Message of love, acceptance from new Episcopal presiding bishop


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SALT LAKE CITY — "We are the Jesus movement now!" the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church declared Friday.

The Rt. Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, who was just elected as the church's first black presiding bishop, used his first sermon since the election to speak of discipleship and embracing differences. His term begins Nov. 1.

"We are all different," the bishop-elect said on the last day of the Episcopal Church's General Convention at the Salt Palace Convention Center. "Some of us are black, some of us white, some of us are brown. I like that old song that says, 'Jesus loves all the children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.'"

Through the Jesus movement — a movement advocacy for evangelicalism — the bishop-elect encouraged members to take strides to accept differences in others and maintain discipleship.

"The whole call for the convention was to be bold, to be bold in our faith, so I think that's the same thing that he challenged us to go forth," said Patricia Abrams, deputy to the General Convention.

Rt. Rev. Curry also quoted scripture and commented on the effect that love has.

"Love God. Love your neighbor. Change the world," he said.

Abrams admitted that accepting differences in others "is easier said than done," but said accepting others breaks down barriers built by fear.


The whole call for the convention was to be bold, to be bold in our faith, so I think that's the same thing that he challenged us to go forth.

–Patricia Abrams, deputy to the General Convention.


"It's hard to like or to even understand people who are different from you," Abrams said. "But I think it's something that you learn to grow into."

Rt. Rev. Curry referred to John Lewis, an African-American civil rights leader known for his involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as an example of the power of love.

On several occasions, Lewis was severely beaten for his involvement in the civil rights movement. When a Ku Klux Klan member later apologized to Lewis for beating him for his involvement with the Freedom Riders, Lewis frankly forgave him.

"This is a testimony of love," the bishop-elect said reverently.

After an 18 percent drop in membership over the past decade, the Rev. Samantha Vincent-Alexander, rector for St. John’s Episcopal Church in Hampton, Virginia, said the Rt. Rev. Curry's sermon and the Jesus movement is a good thing for members and nonmembers of the Episcopal Church.

"We have been declining as a denomination and we've been fearful for a long time," she said. "But I think it's time to let go of that fear and move forward in hope and this is the time for that change."


Katie Larsen is a Deseret News intern and print journalism senior at Utah State University who graduates in December. Email: klarsen@deseretnews.com

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