- December 14, 2025
Flagler’s largest church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, has a new pastor administrator, the Rev. John Reynolds. New priests were also brought on in July and January.
The Rev. John Reynolds, new leader of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, was never one of those guys who always knew what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“Most of the people I know have struggled with the decision that this is really what they wanted to do,” he said of their choice to join the priesthood. Some young people equate the lifestyle to a death sentence, he added. So, he had his reservations.
After graduating with an English literature degree from the University of North Florida, Reynolds began a serious relationship and worked for a while in the real estate business.
After God, he says, land is his real passion.
His parents were religious, too, and his mother’s sister was a nun. But it wasn’t “a lightning bolt thing,” he said of his decision to attend seminary in Indiana, go on to receive his Master of Divinity degree, become ordained in 1983, earn a degree in canon law and be appointed judicial vicar for the 17-county Northeast Florida diocese.
“When you get into the quietness of your heart, you have to figure out what God wants for you in this lifetime,” he said.
Today, Reynolds leads two other priests — the Rev. Peter Akin-Otiko, of African descent, and the Rev. Anthony Bonele, of Indian descent — in running St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church.
None of the three pastors has been in Palm Coast longer than six months.
Reynolds, 56, who took over St. Elizabeth on June 14, isn’t like TV or movie priests. He cracks jokes and makes faces. He trades rhetoric for candor. He gets loud when he laughs.
“When I was growing up, priests weren’t very approachable,” he said. “The only way that we’re going to (grow) is for people to see that we’re having a good time.”
Akin-Otiko started at St. Elizabeth on Jan. 1. Bonele started at the beginning of July. Reynolds believes fresh leadership is going to stabilize his new parish, which, until recently, has been in what he describes as a state of flux.
“Being the biggest isn’t my goal,” he said, “being the best is … And goodness is going to be the thing to empower us … When you’re taking your dying breath, all you want is somebody to hold your hand … somebody with a good heart. And I’m very fortunate, because I think we have three good hearts running this place.”
But his outlook wasn’t always so hopeful.
Ten years ago, Reynolds hit a rough patch and took leave from the church. He stayed away for eight years, describing the interim as an internal struggle with God, a game a spiritual tug-of-war.
“Sometimes you can lose your zeal, and you can kind of lose your way,” he said. “Stuff happened in my life that I never thought would happen.”
His sense of identity was failing. His whole life was “falling apart,” he said.
“The church went on without me for those eight years … The world goes on, and I think we just need to find where we’re meant to be in it,” he said.
In the interview July 7, he looked down at the carpet, as if the words he was searching for were buried somewhere in the fibers.
“The quality of your life doesn’t have to be predicated on what’s happened to you,” he said. “How do you go from thinking that you’re never (coming) back, to being (the leader) of the second biggest parish in the diocese?”
Two years ago, friends convinced him to return to the cloth, and Reynolds became the chaplain of a hospital, in Jacksonville. Then he got a call from the bishop and was asked to take over St. Elizabeth.
“If that’s not God — ” he began, pausing again. “His will is done, you know?”
At the conflict’s core, Reynolds describes his past, his problems, even his decision to become a priest as a struggle between acceptance and the impulse to control.
“To not know what the next moment’s going to bring — I’m pretty content with that now,” he said.
There are currently about 5,000 families in St. Elizabeth’s parish, with the Catholic school at an enrollment of 215, up from 88 this time last year. Reynolds’ main goal will be to preserve Catholic education.
A new principle for the school, a Notre Dame graduate, will also be joining the staff this week.
“Even though the buck stops with me … we’re building a team here,” Reynolds said. “We’ve all been ordained long enough not to be stupid. We’ve been through the honeymoon phase of priesthood.”
Reynolds will be St. Elizabeth’s pastor administrator until December, when the bishop will decide whether or not to keep him on long-term. If he’s retained, he’ll be on a six-year contract, with an optional six-year extension.
That’s the future Reynolds is planning for. “If you have a genuine love of people, and you have a personality that has empathy for people that are really having a hard time, it’s a very, very rewarding life,” he said.
Contact Mike Cavaliere at [email protected].
