women clergy. Last summer delegates to the annual diocesan convention defeated a resolution urging Lipscomb to designate a gender-neutral name for priests. The generally favored term, "Father," is awkward and possibly sexist, they said.

Discussing the subject recently, Lipscomb appeared amused.

"Frankly, the use of titles in the Episcopal Church varies from diocese to diocese and congregation to congregation. Trying to set a national standard just isn't something that is going to be possible," he said.

Lipscomb, who was a member of a task force reviewing the progress of three dioceses that have lagged behind the Episcopal Church's mandate to ordain and deploy women priests, also stands firmly with the national body on its policies regarding gays and gay clergy.

"The national church, since the mid 1970s, has maintained a conviction that we have to be a church at which anyone can find a place at the Lord's table and that the church has to be as concerned with gays, lesbians and transgendered people as it is with any other segment of the population," Lipscomb said.

But, Lipscomb added, "It has also been the conviction of the church that it is not appropriate to ordain persons who are living in noncelibate homosexual relationships any more than it would be appropriate to ordain persons who are living outside of holy matrimony. The church has also maintained that marriage is a sacramental rite and that the church should not bless same-sex unions."

The Diocese of Delaware, nevertheless, recently became the first in the nation to authorize the blessing of same-sex unions.

Fiscal health and growth

On another topic, Lipscomb said his diocese is doing well financially.

"While we, like the rest of the country, wonder what will happen in response to Sept. 11 and the economy and the stresses that it will put on the economy, at this point, I haven't seen anything that would say to me that the people's generosity and caring have lessened," he said.

In recent years, three parishes have closed, including Holy Cross Episcopal Church at 750 93rd Ave. N. It now operates as an ecumenical center and is rented by the National Conference for Community and Justice, an organization devoted to fighting bias, bigotry and racism. About a year ago, the former St. Joseph's Episcopal Church merged with Lamb of God Lutheran Church.

"One of the things I think we constantly have to ask," Lipscomb said, "is how can we be of most service to the communities that we serve. Strangely enough, the closings that we've had so far have only strengthened the witness of the corporate church in the life of the communities we serve, because very faithful people have become part of congregations that are growing, healthy congregations."

For Lipscomb, growth is key.

"If the church is not able to grow and meet the contemporary needs of a society that is hungry to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ," he said, "we are not being the people that God intends us to be."

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