Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry speaks in August during a visit to St. James Episcopal Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Photo: Sharon Jones

[Episcopal News Service] Travel. It typically ranks high on lists of retirement goals, offering an adventurous or relaxing break from the retiree’s former professional routine.

The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry is no typical retiree. Travel dominated his professional routine, and retirement clearly hasn’t slowed him down.

During his nine-year term as presiding bishop, Curry visited nearly all of The Episcopal Church’s more than 100 dioceses. Since stepping down in October 2024, rather than spend his first year of retirement resting back home in Raleigh, North Carolina, the former presiding bishop has scheduled a wide range of engagements almost as adventurous as before.

Episcopal News Service tracked Curry’s 2025 trips based on church announcements and social media posts and counted visits to nearly 20 Episcopal and Anglican dioceses in three countries, two university visits to accept honorary degrees, one civil rights pilgrimage in Alabama and numerous appearances at Episcopal churches within his own Diocese of North Carolina. He also participated in confirmations, conferences, panel discussions, funeral eulogies and more than a half dozen anniversary celebrations for churches, schools and dioceses.

And, of course, he preached. A lot.

“I’m still kind of in discernment, to be honest, trying to think through long-term, how do I make a contribution?” Curry, who turned 72 in March, said in a recent Zoom interview with ENS from his home.

If Curry has spent the past year in discernment, it is safe to say he has done much of that discerning while on the move. Take the month of November, for example. The variety of Curry’s activities is evident in his several public appearances.

On Nov. 2, he officiated at an Evensong close to home at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Raleigh. On Nov. 13, he made headlines at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin for saying he prays for President Donald Trump. On Nov. 18, he appeared alongside his former Canadian counterpart, the Most. Rev. Linda Nicholls, at Trinity College in Toronto, where both received honorary degrees. Then on Nov. 22 and 23, he visited Episcopal churches in Charleston, South Carolina, and preached there in celebration of a local partnership known as Three Churches United.

Curry told ENS his plan had been to average about two trips a month in the first year after handing the primatial staff to Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe. His intent was to support Rowe’s leadership, not to undercut it, and Rowe thanked Curry for keeping up such an active post-primacy schedule.

“I am grateful for Bishop Curry’s willingness to continue using his extraordinary gifts as a preacher and speaker to spread the gospel,” Rowe told ENS in a written statement for this story. “He is undoubtedly a tremendous blessing and encouragement to everyone he meets in his travels, and his evangelism is a light to the church in these uncertain times.”

Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry processes during a worship service in February in Kingston, Jamaica. Photo: Sharon Jones, via Facebook

Curry expects his travel schedule to slow down a bit in 2026, and he clarified that, even with all that activity this year, the routine still was far less strenuous than his time as a sitting presiding bishop, which comes with a full list of church responsibilities.

“It’s been a mix of things in a variety of places,” Curry told ENS. “I remember I talked with Sean and basically said I didn’t want to do anything that was ‘presiding bishop-like.’” Instead, he now sees himself as like the biblical Barnabas, serving as the “son of encouragement” for the church.

His described his trip to Trinity College, the seminary at the University of Toronto, as “an opportunity to talk about, in the context of the Anglican Communion, how do we live out what Jesus really taught us about each other and about how we care for each other and for this world?”

He also thanked the Anglican Church of Canada “for the way they and their leadership supported us in The Episcopal Church in the years that I was presiding bishop.”

A completely different scene awaited him in South Carolina, where three historically Black churches in Charleston have “come together” to do “some remarkable stuff,” Curry said. He couldn’t refuse the bishop’s and rectors’ invitation to join them and preach about racial reconciliation to a packed church.

“I didn’t expect that many people,” he said. “And when I looked out on the congregation, it was the mix of Black and white that was absolutely remarkable, to just stand there and see it.”

Other trips this year included a visit to Yale University in Connecticut to receive an honorary degree in May, the July funeral of the Very Rev. Sandye Wilson in Baltimore, Maryland, the Diocese of Alabama’s Jonathan Myrick Daniels pilgrimage in August, a September homecoming celebration at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and the diocesan convention in Colorado in October.

Such frequent travel was common during Curry’s time as presiding bishop from 2015 to 2024, even after recovering from serious medical emergencies late in his tenure. Even so, these trips since stepping down have been different, in some ways more personal, and some of his favorite trips have been just a short drive across town or down the highway, to visit churches in the Diocese of North Carolina, which he led for 15 years as diocesan bishop.

In February, Curry spoke at Christ Church in Raleigh at an event honoring Black scholar Anna Julia Haywood Cooper.  In April, he celebrated Holy Week in Greensboro. In June, he joined St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough for its 200th anniversary celebration. And in October, he traveled to Charlotte to visit with Christ Episcopal Church and tour a new church building under construction. Other diocesan travels included Oxford, Burlington and Winston-Salem.

Curry isn’t officially an assisting bishop and doesn’t have a formal role with the diocese, but he has let North Carolina Bishop Samuel Rodman know he is available to help as needed. One example this year was a confirmation ceremony in the diocese. Rodman asked if Curry could assist with the ceremonial laying of hands on the heads of the confirmands.

“I was free that Sunday, and so I said, ‘I still have the hands. I can still do that,’” Curry said.

Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry poses for a photo with members of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, North Carolina, during a visit to the congregation in June 2025. Photo: Sharon Jones

At other times, he has enjoyed going to Sunday services in the diocese with no bishop responsibilities — just a back-pew worshipper enjoying Holy Eucharist before the day’s football games.

“I’ve actually been able to follow the Buffalo Bills through wins and losses,” Curry said, something that hasn’t been possible since before he was a parish priest.

He also has had time to read and think more deeply. “I kind of jokingly say I haven’t been to any meetings — well, I really haven’t. I don’t have those kinds of responsibilities,” he said. “I’ve got a little bit more time for reflection.”

In particular, the parable in Luke 18 of the “persistent widow” has been weighing on his mind, “in the context of an unjust society.”

“It speaks to this moment,” he said. He may do some writing on the subject. “To be patiently impatient, that is the Advent message.”

Being a retired presiding bishop also means Curry can spend more time at home in Raleigh with his wife, Sharon Curry, and their two adult daughters. Often that time is spent watching TV soap operas, which Curry has found no less addictive in retirement.

And the Currys are preparing to welcome a new member to the family: a pet dog. They are working with a breeder in the region, though Curry wasn’t sure which breed they settled on. He only knows the family’s consensus was to go small.

“Little nerd dogs,” he called them. His family insisted.

“They said, ‘You don’t need a German Shepherd.’” With retirement has come acceptance of life’s compromises, at least regarding the dog. “I’ve given in,” he said.

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

The leaders write, “Even as our primary focus for months has been on calling for an immediate end to the violence in Gaza and throughout Israel/Palestine, we know more must be done by the United States government to work toward a just and permanent solution that addresses the core issues so that international human rights are upheld and the most vulnerable are protected. To that end, we offer the following recommendations for what we feel must be addressed by the next administration in their first 100 days in office.”

A full copy of the letter is below.

We write as U.S. Christian faith leaders deeply concerned by the continuing injustice, suppression of rights, and disregard for international law that has endured for decades in Israel/Palestine.  Nearly a year has passed since the escalation in violence on Oct. 7, 2023, between Hamas and the Israeli military. Even as our primary focus for months has been on calling for an immediate end to the violence in Gaza and throughout Israel/Palestine, we know more must be done by the United States government to work toward a just and permanent solution that addresses the core issues so that international human rights are upheld and the most vulnerable are protected. To that end, we offer the following recommendations for what we feel must be addressed by the next administration in their first 100 days in office.

1)  Protect Palestinian and Israeli civilian life: A permanent and comprehensive ceasefire is the best way to ensure the well-being of Palestinian and Israeli civilians. Regardless of whether an interim agreement is reached sooner, the next Administration will need to commit to using all its leverage, in the form of diplomatic and military incentives, to press Israel for a bilateral and permanent ceasefire. This is essential to save lives and secure the release of hostages, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners held without due process of law.

2) Facilitate humanitarian aid: More than two-thirds of Gaza—including tens of thousands of homes, hospitals, schools, and universities—have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. Children are dying of malnutrition. Over 200 humanitarian aid workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 as a result of Israel’s military campaign. In August the first case of polio was reported in a quarter-century in a 10-month-old child. Immediate and unrestricted aid provision and access for the significant and urgently needed humanitarian response is required to affirm the God-given dignity of the people of Gaza and their rights to food, shelter, education, healthcare, and the means to support themselves. In the first 100 days, the United States must do everything in its power to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, including by restoring funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). We also ask that you deploy United States hospital ships, and/or other medical-capable ships, to the waters off Gaza to help provide Palestinian civilians access to emergency medical care.

3) Halt arms sales and military assistance: International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have documented how U.S.-provided munitions have been used by Israel to kill civilians in Gaza. The United States government cannot play a proactive role in working to bring a durable and holistic peace to Israel/Palestine while it continues to supply weapons to Israel that are used in contravention of U.S. and international law. The next administration must immediately suspend lethal U.S. arms transfers to Israel in light of repeated apparent violations of international and U.S. law and policy in Gaza and the West Bank.

4) Prioritize regional de-escalation: The ongoing military assault in Gaza has put the entire Middle East under the cloud of a regional war in Lebanon and beyond. More than 60,000 people have been displaced at the northern border of Israel. Close to 500,000 people have been displaced in southern Lebanon as a result of the Israeli military attacks. The United States must work to strengthen our engagement with regional partners to help facilitate diplomatic efforts that will open channels of constructive dialogue and protection of all civilians throughout the region, instead of further entrenching the prospect of regional war.

5) Protect Palestinian Christian communities: The viability of the Palestinian Christian community in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been a long-standing trend which has become even greater over the past year. In Gaza, many of the approximately 600 remaining Christians are sheltering in one of two churches in Gaza City with limited access to food, water, and medical supplies. We have grave concerns that the Christian community in Gaza faces the very real threat of complete annihilation and extinction. In Jerusalem and the West Bank, Palestinian Christians face increased violence at the hands of Israeli settlers, as well as severe economic pressures related to the conflict that otherwise threaten their livelihoods. We call for Jerusalem to be a shared city in which Jews, Muslims, and Christians can worship without fear of violence. The United States must also proactively push for Israel to de-escalate the violence, uphold religious freedom and protections for people of all faiths, including the Christian community, which is part and parcel of the Palestinian fabric.

As people of faith and leaders within religious denominations and national organizations, we call for an immediate end to the violence in the Middle East. We pray that whoever is elected President of the United States will demonstrate a robust commitment to the American values of promoting human rights and peace with their words and actions on day one. Thank you for your consideration of this urgent matter, and we look forward to working with you to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Sincerely,

Joyce Ajlouny
General Secretary
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

Archbishop Vicken Aykazian
Ecumenical Director and Diocesan Legate Diocese
Armenian Church of America, Eastern
United States

Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon
Executive Director
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding
Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church (TEC)

The Rev. Emmett L. Dunn
Executive Secretary-Treasurer/CEO
Lott Carey Foreign Baptist Mission Convention

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Susan Gunn
Director
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Rev. Teresa Hord Owens
General Minister and President
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada

Charlene Howard
Executive Director
Pax Christi USA

Rev. Dr. Gina Jacobs-Strain
General Secretary
American Baptist Churches USA

Bridget Moix
General Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation  (FCNL)

Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie
President and General Secretary
National Council of Churches USA (NCC)

The Rev. Jihyun Oh
Stated Clerk
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Dr. David R. Peoples
President
Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc.

Dr. Tyrone S. Pitts
General Secretary Emeritus
Progressive National Baptists Convention Inc

Richard L. Santos
President & CEO
Church World Service (CWS)

Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ (UCC)

Stephen Veazey
President
Community of Christ

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward
Ecumenical Officer
Council of Bishops, United Methodist Church

Reverend Dr. Elijah R. Zehyoue
Co-Director
Alliance of Baptists

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is seen during a 2017 trip to Asia. Photo: Tsang-Hing Ho

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was elected and confirmed in June 2015 at the 78th General Convention, and on Nov. 1 that year, he was installed as presiding bishop, becoming the first Black denominational leader of The Episcopal Church.

A lot has happened in Curry’s nine-year term, from natural disasters in many of the church’s dioceses to a global pandemic that upended much of parish life and forced the church to embrace new technologies to remain connected. Throughout, Curry has led the church in its focus on racial reconciliation, evangelism and creation care while preaching Christian love to counter the societal hatred that continues to fuel political divisions in the United States and beyond.

Curry also had the opportunity to address an estimated audience of billions when he was asked to give the sermon at the May 2018 royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. That sermon drew sudden worldwide attention to Curry’s Christian message of the power of love, while Episcopalians across the church continued to warmly welcome him for countless pastoral visits and revivals.

Videos of 10 notable Curry sermons can be viewed here.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, second from left, and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry lead fellow clergy in a vigil titled “Reclaiming the Integrity of Faith During Political and Moral Crisis” as they process to the White House in May 2018. Photo: Reuters

Many Episcopalians also embraced the Way of Love, a series of resources that Curry and his staff produced in 2018 to help Christians develop a “rule of life” around Jesus’ teachings. Those resources and other churchwide initiatives helped underscore the church’s identity as what Curry called “the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement,” and he has sought to keep The Episcopal Church connected to other provinces in the Anglican Communion despite tensions over some provinces’ theological differences.

Curry’s term ends Oct. 31, after which he will hand the reins to Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe. As Curry, 71, prepares to step down and spend more time closer to home in Raleigh, North Carolina, Episcopal News Service spoke to him by Zoom to get his reflections on his eventful primacy and the road ahead.

The following Q&A has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

ENS: Every nine years The Episcopal Church has the opportunity to ask what is the role of the presiding bishop, and who would be the best person to fill that role? I’m interested in your thoughts in general about that, but also, starting off with one specific canonical role, the presiding bishop “shall visit every diocese of this church.” You’ve traveled to more than 100 dioceses, finishing up with Wyoming.

Curry: Every one except Venezuela.

ENS: How important have those visits been, for you but also for the church?

Curry: Remember, the church is large, dispersed. We’re in multiple countries, multiple time zones, multiple cultures. And part of the role of presiding bishop is to at least seek to be a kind of connecting person for the whole. You do that as the gatherer of the House of Bishops, who represent all the dioceses of the church. You do that with General Convention, where you have representatives of the whole. But that visiting function – there’s still nothing like showing up in person. Online can supplement that, as we learned in the pandemic. The other thing is, a presiding bishop is the spokesperson for the church, charged with speaking both to the church itself, but also for the church to the wider world on behalf of the Gospel. Each presiding bishop has been called for a particular time and a particular work. And when I look back at each one, they actually served God’s purposes in that particular moment. I think I have, in a particular moment, but we don’t serve in the next one. A new voice is needed in the next one.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry speaks in August 2022 at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops in Canterbury, England. Photo: Richard Washbrooke/For the Lambeth Conference

ENS: Did you sense nine years ago that you were being called for a specific purpose and time? Looking back, what was it about that time that you were the person to be in that role?

Curry: I think on some level, part of the reason that I was called and elected was to help the church to once again reclaim our faith, following Jesus of Nazareth, as God’s way of love being shown to us in his teachings, in his spirit, and believing that it can make a difference by the power of his resurrection. To help us reclaim and build on and develop the work of racial reconciliation, but even more broadly, to help us reclaim how we are reconciled with his creation. Reconciliation with God means reconciliation with each other and all of God’s creation. And to live it, figure out ways to encourage it. That involves evangelism. You know, time will tell how effective we were, but we gave it our best shot, and I hope we’re handing off to Bishop Rowe and [House of Deputies] President [Julia] Ayala Harris, a ship that’s sailing in the faith direction and ready to chart out into new waters.

ENS: Are there initiatives that you championed or approaches that you took that you think served that? Certainly people remember your appearances at revivals, or some of the racial reconciliation materials or the Way of Love.

Curry: I think that the church has at its disposal remarkable resources – Way of Love, evangelism training courses designed for Episcopalians, the whole Sacred Ground curriculum, materials for racial justice and reconciliation, the creation of the Coalition for Racial Justice and Equity, something that I pray will last long beyond any of us, or as long as the need is there to do that work. The care of creation – there’s a new curriculum that’s now available for that. We’ve tried to put some good stuff in place and tried to build on the good stuff that was already there. And I hope the stage is set for the next generation. I hope that they’ve got a good foundation in the faith that they can build on.

ENS: You mentioned one other canonical role of the presiding bishop, to speak the God’s word to the church into the world. There was no greater stage for that than your sermon at the royal wedding in 2018. Looking back, how significant do you feel that moment was for the rest of your time as presiding bishop?

This photo released by U2 shows Presiding Bishop Michael Curry posing with band members, from left, Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton backstage at Madison Square Garden in June 2018.

Curry: You know, I remember when I was working on that sermon, I really made a decision that I had to do a sermon that actually gives voice to the core of what it means to be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus Christ. That way of love, which was what the message was built around, was an attempt to do that, to give voice to that, both for the church and the wider world. And I know I’ve said this on other occasions, but I heard more people come up to me and say something along the lines of, “I didn’t know Christianity was about love.” I don’t know why I was surprised at that. I was surprised at the level [of response]. So, my hope then was that that sermon would help to kind of be a mid-course correction in terms of who we are perceived to be, and help us to be correct and clear about who we really are called to be. You know, none of us are perfect. We’re not. We all make mistakes. And we’re all sinners. But we’ve got a North Star to follow, and that North Star – Jesus and his way of love – is the way of life.

ENS: Was that moment also about reinvigorating the church itself, The Episcopal Church?

Curry: I think it was more telling the wider world community what the Christian faith is about, what it really is about, and what God’s dream for this creation and all of his children, what that’s about. That’s really the message I wanted to send.

ENS: One other development was just the way that the pandemic really upended everything about the church, at least at that time in 2020, but we’re still sort of feeling the aftershocks. Do you think that experience set a new course for the church? Or did it get the church moving a little faster on the same course it had been going, for better or worse? There’s been a lot of talk about church decline. On the other hand, there are encouraging ways the church is responding to this new time.

Curry: Yeah, it’s a mix of all of that, I suspect, and time will tell. But certain realities that were already there came to the surface. You know, in the Bible, in the Noah story, they don’t know whether there’s land. They keep looking for land. And finally, there’s a bird flying over and has a sprig, which is a sign that there’s some foliage somewhere, which means there’s probably land somewhere. It’s kind of a sprig of hope. I think we saw some sprigs of hope, both for a wider human society but also for the church, in the sense that we did some things that we probably never would have done in terms of finding ways to worship, finding ways to take care of each other, finding ways to do our work and witness in the wider world, in both service and witness to justice and compassion. There were sprigs of hope all over the church. And they weren’t just in big churches and big cities. I’ve talked about a wonderful congregation in Colorado [St. George’s Episcopal Church in Leadville] – they figured out a way to keep their feeding program going. There are churches like that all over. There were sprigs of hope in that pandemic, which tell me that the Holy Spirit is not finished with this church yet, and that there’s a future. One of my favorite passages has been in the Last Supper, in John 13-17. And there’s this moment where Jesus says, “There are many other things that I could tell you, but you cannot handle them now. But this much you will know: The spirit of truth will lead you into all truth.” That same spirit will now lead this church into its witness and its way of following Jesus of Nazareth and his love in a brand-new day that none of us dreamed of.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preaches in February 2019 at General Theological Seminary’s Chapel of the Good Shepherd in New York. Photo: General Theological Seminary

ENS: I’m sure you don’t want to preempt your successor, Sean Rowe, and I wouldn’t expect you to put any expectations on him. However, given that you mentioned each presiding bishop is called for the church at that time, I’m wondering what kind of church and what is this time that now needs someone like Sean Rowe?

Curry: Oh, I wouldn’t even presume to know. That’s going to be between Bishop Sean Rowe, the people of The Episcopal Church and the Holy Spirit. And I am positive that the Spirit is going to work with him and with this church and this world, and lead this church, lead this new presiding bishop, lead him into God’s truth. I know he’s going to do that. I mean, I did in spite of myself. My predecessors did in spite of themselves. I know he’s going to lead us into both a more faithful and a more effective church for the time in which we find ourselves, whatever that is. I really don’t know what that looks like. I think he’s got some sense, I really do. And I think the bishops elected him and the church consented sensing that this is the leader we need, as it says in the Book of Esther, “for such a time as this.” I believe that Sean Rowe and [House of Deputies President] Julia Ayala Harris have been called to this kingdom for such a time as this, and I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do.

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

Curry has delivered countless sermons in the past decade, from somber pastoral messages to dioceses that were recovering from natural disasters to his spirited preaching on Christian love at numerous revivals — all reflecting his embrace of the role of the church’s evangelist-in-chief.

Some of Curry’s sermons have achieved even wider renown, particularly when he was invited to preach at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in May 2018. Others have marked key moments in the life of The Episcopal Church and the world. Curry collected five of his most notable sermons in a 2018 book, “The Power of Love.”

With his term to conclude on Oct. 31, Episcopal News Service is sharing videos of 10 noteworthy sermons below. See also this Q&A, in which Curry reflects on his eventful nine-year primacy.

July 3, 2015 – Presiding bishop-elect

Curry preached the following sermon in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the 78th General Convention after his election and confirmation as the 27th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church.

Nov. 1, 2015 – Presiding bishop’s installation

Curry was formally installed as presiding bishop during a service at Washington National Cathedral.

May 19, 2018 – The Royal Wedding

Nothing in Curry’s nine-year term quite compared to the global impact of his royal wedding sermon. With an estimated viewership in the billions, Curry’s message about the power of love continued to resonate long afterward, drawing widespread attention to love’s centrality in Christian teachings.

July 5, 2018 – The Way of Love

The 79th General Convention in Austin, Texas, was Curry’s first as presiding bishop. In his sermon at the opening Eucharist, Curry spoke of his newly developed “Way of Love,” seven spiritual practices intended to help Episcopalians and other Christians lead Jesus-centered lives.

July 7, 2018 – 79th General Convention Revival

Curry and his staff had worked with dioceses since February 2017 to organize large revival events to spread the word of Jesus’ Gospel message of love. The revival at the 79th General Convention was the biggest yet, with Curry preaching to an estimated crowd of about 2,500 while tens of thousands more watched online.

July 8, 2018 – Prayer of Vision, Witness and Justice

While bishops and deputies were meeting in Austin, Curry led a daylong journey of public witness to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, where migrant women were being held in detention. Curry preached outside the facility to about a thousand Episcopalians who had gathered to stand against inhumane immigration policies and enforcement.

Nov. 1, 2020 – Holding on to Hope

On the fifth anniversary of his installation as presiding bishop, Curry recorded a sermon for Washington National Cathedral’s “Holding on to Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness.” The service was scheduled two days before the 2020 presidential election and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, during widespread protests against racial injustice in the United States.

Sept. 11, 2021 – 20 years after 9/11

Curry preached at New York’s Trinity Church Wall Street in Lower Manhattan on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

July 8, 2022 – 80th General Convention

The COVID-19 pandemic forced church leaders to postpone the 80th General Convention by a year to June 2022, and when the in-person meeting convened in Baltimore, it was also shortened from eight days to four. For daily worship, the preachers recorded video sermons, starting with Curry’s on the opening day.

July 9, 2023 – It’s All About Love Festival

Hundreds of Episcopalians from all nine of The Episcopal Church’s provinces gathered in July 2023 at the Baltimore Convention Center for the churchwide festival, which took its name from a recurring theme in Curry’s sermons. The presiding bishop preached at a revival service to open the festival.

Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry prepare to process into St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming, for a Sept. 28 Holy Eucharist. Photo: Genie Osburn/Episcopal Church in Wyoming

[Episcopal News Service – Casper, Wyoming] The afternoon crowd had swelled to more than 200 in the hotel ballroom here, all eager to hear Presiding Bishop Michael Curry give the Sept. 27 keynote speech at the Episcopal Church in Wyoming’s diocesan convention. As delegates and visitors took their seats, it was hard to find a more eager fan than Karin Ebertz.

On the table next to Ebertz was a copy of Curry’s 2020 book “Love Is the Way.” To hear Curry speak, Ebertz and Dara Corkery had just driven two hours from Gillette, where they are both members of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Ebertz, hoping to get Curry’s autograph on the book afterward, told Episcopal News Service that she loves his “very joyful demeanor.”

Curry’s two days in Casper last week, which included a Sept. 28 Holy Eucharist and sermon, marked the final diocesan visit of his nine-year term as presiding bishop. He will step down Oct. 31 after visiting more than 100 dioceses. Wyoming Episcopalians like to think he saved the best for last, and Corkery joked that Wyoming is used to this placement. “We’re the bottom of the alphabet,” she said.

Wyoming Episcopalians felt special in another way: Their convention welcomed not one but two presiding bishops. Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Curry’s predecessor, is serving Wyoming as a part-time assisting bishop while the diocese navigates a leadership transition. Jefferts Schori, in introducing Curry’s keynote, described him as “a wonderful gift” to his fellow bishops, to The Episcopal Church and to the wider Anglican Communion.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and his predecessor, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, attend the Episcopal Church in Wyoming’s diocesan convention Sept. 27-28 in Casper. Photo: The Episcopal Church, via Facebook

“Bishop Curry has the tact and heart of a saint, and he has encouraged greater openness in the [Anglican] Communion,” Jefferts Schori said. She highlighted his leadership in the areas of racial reconciliation, evangelism and creation care, and she emphasized the theme he has made central to his primacy.

“If you don’t remember anything else,” Jefferts Schori said, “it’s all about love.”

Curry began his remarks by returning the love to Jefferts Schori, who “will always be my presiding bishop.” He also couldn’t resist talking up Wyoming’s connection to his hometown of Buffalo, New York, where the Buffalo Bills are now led by a quarterback who previously played for the University of Wyoming.

“On behalf of the city of Buffalo,” Curry said, “I want to thank you for Josh Allen.”

As Curry got to the heart of his remarks, the speech hit many familiar notes. Above all, love one another, he said, invoking Jesus’ command to his disciples at the last supper in the Gospel of John.

“What a different world we would have if we loved each other as God loved us,” Curry said. He issued his own command for the Episcopal Church in Wyoming: “Let the world know you are people of love.”

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry gives the keynote speech Sept. 27 at Wyoming’s diocesan convention at the Ramkota Hotel & Conference Center in Casper. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service

The diocese previously planned to host Curry in September 2020 for a revival in Jackson, but the revival was cancelled after the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier that year. Presiding bishops are required by Episcopal Church canons to visit each diocese at least once during their terms. Four years after the revival’s cancelation, Wyoming got its turn.

“We have been looking forward to seeing Michael Curry for years,” the Rev. Megan Nickles, the standing committee president, told ENS before the convention. “We were just thrilled when he made this [his] last stop.”

Curry’s visit happened at an uncertain and uneasy time for the diocese. Its last bishop, Paul-Gordon Chandler, agreed in March 2024 to give up his ordained ministry and submit to deposition after facing a disciplinary investigation. Churchwide officials and diocesan leaders have said little about the disciplinary case against Chandler, though an early diocesan message alluded to an unspecified “indiscretion.”

The standing committee now serves as the diocese’s ecclesiastical authority, and in June, it announced Jefferts Schori had agreed to assist in the interim.

“We all have a duty to call out bad behavior, as well as a duty to help the community make lament and heal,” Jefferts Schori said Sept. 27 in her convention address. “Wyoming’s current leaders have asked me to walk beside you as we seek healing and hope for what God has in store for the future.”

The standing committee is interviewing possible candidates for bishop provisional and could call for a special convention by early next year to affirm a nominee. That bishop then would help the diocese take its next steps toward calling a new bishop diocesan.

Jefferts Schori concluded her presiding bishop term in 2015, and since then she has remained active, serving several dioceses. She assisted the Diocese of San Diego from 2017 to 2019 while it was in the middle of a leadership transition, and later she was an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles. She now travels to Wyoming each month for one week, bookended by two Sundays for congregation visits.

As the former bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, where she still lives, Jefferts Schori noted some similarities between Nevada and Wyoming. “I know something about the culture in this part of the world,” she told ENS after Curry’s keynote. Wyoming Episcopalians are versed in the “total ministry” model of being the church, in which clergy and laity share in leadership.

“All the baptized are the leaders in the church,” she said. “That’s been a hallmark of this diocese.”

Members of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Gillette, Wyoming, pose for photos with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry on Sept. 27 at the diocesan convention in Casper. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service

That is particularly important in this geographically large diocese spanning all of Wyoming, the least populous state in the country with about 580,000 residents. The Episcopal diocese’s membership was about 5,800 in 2020, according to the church’s latest counts. Most of the diocese’s 45 congregations range from about 30 to 40 members, said Nickles, the standing committee president. Some larger parishes have up to 150 members, while other congregations are among the smallest in The Episcopal Church, with fewer than 15 people.

Nickles serves as priest-in-charge at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Powell, more than three hours northwest of Casper. St. John’s has a “deep pool of lay leadership,” she said, and many lay leaders are trained to take on liturgical roles. Four members are licensed as lay preachers. The church also has an active food pantry.

The diocesan offices are in Casper, a city of about 60,000 residents. Once a year Episcopalians come together here or in another host city for a kind of diocesan family reunion. This year’s convention was held at the Ramkota Hotel & Conference Center on Casper’s northwest side, near where Interstate 25 crosses the North Platte River. During breaks in convention business, Nickles seemed to bump into familiar faces at every turn.

“Convention is always a time of renewal and friendship, because everybody truly does know almost everybody,” she told ENS.

And everyone at the convention made clear their great appreciation for Curry’s visit. After dinner Sept. 27, the presiding bishop attended the evening’s festivities, which included karaoke. The night kicked off with a rousing diocesan chorus of “Ragtime Cowboy Joe,” the University of Wyoming fight song, after which Curry gamely donned a Wyoming Cowboys cap that the convention had gifted him.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori process out of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming, on Sept. 28. Photo: Genie Osburn/Episcopal Church in Wyoming

The next morning, Sept. 28, delegates made their way to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in downtown Casper for Holy Eucharist, with Jefferts Schori presiding. The Scripture readings appeared to support the convention’s theme, “Love Always,” and they included the passage from the Gospel of John that Curry cited a day earlier in his keynote.

Curry has given countless sermons for occasions like this during his nine years as presiding bishop. Preaching at St. Mark’s, he acknowledged at one point that by now he relies on some well-worn stories and remarks. “If my wife was here, she’d say, ‘Don’t you tell that again,'” he said.

After nine years, though, when he tells an old joke, he’s confident it will get a laugh. (It did.) When he tries to fire up a congregation, he knows the people in the pews will respond. (They did.) And if he keeps coming back to the old themes, there may be no reason to stray from the tried and true.

“If it’s not about love,” he boomed, “it’s not about God.”

It was a signature refrain from Curry’s past diocesan visits and sermons, and Wyoming Episcopalians welcomed it anew with enthusiasm, mixing claps and cheers with shouts of “yes!”

“God love you, Wyoming,” Curry said to conclude his sermon.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preaches Sept. 28 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming. Photo: Genie Osburn/Episcopal Church in Wyoming

The message was received both by the worshipers packed into the nave and by those in an overflow room in the parish hall. About a dozen people watched the service there on a video feed. During Communion, Curry and Jefferts Schori walked the bread and wine back to distribute the elements in that bright, sun-lit room.

After the service, Nancy Engstrom and her husband, Chuck, were all smiles. Nancy Engstrom was an alternate delegate to the convention, and as members of St. Mark’s, the couple had volunteered to serve as ushers in the overflow room. They echoed prevailing sentiments in the diocese about Curry’s visit.

“We’re delighted to have him here,” Nancy Engstrom said. “He’s a dynamic speaker, and so filled with love.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry spoke to more than 1,000 people gathered on Zoom Sept. 24, 2024, during a fall online launch event for Sacred Ground, a year-round, 11-part film-based antiracism curriculum for small-group discussions. Photo: Screenshot

[Episcopal News Service] “Sacred Ground is about freedom. It’s about the joyful liberty of the children of God,” Presiding Bishop Michael Curry told more than 1,000 people gathered on Zoom Sept. 24 during a fall online launch event for Sacred Ground.

“God’s dream … gets translated into practical ways of living that go forth from Sacred Ground groups, and go forth into the world as instruments and agents of the freedom … intended for all of God’s children from the very beginning of creation,” said Curry, the Episcopal Church’s first Black presiding bishop.

Sacred Ground is a year-round, 11-part film-based antiracism curriculum for small-group discussions that initially was developed as a resource to learn about the history of racism in the United States and how that racism continues to manifest itself today in American social interactions and institutions, including church. It contains documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander histories as they intersect with European American histories. Participants also examine examples of systemic racism in today’s America, such as mass incarceration and its disproportionate effect on people of color.

“It’s not just about the content; it’s not just about the learning. It’s the fact that it’s happening in community,” the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, canon to the presiding bishop for reconciliation, justice and creation care, said. “These small groups make a difference. This is where Jesus meets us. This is where we have accountability.”

The curriculum was designed primarily for white Episcopalians, but The Episcopal Church also welcomes people of color to participate. 

Sacred Ground has been one of The Episcopal Church’s great Christian formation success stories since it launched in 2019. Thousands of groups have participated, and participation surged in 2020 during a national reckoning with systemic racism that followed the killing that year of George Floyd and other Black Americans by white police officers and vigilantes.

The church now is working to maintain the initiative’s momentum with expanded staffing and the 90-minute fall launch event.

Earlier this year, the church’s Office for Racial Reconciliation hired Andrea Lauerman, a white lay leader from the Diocese of Maine, and the Rev. Valerie J. Mayo, a Black priest in the Diocese of North Carolina, through an anonymous donation from a Sacred Ground alum. Mayo is assisting as Sacred Ground’s strategic consultant and Lauerman is serving as a part-time program coordinator. One of the first things they did when they joined the staff was to create a Facebook group for volunteer Sacred Ground facilitators to share their experiences and best practices.

Mayo expressed her gratitude for Curry helping to make racial reconciliation a top churchwide priority during his nine-year term as presiding bishop. She echoed his sentiment:

“The spirit of the Lord is in this place. I thank God for [Curry’s] leadership and fidelity to this hard work – this long walk to freedom – and may we, all of us – God’s children – experience that liberty,” she said.

Webinar participants were able to ask questions and share their insights using Zoom’s chat and Q&A functions. One person suggested that all Sacred Ground alumni should donate money to support the two active historically Black colleges with Episcopal roots, Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Voorhees University in Denmark, South Carolina.

Many people asked if Sacred Ground would continue after Curry retires on Nov. 1. Spellers noted that Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe, who starts his nine-year term on Nov. 1, is a Sacred Ground alumnus.

“[Rowe] knows the power of this experience for LAUNCHING folks as transformative agents,” Spellers wrote in the chat function.

“[Sacred Ground has] gotten deep in the soil of this church,” Curry said.

The group spent time thanking Curry for his leadership, and Spellers invited everyone to pray for him.

“May God continue to guide your feet, hold your hand and fill your heart as you continue to walk on sacred ground,” Spellers said. “Walk in love, dear brother, knowing that you are beloved to God and to all of us, and you always will be.”

Lauerman and Mayo concluded the webinar by announcing that free, in-person regional facilitator gatherings are planned, with the first scheduled for Nov. 9-10 in Durham, North Carolina, at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church and St. Titus’ Episcopal Church. The gatherings will serve as opportunities for networking, discussion and worship. The event will conclude with Eucharist at St. Titus. The Rev. Miguel Bustos, The Episcopal Church’s manager for racial reconciliation and justice, will preach.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

The letter describes democracy as a “moral affirmation” and urges Christians to repudiate “anti-democratic sentiment” — namely, ideologies such as Christian nationalism and racism. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service

[Religion News Service] A diverse group of influential Christian leaders is calling on their fellow faithful to protect democracy, arguing that American Christians are compelled to defend voting freedoms as a “test of faith.”

“We write in a moment of fierce urgency, as the people of God animated by faith, hope, and love,” said the statement. “It is in this spirit that we reaffirm Christian support for democracy and invite all Christians and people of moral conscience to do the same.”

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was among about 200 leaders and writers from mainline Christian denominations, the Catholic and Greek Orthodox church, as well as Black Protestant and evangelical Christianity, who signed the letter. It describes democracy as a “moral affirmation” and urges Christians to repudiate “anti-democratic sentiment” — namely, ideologies such as Christian nationalism and racism. The statement pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as one of several recent anti-democratic acts, noting some insurrectionists who participated in the violence that day “did so in the name of Jesus Christ.”

“In recent years, in the United States and around the world, the Christian faith has been distorted and leveraged in defense of authoritarian leaders who seek to erode freedoms essential to a thriving democracy,” the letter reads. “Some Christians enthusiastically praise dictatorial leaders and regimes. Some have willingly accepted or even participated in political violence.”

As a counter to these threats, the statement outlines a framework for Christian support of a democratic society, citing principles such as the belief that all people are made in the image of God, the biblical mandate to love the stranger and one’s enemy, Jesus Christ’s call to be peacemakers, and even democracy as a counterbalance to sin.

“The mechanisms of democracy, the balances of power, and the protections of a Constitutional framework rein in human tendencies to dominate, demean, and exploit,” the statement reads.

The statement was chiefly organized by Jim Wallis, head of Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice, which is hosting a two-day summit tied to the statement in Washington, D.C., this week. Other signers include the Rev. Galen Carey, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals; Michele Dunne, head of the Franciscan Action Network; Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author and professor at Calvin University; the Rev. Leslie Copeland-Tune, a top official at the National Council of Churches; Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne; Yolanda Pierce, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School; and Colin Watson, former executive director of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

Wallis said he felt the letter was needed because of unique threats facing U.S. democracy this year, calling it a “testing time for our nation” both politically and religiously.

“It’s a national test of who we are as a people, right to the heart of our faith,” he said.

But even setting aside the ongoing presidential election, Wallis said he hopes the broader principles mentioned in the statement outlive the current political moment.

“It’s a theological tool to deal with this election and beyond,” Wallis said.

He was echoed by Bishop W. Darin Moore of the AME Zion Church, who said his denomination — which has been called the “Freedom Church” and boasts Frederick Douglass as one of its historic members — has a long tradition of fighting for values outlined in the statement.

“It’s in our spiritual DNA that we have never bifurcated between our ecclesiology and our struggle for justice,” said Moore, who was among those who signed the statement.

He also celebrated those who have become active in “courageous conversations” around what it means “to live in a nation that claims to affirm religious pluralism and inclusive democracy, and yet retain our values, be they Christian, Muslim, Jews or no traditional religion.”

Episcopal Diocese of Washington Bishop Mariann Budde highlighted the statement’s call for Christians to “repudiate the tenets of Christian Nationalism and the idea that Christians or Christianity should hold a place of privilege and power in our nation’s governance.” She told RNS the text was not meant to rehash long-standing criticisms of Christian nationalism, but rather to make a “positive statement of Christian engagement in the public realm — in particular in a democratic society.”

Asked how the statement relates to her experience as the bishop of Washington — which, in addition to duties typical of any bishop, also includes engagement with high-ranking elected officials who attend various Episcopal churches in the region — Budde said values that inform her public engagement include those which “as Christians, we can rightfully uphold, maybe even have a responsibility to uphold.” Among them: addressing “disparities between wealth and poverty, protecting religious pluralism and being peacemakers.”

The letter notes its signers do not agree on all issues, citing long-standing differences on foreign policy, abortion, gender and sexuality. Even so, signers say they remain “committed to preserving a democratic space within which we can collectively discern the way forward with respect to these vital issues,” and that their fellow Christians should be too.

“In keeping with these principles, we, the undersigned, commit to advancing a multi-racial, multi-faith, multi-generational democracy, where every voice is valued and every person afforded the opportunity to participate fully and freely in the life of the community,” the statement concludes.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preaches July 25, 2017, at the 145th Niobrara Convocation at Red Shirt Table, South Dakota. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] One of the core duties of The Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop is to visit every diocese at least once during the denominational leader’s nine-year term, and for Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who will conclude his tenure in office at the end of October, that has meant a lot of travel – more than 100 dioceses and counting.

The Diocese of Alaska? Curry preached there in September 2017 during a House of Bishops meeting in Fairbanks. The Diocese of Puerto Rico? Curry traveled there in January 2018, months after the territory was hit by Hurricane Maria. Taiwan? South Dakota? Florida? Yes, yes and yes.

“One of the great joys and real privileges of serving as presiding bishop of our church has been to have a panoramic view of who we actually are as followers of Jesus in the Episcopal way,” Curry said in a written statement to Episcopal News Service. “I can tell you this: from all of my travels in nine years, quite literally around the globe, God is not finished with The Episcopal Church yet.”

The final diocesan trip of Curry’s primacy is scheduled for the end of this month, when the Diocese of Wyoming will welcome Curry at its diocesan convention in Casper. Before then, Curry is now visiting the Diocese of Tennessee, where he will preach Sept. 7 at a Holy Eucharist at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Nashville, a service that will be livestreamed.

“We are glad to welcome Bishop Michael to the Diocese of Tennessee and are so grateful for his ministry to us,” Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt said in a statement to ENS for this story. “The visit of our presiding bishop to Nashville and Middle Tennessee reminds us that Christianity is a global phenomenon, and that we are part of a larger whole.”

Episcopal Church Canon I.2.4 outlines the office’s responsibilities. It specifies that the presiding bishop has at least three canonical tasks when traveling to each diocese for a pastoral visit: “holding pastoral consultations with the bishop … preaching the Word and celebrating the Holy Eucharist.”

In Tennessee, Curry was scheduled to meet Sept. 6 with 70 or so diocesan clergy at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Nashville, followed by lunch. He has a separate meeting planned with Bauerschmidt.

He also has traveled widely for bishop consecrations and will preside at two more while still in office, on Sept. 14 in the Diocese of Olympia and on Oct. 19 in the Diocese of Massachusetts. Both dioceses previously welcomed him for pastoral visits, earlier in his term.

Curry’s successor, Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe, already has begun scheduling travel around the church. In early October, he will be in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where he will speak at the first convention of the newly reunited Diocese of Wisconsin. In June, the state’s three dioceses received approval to combine from the 81st General Convention.

That and other diocesan changes approved by General Convention slightly reduced The Episcopal Church’s number of dioceses to 106, along with the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. Rowe, who also will preach Oct. 25 in the Diocese of Southeast Florida, takes office as presiding bishop on Nov. 1 and then will have nine years to fulfill the canon requiring visits to every diocese. One of his first visits as presiding bishop will be to the Diocese of South Carolina’s convention later in November.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry prepares to shoot a video on his cell phone of an altar frontal with some of the youth of Diocese of Pittsburgh during his visit in February 2017. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service

Curry, since he was installed as presiding bishop in November 2015, has embarked on countless trips to dioceses across this global denomination, which he leads as chief pastor. He is on track to conclude his term having visited every diocese except one, Venezuela, where safety concerns due to violence and civil unrest have not permitted Curry to visit.

The Episcopal Church, Curry told ENS, reflects “the great diversity of people who live and serve in Latin America, in Europe, in the Pacific and Asia region, on reservations, in cities, suburbs and small towns. I’ve seen our churches struggle — and I’ve seen them with the amazing creativity of the Holy Spirit rise up and bear witness to the way of love in this 21st century in which we live.”

The underlying purpose of Curry’s travel has varied with each diocesan visit. For one of his first diocesan events as presiding bishop, Curry’s visit to the Diocese of Michigan in February 2016 coincided with the Feast of Absalom Jones, which Curry highlighted in his sermon at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit.

In March 2020, Curry traveled to Cuba to help celebrate that diocese’s re-entry into The Episcopal Church. “On behalf of the entire Episcopal Church, we love Cuba,” Curry said in his sermon to the diocesan convention held at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Havana.

In many other dioceses, his itineraries were structured around revival-style events, a signature of Curry’s nine years in office. The first was held in the Diocese of Pittsburgh in February 2017. Other host dioceses where Curry preached at revivals have included West Missouri, Georgia, Honduras and San Diego.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry speaks in November 2017 in Stockton, California, at the start of the Diocese of San Joaquin’s three-day revival. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service

California’s Diocese of San Joaquin also hosted a revival with Curry, and his visit there in November 2017 celebrated the diocese’s recovery from 10 years of struggle after the diocese’s previous bishop led a majority of Episcopalians to leave The Episcopal Church over theological differences. The Rt. Rev. David Rice was invested as the diocese’s new bishop at a service St. James Episcopal Cathedral in Fresno, with Curry preaching.

“You may well have shown us the future hope of The Episcopal Church, and its witness in this world,” Curry said at the time in his sermon at St. James. “You have been a witness for Jesus by standing up for love.”

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preaches Oct. 20, 2019, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service

Curry has traveled to numerous other dioceses in his capacity as the head of various church governing bodies, such as Executive Council and the House of Bishops. For example, when the Diocese of Alabama hosted Executive Council’s October 2019 meeting, Curry preached at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Montgomery. He also preached at large revivals in 2018 at the 79th General Convention, hosted in Austin by the Diocese of Texas, and in June 2024, when the Diocese of Kentucky hosted the 81st General Convention in Louisville.

Some diocesan visits were scheduled so Curry could provide pastoral care to Episcopalians dealing with the aftermath of tragedies and disasters. Several of those dioceses were recovering from devastating hurricanes, such as Puerto Rico. He visited the Diocese of the Virgin Islands in January 2018, months after that territory was hit by Hurricane Irma.

Also in January 2018, Curry made a pastoral visit to the Diocese of Texas, meeting with people in Houston who were affected by the flooding caused by previous year’s Hurricane Harvey. The following month, he paid a similar visit to the Diocese of West Texas.

And in January 2019, Curry traveled to Florida’s panhandle to meet with Episcopalians in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast whose communities had been in the path of Hurricane Michael the previous October.

Curry spent a weekend in and around Panama City encouraging residents to share their stories of recovery and assuring them that The Episcopal Church has not forgotten or given up on them. “To hear what you have done and are doing, therein is hope and grace and the power of love,” Curry said during a listening session at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preaches in January 2019 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Panama City, Florida. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service

Central Gulf Coast Bishop Russell Kendrick, in a statement to ENS, recalled how meaningful Curry’s visit was for his diocese at a time when the effects of the hurricane were still visible and residents were still struggling to clean up and rebuild.

“On the day of his visit to Panama City, he stood in a church nave that was still heavily damaged by the storm. He stood in a room full of hundreds of people who had lost everything. And he listened,” Kendrick said. “He leaned in to people as they told their stories, and he listened in a way that conveyed his care. He lifted them up and comforted them. And he prayed for them.

“Bishop Curry may have said a few things, but more than anything it was his presence that mattered to people and helped their healing. He showed up. On that day, Bishop Curry was our pastor.”

Curry, in reflecting on his frequent travel across the church as presiding bishop, invoked Jesus’ message to his disciples at the Last Supper in the Gospel of John: “When the Holy Spirit comes, the Spirit will lead you into all truth.”

“What I know from the testimony of Holy Scripture, the promise of Jesus himself, and what I actually have seen both as presiding bishop for nine years and as an ordained clergy person for over 45 years, is that Jesus was and is right,” Curry said. “The Holy Spirit will lead us into God’s future for this Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe was elected The Episcopal Church’s 28th presiding bishop on June 26, 2024, during the 81st General Convention held in Louisville, Kentucky. Photo: Office of Public Affairs

[Episcopal News Service – Louisville, Kentucky] Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe and the installation planning and transition committees announced June 28 that Rowe’s investiture will take place Nov. 2 at The Episcopal Church’s headquarters in Manhattan, New York, instead of Washington National Cathedral, the seat of the presiding bishop, according to a press release by the church’s Office of Public Affairs.

Rowe will be invested during a service in The Episcopal Church Center’s Chapel of Christ the Lord. The service will be livestreamed with interpretation available in multiple languages.

“With gratitude to all involved, I have decided to begin this ministry in a new way,” Rowe said in the press release. “With a simple service at the church center that will include everyone via livestream, we can care for God’s creation by reducing our collective carbon footprint. I have great respect and admiration for the ministry of Washington National Cathedral. My seating will take place in the following months, and I am grateful to Dean [Randy] Hollerith and the cathedral staff as we plan for that event.”

The U.S. presidential election, scheduled for Nov. 5, was among many factors for the decision to change investiture venues, according to the Office of Public Affairs.

The Most Rev. Henry St. George Tucker in 1938 was the first presiding bishop to be invested at Washington National Cathedral; all subsequent presiding bishops have been invested there. The cathedral officially became the seat of the presiding bishop in 1941 as a result of an action at the 1940 General Convention, held in Kansas City, Missouri, according to The Episcopal Church Archives.

The Diocese of Washington and the cathedral “wholeheartedly support” Rowe’s decision, Washington Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said in the press release. 

“We look forward to the day of his seating at the cathedral, and we will celebrate that occasion with great joy,” she said.

Rowe now serves as bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and provisional bishop of the Diocese of Western New York. The House Bishops elected Rowe on June 26 on the first ballot to serve the church as its 28th presiding bishop, succeeding the Most Rev. Michael Curry.

Curry’s term ends on Oct. 31 and Rowe’s begins on Nov. 1. 

“God is calling The Episcopal Church into a new future, and this service will mark the beginning of that journey,” Rowe said in the press release.

Further details on the investiture will be provided as they become available.

Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe preached during the final worship service at the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. June 28, 2024. Photo: Andrew Morehead

[Episcopal News Service – Louisville, Kentucky] In his first sermon as presiding bishop-elect, the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe said The Episcopal Church needs to be ready to tolerate uncertainty, make sacrifices and think differently about how the church should work so it can better share the Gospel of Jesus with a world that needs to hear it.

“In the work that lies ahead, we have what we might call an armor of love that will help us withstand whatever comes our way,” said Rowe, who now serves as bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and provisional bishop of the Diocese of Western New York. “Because, thanks be to God, the church in our day has been given [the Most Rev.] Michael Bruce Curry.”

A livestream of the service is here and the text of Rowe’s sermon is here.

The final worship service of the 81st General Convention on June 28 began with a Four Directions prayer by the Rev. Leon Samson of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland and later honored the work of civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson by singing the hymn for which he wrote the lyrics, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” 

The Rev. Ricardo Bailey, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, served as the “emcee of liturgy,” and as part of the services logistics, he told worshippers to stand at the end for the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the standard protocol for what is commonly known as the Black national anthem. 

“Today we celebrate the memorial of James Weldon Johnson and as we sing the words of this hymn, let us know and understand that within Jesus we are not separate but within Jesus we are united, we are here as a church to celebrate who God is and what God calls us to be. 

“All I’m asking of you here today is to enter into the worship and give it to the Lord to fill you up,” he said.

Intercessory prayers were offered in both English and Spanish, and the celebration of the Eucharist featured language from Enriching Our Worship 1.

“This worship service was stellar. The presiding bishop-elect stirred our hearts because he reminded us that fixing what we have done in the past and getting on with the work of God matters,” Katherine Schnorrenberg, an alternate deputy for the Diocese of Maryland and worship volunteer, told Episcopal News Service at the close of the service.

Rowe described The Episcopal Church, like the community of Christians to whom Paul wrote in the Epistle reading, as small, countercultural and fighting against the evils of the world. That means the church needs to learn how to have hard conversations with each other with love and respect “so we’re all pointing in the same direction – the transformation of the world by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

He lauded the church’s commitment to issues of justice, including the full inclusion of LGBTQI+ people, the church’s investment in becoming Beloved Community, caring for creation and respecting the dignity of every human being.

“Bishop Rowe’s sermon resonated with me because it’s really important to me that in times of transition there be a forward movement for recognition of the gains or the work that’s been done to this point,” Linnea Stifler, a worship volunteer from Diocese of Western Michigan, told ENS. “This sermon gave me a sense that yes, we will continue in the directions that we’ve been doing in relation to dismantling racism and creation care.”

Rowe also praised the ministry of Curry, whom he said was a gift from God to the church who has shown what the power of love can do to transform the world. Curry, he said, has guided the church “in the struggle against racism and the wicked forces that divide us, and given us the gift of his powerful and prophetic preaching to sustain us.”

Curry made racial reconciliation, creation care and evangelism the core tenets of his tenure, and he emphasized the power of love throughout his time as presiding bishop. Through Curry, Rowe said in his sermon, “God has shown us again what the power of love can do to transform the world around us.”

East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole told ENS that Episcopalians are “hungrily” anticipating what’s next for The Episcopal Church’s future under Rowe’s leadership.

The House Bishops elected Rowe on June 26 on the first ballot to serve the church as its 28th presiding bishop.

“Bishop Curry has been a blessing to this church, of course. I think we always have this tendency to elect the presiding bishop we need for the moment, and I think the House of Bishops was clear in choosing Sean,” Cole said. “All the folks who offered themselves up in that discernment process offered something for the church, but I think we were clear in what we chose, and I think this church is eager to see what’s next.”

Rowe’s term as presiding bishop begins Nov. 1.

— Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org. Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.