Pentecost Ordination Highlights Holy Spirit’s Work

Busy finishing the final requirements for his M.Div., the Rev. Wesny Dubic was happy to have his ordination to the priesthood set for a date soon after his planned May 22 graduation from Nashotah House. But he had no idea that the day chosen coincided with Pentecost until his longtime friend Canon Richard Clark, diocesan canon acolyte warden, informed him of that fact.

“It was a God moment,” Dubic said of discovering he would be ordained on the day that celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit. Both the presence and power of the Spirit were evident throughout his ordination service, held the evening of June 8 at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando.

‘Woe to Me’ and ‘Here Am I, Send Me’

After extending greetings from the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras, where he serves as bishop, the Rt. Rev. Lloyd Allen preached the ordination sermon. He and Dubic have a friendship that began as a result of the ordinand’s longtime mission work in Honduras and continued as he stepped into the role of chairman of the diocese’s Honduras Commission in 2013. Using the reading from Isaiah 6 as his primary text, Allen offered two lines from the passage that he said would both serve as prayers throughout Dubic’s ministry.

“‘Woe to me, I am ruined,’” [Is. 6:5a, NIV] Allen said. “Wes, believe me, there will be days when these words will be yours. When you stand to preach and know someone in the pews is hanging by a thread, and your words will feel too small: ‘Woe to me, I am ruined.’ When you look in the mirror and remember the things you carry, the truth you hide: ‘Woe to me, I am ruined.’ When church politics wear you down or someone you trust wounds you: ‘Woe to me, I am ruined.’ When you second-guess a pastoral decision or feel like your prayer life has gone quiet: ‘Woe to me, I am ruined.’ When you doubt not only the church but yourself: ‘Woe to me, I am ruined.’ When the weight of suffering around you presses in: ‘Woe to me, I am ruined.’

“But don’t mistake these words for failure,” Allen continued. “Don’t confuse them with despair. They are not signs of disqualification; they are the gateway to surrender. These are not the words of collapse; they are the words of calling.”

The bishop then shared a second prayer for Dubic from the focal passage: “Here I am, send me” (Isa. 6:8b).

“It too will become yours when you anoint the forehead of the dying with trembling fingers: ‘Here I am, send me,’” Allen said. “When you baptize a child and feel awe well up inside you: ‘Here I am, send me.’ When a broken marriage finds new mercy or a cynical heart dares to hope: ‘Here I am, send me.’ When someone entrusts you with their deepest confession and you speak the words of absolution: ‘Here I am, send me.’ When the chalice trembles in your hands and Christ is made known in the breaking of the bread: ‘Here I am, send me.’ When you preach truth and grace with fire in your bones: ‘Here I am, send me.’

“There will be moments when the glory of the Lord will fill the temple of your life, and you glimpse just how beautiful and terrible this calling really is,” he continued. “And the only thing left to say will be, ‘Here I am, send me.’ ‘Woe to me, I am ruined.’ … Hold onto these two lines together. Don’t try to solve the problems or the tension between them. Live in it. That tension will pull at you. It will stretch you, but it will also hold you. One line keeps you honest; the other will keep you brave. One line will keep you grounded; the other keeps you going. One is confession; the other is commission. One reveals your need for grace; the other releases you into the grace of others.”

Fruit of the Spirit

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin S. Holcomb, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, delivered a charge to Dubic centered on a quality pulled from the Epistle reading for the service, Philippians 4:4-9.

“When that passage was read, it said, ‘Let your gentleness be known to all,’” Holcomb told him. “I can’t think of anyone who better exemplifies that gentleness than you. It’s remarkable. People talk about it. They celebrate your gentleness, which is the fruit of the Spirit. … God will use that. And the gentleness, I believe, is the fruit of your humility, of exactly what Bishop Allen just said: There’s a ‘woe is me.’ As the Prayer of Humble Access says, we don’t come to this table or to God trusting in our own righteousness.”

Holcomb recalled his first meeting with Dubic years ago when he asked him about responding to the call to ministry. Dubic responded, “I don’t feel worthy.”

“I love that: that you knew you weren’t worthy in your own righteousness,” Holcomb said. “But the beautiful thing is that you’re an example of trusting in someone else’s righteousness. … I just want to tell you that the impossible ministry that Bishop Allen just told you about is impossible. And the only hope you have is that the last line that I will say to you before the consecration is ‘May the Lord who has given you the will to do these things give you the peace and power to perform them.’ And he will.”

Not only is Dubic grateful for his relationships with Allen and Holcomb, but he also expressed gratitude for the ministry of the Rt. Rev. Gregory O. Brewer, fourth bishop of the Diocese of Central Florida, who is now serving Church of the Incarnation, Dallas, as interim rector. “Bishop Brewer was instrumental in all this as well,” Dubic said. “I’ve always said to everybody that he saw something in me. Even though I did not believe in myself, the bishop believed in me. He gave me the push I needed to keep moving forward and doing the work, and I’m tremendously grateful for his leadership because I started the discernment process under him.”

Filled With the Spirit

The ordination service for Dubic, who was born in Haiti, had a multicultural flavor. Family including his parents, who now live in the Orlando area (his father is renowned artist Mr. Abner Dubic), sisters and an aunt from Canada were present. His mother, Mrs. Marie C. Dubic; the Rev. Tom Rutherford, rector, and the Rev. Soner Alexandre, associate priest, Church of the Messiah, Winter Garden; and the Rev. Canon Patricia Orlando, canon priest for spiritual formation and pastoral care, the Cathedral, presented him for ordination. Lessons were read in Creole and English by his sister, Ms. Christelle Dubic Marcelin; in English by Mr. Paul Kennedy, president of the Central Deanery; and in French and English by his fiancee, Ms. Elizabeth Boursiquot.

Dubic’s ordination also included groups from the three churches who have supported him throughout his discernment process: the Cathedral, which he considers his home church; Church of the Messiah, Winter Garden, where he has assisted with the Haitian congregation; and St. Thomas, Eustis, which helped fund his seminary education. A group from St. James, Ormond Beach, where he will begin serving Aug. 1 as priest assistant/youth and family ministry, also attended.

Not only did Dubic thank all those congregations, but he also expressed gratitude to Christ Church, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, where he served during and after his required supervised parish ministry, and its rector, the Rev. Seth Dietrich. “Father Seth was an amazing priest in guiding me in everything that I was doing in my deacon formation there, and I want to commend the parishioners also for the opportunity they gave me to serve,” he said.

Seeing so many friends, family members and those from churches close to his heart made the service even more special for him. “One of the reasons I cried when Bishop Justin said, ‘Congregation, meet your new priest,’ was that this was a moment filled with the Holy Spirit, one where I was able to have all the people who are dear to me present,” he said.

The Holy Spirit’s presence was also felt in other ways that Dubic recalled as especially meaningful. The first occurred when Holcomb laid hands on him, which Dubic described as “a moment that was very divine.” Another divine encounter took place when the bishop placed the oil in his hand. “This is exactly what my ministry is all about: to use my hands to further the kingdom,” Dubic said. “That moment will always be a reminder for me of exactly why I’m doing this.”

He is eager to begin his service at St. James. “What I’m most looking forward to about serving there is basically to start, not learning, but knowing the St. James family,” he said. “I’ve met a few of them, and I can’t wait to serve among them. I’ve run away from this calling for decades, and for me to be at the Cathedral at the 6 p.m. service, with my ordination to the priesthood happening – it was surreal. And what better day for it to happen than Pentecost Sunday?”