Black presiding bishop installed as head of the Episcopal Church

9th November 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Frederick H. Lowe
Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Special from NorthStarNews Today) — Michael B. Curry, installed on November 1 as the 27th Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, is the first African-American man to hold the post in what many argue is the nation’s most-influential church because of its wealthy members.

Curry was installed during an All Saints Eucharist in Washington’s National Cathedral.

After knocking on the west door in the traditional manner at noon, he was admitted to the cathedral by the Very Rev. Gary Hall, the cathedral’s dean, and Diocese Mariann Budde, who asked Curry, “tell us who you are.”

“I am Michael Bruce Curry, a child of God, baptized in St. Simon of Cyrene Church in Maywood, Illinois, on May 3, 1953, and since that time I have sought to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ,” he replied.

He succeeded the 26th Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to hold the post. “In the name of Christ, we greet you,” Schori told Curry, accordng to the Episcopal News Service. He will serve nine years.

More than 2,500 people attended the ceremony.

Curry, 62, former bishop of North Carolina, was elected Presiding Bishop-elect on the first ballot during the church’s 78th convention June 27 in Salt Lake City.

He received a Master of Divinity degree in 1978 from Yale Divinity School. Curry was elected eleventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina on February 11, 2000.

Curry spoke of evangelism and reconciliation, especially racial reconciliation, calling it “some of the most-difficult work possible.”

Curry and his wife, Sharon, are the parents of two adult daughters, Rachel and Elizabeth.

This article originally published in the November 9, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.