An historic election for The Episcopal Church

Presiding Bishop-elect
Bishop Michael Curry

The big news of today was the historic election of the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry to serve as the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. (I wish could take credit for the photo on the left, but I "borrowed" it from a Facebook post.)

For the first time, the Church elected a black man to this office.

For the first time, the new Presiding Bishop was elected on the first ballot (with nearly 70% of his fellow bishops voting for him, leaving the other three nominees to share remaining few votes).

For the next nine years of his term in office, I expect Bp. Curry's passionate preaching, enthusiastic evangelism, and deep of Jesus to help energize and lead our church to new places and awesome opportunities.

Here's a link to a summary of the press conference that took place soon after his election was confirmed.

Earlier in the day Bishops, Deputies, and guests gathered for the daily service of Holy Eucharist. Our prelude was offered by the RedSpiritSingers, a Native American drum circle. Wow! The next bit of music? We all sang "Joyful, joyful, we adore thee"! Wow, what a great reminder that our worship can effectively combine all kinds of materials.

Oh, and we actually got a bit of business done along the way. I was at a 7:30 hearing, receiving testimony from folks on resolutions being considered by the Prayer Book, Liturgy, and Music committee. More on that later (though I will tease you a bit and tell you that I don't think I've ever been in the company of some many transgendered persons ever in my life).

We also began consideration of resolutions related to improving race relations. Though I found some of the language potentially inflammatory, the spirit of the resolution and our need to offer real solutions and genuine hope is real indeed.

God is good indeed!