Bishop Benfield Announces Retirement

A Letter from Bishop Benfield

As I Plan My Retirement, I Want to Say Thank You

The Diocese of Arkansas is amazing. It has remained healthy throughout the many years in which the Episcopal Church has undergone vast changes. Episcopalians in this diocese have embraced progress in so many arenas with a genuineness that has amazed people outside this state. “Arkansas?” they say when I talk with them about how this diocese is living into the baptismal covenant that we will see the risen Christ in everyone.

I am honored to be a part of such a healthy diocese and how we have remained active and outwardly focused even through the trials of a pandemic. We are now entering a new phase of our life as a church as we navigate how to be faithful Christians in a culture and society that is much different than the one with which I was familiar when I came to Arkansas in 1992—or for which I was earlier trained in seminary.

It has been over fifteen years since I was ordained as the bishop of Arkansas, and I clearly understand that it is time for fresh Episcopal leadership to continue the work with new ideas so that this diocese can remain healthy and engaged in proclaiming good news. Therefore, I have told my staff and the Standing Committee that I plan to retire in early 2024. This plan will give the diocese time to search for, elect, and ordain the next bishop. In the meantime, my staff and I will continue our work as usual. There is much to be done to ensure, for example, that we find good leadership in congregations, that we continue to raise up new members of the clergy, and that we remain faithful stewards of the gifts with which you have entrusted the church.

If there is one thing of which I am proud, it is the fact that so many of you have lived into my one sermon, which is that our call is to see the risen Christ in everyone we encounter. Resurrection is not historical; it is contemporary. Resurrection occurs in the 21st century just as much as in the first century. To grasp the reality of resurrection is hard work, but to see the resurrected Christ in all people is what I pray daily for myself and for everyone else. To do so leads to compassion, which is the goal of any true religion.

I continue to express my thanks for how much all of you have embraced my presence among you, even with all my idiosyncrasies and faults. My prayer is that God will guide this diocese into a future even more exemplary of God’s love than you and I have even imagined. We can all hope for no less.

Faithfully yours,

Larry Benfield