John L. Rabb, bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland for 12 years, is planning to step down on Jan. 1.

“I am responding to what God is calling me to in a new season of ministry," Rabb, the second highest ranking Episcopal official in Maryland, told clergy and lay members of the diocese Friday morning at the opening of their 226th convention.

"I will be doing a combination of teaching, continued work in ministry development, preaching in a different venue, my Franciscan studies and writing," Rabb said. "I love the Diocese of Maryland, all of you, each congregation and everything we have done. I have felt loved by this diocese, far more than I would have imagined. So my very good friends, it is with love that I say thank you.”

As bishop suffrgan of Maryland, Rabb oversees the ordination process, clergy deployment, deacon formation and deployment and Christian formation, according to the diocese. He shares visitations and confirmations with Eugene Taylor Sutton, the bishop of Maryland.

Rabb served as bishop-in-charge of the diocese between the retirement of Bishop Robert Ihloff in 2007 and the consecration of Sutton in 2008.

Under the canons and constitutions of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Maryland, Rabb is will submit his resignation to the Presiding Bishop and the House of Bishops in the fall of 2010. As of January 1, 2011, Bishop Rabb will have been ordained a priest 34 years.