Enthusiastic Episcopalians Install Their New Leader

on November 5, 2015

Amid pomp and pageantry, the Episcopal Church installed its 27th leader, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, at a service in Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral on Sunday. Much like the earthquake-damaged Gothic cathedral itself, the denomination has been shaken in recent years by membership loss and property feuds that seem destined to drag on in the courts for years.

As the first person of African-American descent to be elected to lead the denomination (whose membership is 87 percent white) Curry is a first for the denomination, succeeding its first female presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. Curry’s record of supporting liberal changes to the church’s teachings on marriage and sexuality is in line with Jefferts Schori’s own views, likely continuing tensions between the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion’s growing and biblically-minded global south. But Curry also embraces evangelical language about relationship with Jesus and affirms his literal bodily resurrection, something that his predecessor has spoken of only in vague terms.

In his Sunday sermon, Curry portrayed a gospel centered upon what people do for God and others, rather than what God accomplished through Jesus Christ.

Read the rest here.

  1. Comment by Namyriah on November 5, 2015 at 6:18 pm

    “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
    your assemblies are a stench to me.”
    Amos 5:21

  2. Comment by OhJay on November 7, 2015 at 12:31 am

    I’ve met both the current and former presiding bishops, and despite the pomp TEC may have required, I can testify that Bp. Curry is a humble man cut from very different cloth than his predecessor.

    If you expect Episcopalians to do an about-face on gay marriage or women in ministry, that isn’t going to happen. But if you’re hoping for an end to the endless lawsuits and acrimony against departed congregations, well, I can’t make promises, but I share your hope and I think it’s well grounded in Bp. Curry’s personal humbleness.

    This man is touched by the Holy Spirit, and I expect TEC to quickly become less adversarial and more oriented toward common Christian mission under his leadership.

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