The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, the presiding bishop and primate of the Episciopal Church, believes in the way of love.
“The Way of Love is a way of life,” the Episcopal Church website reads. “More than a program or curriculum, it is an intentional commitment to a set of practices. It’s a commitment to follow Jesus: Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest.”
Animated by Jesus of Nazareth and his way of radical, sacrificial love, Curry regularly reminds Episcopalians they are “the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement.” In 2018, Curry was introduced to over 1 billion people when he gave the sermon at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. In his 14-minute address, he emphasized the redemptive property of love.
Curry will serve as chaplain-in-residence for Week Seven at Chautauqua. Love, with faith and hope, will be the theme of his sermon series.
Curry will preach at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday ecumenical service of worship in the Amphitheater. His sermon title is “Choose Love.”
He will also preach at the 9:15 a.m. morning worship services Monday through Friday in the Amphitheater. His sermon titles include: “Faith: A lesson from an African Tree,” “Hope: With God There’s Always Another Possibility,” “Love: The Only Way to Beloved Community,” “Faith, Hope and Love: There is a balm in Gilead,” and “We are Family.”
Throughout his ministry, Curry has been a prophetic leader, particularly in the areas of racial reconciliation, climate change, evangelism, immigration policy and marriage equality. Elected to a nine-year term in this role at the church’s 78th General Convention in June 2015, he was installed in November of that year. Curry serves as the Episcopal Church’s chief pastor, spokesperson, and president and chief executive officer.
Ordained in 1978, Curry served parishes in North Carolina, Ohio and Maryland until his election as the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in 2000.
Curry was extensively involved in Crisis Control Ministry and the Absalom Jones Initiative, which provides support for Historically Black Universities and Colleges.
He participated in the founding of ecumenical summer day camps for children, preaching missions, creating networks of family day care providers and educational centers and brokering millions of dollars of investment in urban neighborhoods.
The descendant of enslaved Africans brought to North America by way of the trans-Atlantic slave routes, Curry was born in Chicago in 1953. His father was also an Episcopal priest, and after Curry’s mother died when he was young, he and his sister were raised by their father and grandmother in Western New York. He attended public schools in Buffalo, graduated with high honors from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and earned a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School. He furthered his education at the College of Preachers, Princeton Theological Seminary, Wake Forest University, the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary’s Seminary, and the Institute of Christian Jewish Studies.
Named by the Religion News Association as religion newsmaker of the year in 2018, Curry is the author of five books, including Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times, The Power of Love: Sermons, Reflections & Wisdom to Uplift and Inspire, Following the Way of Jesus: Church’s Teaching for a Changing World, Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus, and Songs My Grandma Sang.
In 2011, Katherine Jefferts Schori, the first woman elected to the office of presiding bishop — and Curry’s predecessor —visited Chautauqua. The next presiding bishop, elected in June 2024, is Sean Rowe, bishop of Northwest Pennsylvania and bishop provisional of Western New York. He is due to be installed on Nov.1, 2024.
