NEWS ANALYSIS: Election of Black Leader Helps Redeem Episcopal Church

By George E. Curry

NNPA Editor-in-Chief

 WASHINGTON (NNPA)

The recent election of Bishop Michael Curry as the 27th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church – the first African American to hold the denomination’s highest office –  is expected to help atone for the church’s failure to take a more active role opposing slavery and Jim Crow laws. He succeeds the church’s first female presiding bishop

Curry, bishop of the North Carolina Diocese since 2000, was easily elected presiding bishop of the 2.5 million congregation on June 27 at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Salt Lake City, capturing 121 of 174 votes in a four-person race. Prior to moving to North Carolina, Curry served 12 years as rector of St. James Church in Baltimore.

Recalling the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori nine years ago as the church’s first female presiding bishop, Curry said: “It was an experience of the Holy Spirit, for real … And today I had that same feeling. And I think that’s a sign of our church growing more deeply in the spirit of God and the movement of God’s spirit in our world.”

He explained, “ … My election is a reflection of that same thing. That’s exciting. That’s a combination of God and us working together and that is a church willing to grow and being all that God dreams for it to be.”

Read entire story in the New Journal and Guide, July 9-15.