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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 19, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG -- Lawyer Richard T. Earle III has put on a new mantle. In clerical shirt and collar, white robe and red stole, he was ordained to the sacred order of deacons and conferred with the title of "reverend" Friday. Earle, 59, has aspired to his new vocation and attendant responsibilities for about 25 years.
Contemplating his new role a few days before ordination, the veteran lawyer confessed to a case of the nerves.
"I really have butterflies," he said, sitting in a conference room in the downtown St. Petersburg law offices of Carlton Fields.
"I wonder, "Why me?' " he mused.
"I look out into the church. I see saints out in the congregation and I say, "Lord, why me? Why not somebody else?' Yet, I don't have any doubt that I have been called."
Beginning Jan. 27, Earle will be based at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Peter, where his job will include assisting the priests, visiting the sick and homebound and attending to the poor. The position is unpaid, and Earle will continue to practice law full time while he performs his religious duties.
"It is going to be a delicate balance," he said.
"Fortunately, I live downtown. I'm close to work. I'm close to St. Anthony's (Hospital). I'm close to Bayfront (Medical Center)."
Earle, a real estate, probate and estate planning attorney, has been in practice for 35 years, 33 of them with his prominent and respected father, Richard T. Earle Jr., who died in 1999.
Asked about possible conflicts between his legal and religious vocations, Earle answered: "I don't see any conflicts. I look at the practice of law as a ministry."
He said he tries "awful hard" to live his faith and added that those who know him well were not surprised by his religious aspirations. Earle went on to discuss the moment when he would be formally presented to the bishop for ordination.
"I have to be presented by both lay people and clergy, and one of the things my presenters have to do is they have to testify in front of the bishop. The bishop will ask them, "Do you believe his manner of life to be suitable to the exercise of this ministry? And they respond, "We certify to you that he is qualified.' To have people stand up and say, "Yes, his manner of life is such,' is just, wow! What more can somebody say about you?"
Earle, a St. Petersburg native, was barely a decade out of law school when he felt the call to the ministry.
"It was just a feeling I had," he said.
He went on to take a four-year course the church required, but it did not lead him to his goal.
"The bishop decided he wanted to change the program somewhat and it fell by the wayside," Earle said.
Though disappointed, he kept volunteering at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter, where his family had long worshiped.
"I kept doing more and more. I started teaching Sunday school and at St. Peter's, they have children's chapel. . . . I got very active in that," said Earle, who has two adult daughters and four grandchildren.
About six years ago, he felt the urge to try again.
"It was just a nagging feeling that I really wasn't doing what I had been called to do. . . . (God) had called me to do more," he said.
He decided to participate in a new discernment program approved by Bishop John B. Lipscomb, then the new spiritual leader of the Diocese of Southwest Florida.
At the end of the strenuous two-year program, Earle was still convinced that he had been called to serve the church as a deacon. However, he was not allowed to take the next step toward his vocation until he had won approval from church officials and completed rigorous physical and psychological tests. Next came another two-year training program, this one focused on the diaconate.
Throughout it all, his family has stood by him, Earle said.
"My wife has been a tremendous support. It's been very hard on her. She's become a weekend widow," he said.
"I spend my weekends normally studying, whereas I used to have time to help her with things. She believes I'm called. I couldn't have done it without her."
His mother, Jeanne, is "very, very happy" about his ordination, Earle said this week.
Pausing and speaking quietly, he added, "I'm sorry my dad can't be there for it. He'll be there in spirit."
Earle was one of four deacons ordained during Friday evening's service. Others were the Rev. Donald Griscom from Christ Church in Bradenton, the Rev. Sandra Jamieson, Church of the Ascension in Clearwater, and the Rev. Dennis McManis, Calvary Episcopal Church in Indian Rocks Beach.
Additionally, the Rev. Christian Villagomeza, of the Philippine Independent Church, was received as a priest into the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Deb M. Blackwood, the diocese's dean of the school for ministry, was named honorary canon of St. Peter's Cathedral, and the Rev. Millard F. Neal, a priest at the cathedral for about 21/2 years, was named canon for multicultural ministry development at the historic downtown church.
That Earle has been appointed to serve at St. Peter's, his home church, is unusual, but the Rev. Randall Hehr, the cathedral's dean, made a special appeal to the bishop.
"I went to the bishop and said I need Richard here at the cathedral. Because of his long history here, he knows the cathedral well. He knows the people, and I told the bishop I would value his ministry here," Hehr said this week.
"Richard has been in this discernment process for years," Hehr added. "He spoke to the dean who was here when I was a teenager, so we're talking about 30 years. He has been searching and praying, and I am impressed by his patience. He listens. He's very aware of the life of the church and the importance of it. He cares about people deeply. He's devoted."
For the past 10 months of training, Earle has been posted to St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, 2920 26th Ave. S.
"I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a wonderful congregation," he said.
"I believe that I've become part of their spiritual lives. Father (Hayden) Crawford, the rector, has allowed me to preach. In fact, I'm going to be preaching Sunday."
Crawford was among the clergy Earle chose to present him for ordination Friday. The others were Hehr, Neal, the Rev. Georgene "Gigi" Conner, a canon at the cathedral, and retired priest the Rev. John W. Thomas. For his nonclerical presenters, Earle chose his wife, Shirley, childhood friend Virginia Rowell, St. Peter's senior warden Blanton Garnett, former director of the city's Office on Aging Gerald Buchert, and Mary Clowers, a parishioner at St. Augustine's.
When he preaches Sunday, the new deacon will talk about Andrew, one of Jesus' first disciples.
"Andrew went and told his brother Peter that they had found the Messiah," Earle said as he discussed what he planned to say.
"I find it amazing that you don't read much about Andrew in the gospels. He's not somebody you read going out and making sermons and converting thousands of people, but he was a saint of God. I think we're all called to be saints of God."
When Sunday arrives, Earle hopes to have mastered the intricacies of his new religious garments. His wife had made him try on the clerical collars and blue and white pinstriped shirts she ordered from a religious supply house to make sure they were the proper fit. The exercise proved daunting.
"It was absolutely a riot," Earle said, recalling his struggle with unfamiliar snaps that fastened in the back.
By Wednesday, though, he was as confident that he had found the right fit in clothing as he had in vocation.
"I'm ready," he said.