Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry wants the Episcopal Church to reclaim its share of “the Jesus movement.” y now, you’ve likely heard the big news: the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, the Bishop of North Carolina and friend to Trinity Episcopal, was elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. He replaces outgoing Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori, and will be inaugurated into his position during a special service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on All Saints Day this November. The statistics of Bishop Curry’s election are worth retelling: he is the first African-American Presiding Bishop; he was elected on the first ballot—the first time ever in the church’s history; he received nearly 70 percent of the vote from the House of Bishops, and the House of
Deputies approved his election by a vote of 800 to 12. Such overwhelming figures seem to indicate that Bishop Curry was a clear favorite in the slate of four nominees, which also included the bishops of southwest Florida, southern Ohio, and Connecticut. And, if you’ve ever heard Bishop Curry deliver a message, you know that the Episcopal Church has just adamantly and enthusiastically elected a fiery preacher. Bishop Curry already seems more than ready to get started. “We are baptized into the Jesus movement, into the way of Jesus,” Curry said in an interview with the Episcopal News Service. “In a time like this, when people don’t automatically go to church just because Mama and Grand-pop did,
the church can no longer wait for its congregation to come to it. The church must go where the congregation is.” Curry labels this period of the Episcopal Church its “mission moment,” and believes that part of the Presiding Bishop’s role is to push the church out of its doors and into the world.
native of Chicago, Illinois, born March 13, 1953, Curry attended public schools in Buffalo, New York, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975 from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, in Geneva, New York, and a Master of Divinity degree in 1978 from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. He has also studied at the College of
Preachers, Princeton Theological Seminary, Wake Forest University, the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary’s Seminary, and the Institute of Christian Jewish Studies. He was ordained to the diaconate in June 1978 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buffalo, New York, and to the priesthood in December 1978, at St. Stephen’s, WinstonSalem, North Carolina. He began his ministry as deacon-in-charge at St. Stephen’s, and was rector there 1979-1982. He next accepted a call to serve as the rector of St. Simon of Cyrene, Lincoln Heights, Ohio, where he served 19821988. In 1988, he became rector of St. James’, Baltimore, Maryland, where he served until his election as bishop of North Carolina in 2000.
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