The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of North Carolina, has been elected the 27th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Bishop Curry will be the fifth southern bishop and the first African-American leader of the church.

Meeting at St Mark’s Cathedral in Salt Lake City, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church on 27 June 2015 elected Bishop Curry on the first ballot and received 121 votes, defeating the Bishop of Connecticut, the Rt. Rev. Ian Douglas who received 13 votes and the Bishop of Southern Ohio, the Rt. Rev. Thomas Breidenthal who received 19 votes; and the Rt. Rev. Dabney Smith, Bishop of Southwest Florida who received 21 votes.

Born in Chicago and reared in Buffalo, New York, Bishop Curry was educated at Hobart College and trained for the ministry at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Ordained deacon in June and priest in December 1978 in the Diocese of Western New York, Bishop Curry served as deacon in charge, then rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem in the Diocese of North Carolina from 1978-1982. He served as rector of St Simon of Cyrene Episcopal Church in Lincoln Heights, Ohio from 1982-1988; and from 1988 to 2000 as rector of St James African Episcopal Church in Baltimore–the oldest African-American Episcopal parish in the South. (Author: George Conger)

Congratulations and know that the Church and all the faithful shall raise your name in prayer and wish you well in your new and challenging ministry.

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