By: Maria- Paula

The committee charged with shortlisting candidates for The Episcopal Church’s next presiding bishop on May 15 called for nominations. Themed ‘The coming decade central challenges facing the church with the need to foster evangelism, discipleship and formation while responding to a changing world filled with environmental crises, violence, war, inequality and division,’ they opened doors for their over 1.7 million members to submit names of bishops for the committee’s consideration.

This follows a nearing end to Most Rev. Michael Curry’s tenure as the U.S. Episcopal Church outgoing bishop. Curry is the first Black to have served in that capacity, a role he has held since 2015, championing a message of love and unity.

“My mission is to help people to find their way to a loving, liberating, and life-giving relationship with God, and with each other as children of God, and ultimately with the whole of creation,” he said in an interview with the Havard Business Review in 2019. “The clearer I am about that, and the more consistently I return to it, the more my doubts diminish, whether they be about the church and the world or my own abilities.”

He shared his down moments with self doubt on leadership with more demands and larger responsibility throughout his tenure.

“I still have those moments when I wonder whether someone made a mistake when they chose me, or whether I’m really supposed to be doing this. But I’ve never had a doubt about the reason I do what I do,” he added in that interview.

Presiding bishops serve a nine-year term, elected by the Joint Nominating Committee which is established under Episcopal Church canons, the House of Bishops with the consent of the House of Deputies at a General Convention.

The 20-member committee chaired by Alaska Bishop Mark Lattime and a lay leader in the Diocese of Los Angeles, Steven Nishibayashi, will for the next two months receive the committee nomination forms for names of bishops submitted for consideration within a deadline of July 15.

Curry, whose successor will be elected in June 2024 at the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, and installed as the church’s 28th presiding bishop effective Nov. 1, 2024, is in the eighth year of his term.

The Joint Nominating Committee which is established under Episcopal Church canons to foresee the Election of the Presiding Bishop, communicated that the newly released profile for qualified candidates was recommended from across the church.

In sharing their hopes and concerns about the future of the church and the world at large, more than 6,000 candidates completed the committee’s survey before the committee’s interview on interested church leaders.

“This profile articulates from our perspective as the committee. The Episcopal Church stands today and to where Christ now calls us,” read a statement from the committee.

They said the church faces challenges and opportunities that are unlike anything they have encountered in recent times, calling this a ‘decisive moment’.

In the newly released presiding bishop profile, the nominating committee identified several qualities needed in a presiding bishop. Among the most important characteristics are strong leadership, a love of communicating and faithfulness.

Curry previously served in North Carolina as a bishop and is known for his captivating sermons since he vaulted to global fame with his rousing sermon at the 2018 royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Having had a diverse congregation in Ohio that had a lawyer, a PhD, a physician, and a couple of women in their 70s, he says he still had to talk to all those people in one sermon. This reportedly drive his him to find different ways to illustrate the message, but in the end, it still had to be the same message for all. He expressed how the congregation taught him to preach to princes and paupers at the same time.

“Being an African-American married male, is all part of who I am. But the driver for me in my job as bishop must be the mission I see myself on,” Curry was quoted in the 2019 interview.

Faced with a 24 percent decline in the church’s attendance during the past decade, Bishop Curry has previously classified this as a second-order concern to first order concerns in helping Episcopalians to have living relationships with God and with other people.

The committee therefore tasks Curry’s predecessor to be someone who longs to bring a word to The Episcopal Church and to the world.

Nominees for presiding bishop should have demonstrated diocesan leadership strategic, articulate, collaborative, committed, faithful and gracious diocesan leadership while also building up the body of Christ.

Faithfulness is cited as a quality frequently identified by survey respondents and an essential in a presiding bishop. In addition, the nominee must be authentic, with integrity and deeply rooted in the Episcopal Church tradition, faith, hope in Christ and steadfastly committed.

The presiding bishop’s responsibilities are outlined by The Episcopal Church Constitution and Canons. They include presiding over the House of Bishops, chairing Executive Council, visiting every Episcopal diocese, participating in the ordination and consecration of bishops, receiving and responding to disciplinary complaints against bishops, making appointments to the church’s interim bodies, and developing church policies and strategies as well as speaking for the church on the policies, strategies and programs of General Convention.

Canonical requirements for presiding bishop candidates include being members of the House of Bishops and not having reached the church’s mandatory retirement age of 72 years.

All nominations will be officially presented for consideration at the July 2024 General Convention during a joint session of the House of Bishops and House of Deputies. The successive day, a vote of a majority of all bishops excluding retired bishops not present, except that whenever two-thirds of the House of Bishops are present a majority vote shall suffice of the House of Bishops will elect one of those candidates according to The Episcopal Church Constitution.

A report of that vote will then be forwarded to the House of Deputies, which must vote to confirm or reject the House of Bishop’s choice.

Only then, can there be the next Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop.