In nine years at the helm of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Michael Curry – the first Black person to hold the title, led the church through tumultuous times. But he may be better known as the charismatic minister who delivered the sermon at the wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Dutchess of Sussex.
(Credit: Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP)
Overview:
Appointed in 2015, Curry, a widely respected theologian, guided the Episcopal Church through challenging times, including the COVID-19 pandemic and racial reconciliation.
Bishop Michael Curry has no doubt: There is evil in the world.
Turn on the evening news, as he does most days, and you’ll see plenty of controversy, tragedy and pain, with just a few minutes of positive news at the end. America, the country he loves, is hopelessly divided, with apostates fueling the division. Even so-called Christians bypass the teachings of Jesus — the loving, compassionate New Testament savior who stood for justice — for Old Testament judgment, exclusion and hate.
“I wouldn’t have said it when I first came out of seminary, but let me tell you, I’ve been around now,” says Curry, past presiding prelate of the Episcopal Church. “There’s some wrong and evil at work, and a devil. My grandmother was right.”
No doubt, he says, the world is crazy. It has always been crazy. Yet the bishop also believes there is hope — for the nation, for young people, for the faithful who choose love over hate.
“There is real evil afoot,” Curry says. “But there’s also goodness.”
“We must discover love”
That message — goodness, and the power of love — came up again and again in a wide-ranging conversation Curry had with Word In Black in late February. In it, Curry reflected on his remarkable journey from Buffalo, N.Y., where he grew up, to presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the first Black person to hold the faith’s top position.
Since his installation in November 2015, Curry’s term has been an eventful one. Injecting Black spiritual and cultural energy into a faith so staid Episcopalians are nicknamed “the Frozen Chosen,” Curry facilitated the church’s reconciliation with racism, guided it through the COVID-19 lockdowns and established his gospel of love as the antidote to strife.
For all his accomplishments as a faith leader, Curry is perhaps best known as the charismatic minister who delivered the sermon at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in May 2018. That sermon, broadcast worldwide, introduced Curry and his belief in the power of love to an audience of millions.
“We must discover love. The redemptive power of love,” he told the congregation of crowned heads and international dignitaries that day. “And when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world …. If humanity ever captures the energy of love, it will be the second time in history that we have discovered fire.”
During the interview, the bishop, 72, almost always enlisted a parable of Jesus to make the point. His message, delivered with passion, is consistent: “We are Jesus people. And the church can never go wrong if it just follows Jesus and his teachings.”
Though it’s hard to see past troubled times, the bishop says he’s hopeful, due in part to young people in ministry. It’s heartening ”just seeing them taking their place in the work of the Kingdom, in the work of proclaiming the good news and their commitment to justice and right and truth and goodness,” he says. It’s confirmation that “the ‘Jesus work’ goes on and it’s gonna go on. That, more than anything else, gives me hope and assurance that the world will be fine.”
Things seem so dire because negativity gets more attention, Curry says, comparing the situation to kids on a playground: Calm is taken for granted, and if a schoolyard fight breaks out, everyone runs over to watch.
“The Bible says love is stronger than hate, and I think that is true,” he said. “It’s just much quieter. It’s not as demonstrative.”
Christian nationalist “heresy”
That’s why, he says, the church must remain focused on Jesus. He recalled the parable of Peter, awakened at night, seeing Jesus walk on water. As long as Peter focused on Jesus, Curry says, “he was able to walk on the water” like Jesus, but sank when he turned his attention to the wind, the waves and the storm around them.
If the modern church, he said, remained “‘stayed on Jesus’ — really stayed on Jesus, focused on Jesus — it would make a tremendous difference,” he says.
Then, Curry quickly clarified.
”I’m not talking about the Jesus who hails from some cultural right wing. You won’t find that Jesus in the Bible. Let’s just be clear. I’m talking about the Jesus who said, ‘If you’re gonna follow me, you’re gonna live a sacrificial life: Whosoever would save his life would lose it, but whosoever would lose his life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will find it.’”
The church will never be perfect, Curry said, but the closer we follow Jesus the more accurately we’ll live out our mandate. Still, ”we’ll never get it perfectly because we’re human. There have always been aberrations and contradictions to Jesus’ teachings,” from ancient times to the present, but Christian nationalism is “a heresy.”
“I love my country, but not more than I love my God,” he says. Blurring the lines between nationalism and faith “is putting our loyalty to our country on par with our loyalty to our Lord. The early Christians said Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not. And that’s true whether it’s in the first century or the 21st century.”
To claim otherwise, Curry says, “is heresy and blasphemy.”
This story was originally published by Word in Black. See the original story at this link: https://wordinblack.com/2025/03/bishop-michael-curry-and-the-gospel-of-love/.
