All posts tagged: Michael Curry

The Episcopal Church announces four candidates for presiding bishop

The Episcopal Church announces four candidates for presiding bishop

Published by Sam

(RNS) — Four candidates have been selected to stand for election as the 28th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the denomination’s highest office. The nominees include Bishop J. Scott Barker of the Diocese of Nebraska, Bishop Daniel G. P. Gutiérrez of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, Bishop Sean Rowe of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Diocese of Western New York and Bishop Robert Wright of the Diocese of Atlanta. The vote to select the next presiding bishop will be held in June to succeed Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, whose nine-year term concludes on Oct. 31. The election is scheduled for June 26 at the denomination’s General Convention, which will take place in Louisville, Kentucky, this year. The House of Bishops will elect the next presiding bishop in a sequestered session, and the House of Deputies, a second voting body of the General Convention made of clergy and lay deputies, will confirm or refuse the bishops’ election. Bishop Ian T. Douglas, retired bishop of Connecticut and a former candidate for presiding bishop, said the next …

More than 140 global Christian leaders call for Gaza cease-fire in Holy Week letter

More than 140 global Christian leaders call for Gaza cease-fire in Holy Week letter

Published by Sam

(RNS) — More than 140 global Christian leaders, including a Guatemalan Catholic cardinal and the presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, called for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and for an end to foreign military support for Israel in a Tuesday (March 26) letter to U.S. President Joe Biden and other politicians. “We, as global Christian leaders, stand with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Palestine and around the world and say the killing must stop, and the violence must be brought to an end,” they wrote. “The horrific actions Hamas committed on October 7th in no way justify the massive deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military.” In separate text specifically addressed to Biden, the signatories wrote, “We implore you to have the moral courage to end U.S. complicity in the ongoing violence and, instead, do everything in your power to prevent the potential genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” The letter comes just one day after the …

Carrie Sheffield’s journey to forgiveness after childhood in cultlike family

Carrie Sheffield’s journey to forgiveness after childhood in cultlike family

Published by Sam

(RNS) — Before she was a columnist and policy analyst speaking on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, Carrie Sheffield was a child shuffled from state to state in a motorhome with her seven siblings, subject to the whims of a charismatic father who believed he was a Mormon prophet destined to be a U.S. president. (He was later excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) But despite the havoc wreaked by her father’s belief system — one that justified spending tens of thousands on promotional newspaper ads while his children ate broth made from park grass — Sheffield isn’t anti-religious, or anti-Mormon. Now a convert baptized in the Episcopal Church, Sheffield distinguishes between the goodness of God and the brokenness of human-led religions.   Religion News Service spoke to Sheffield about the decision to chronicle this cultlike childhood in her new memoir, “Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness,” her departure from the LDS church and her decision to forgive her father. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. …

Bishop Curry to receive pacemaker to treat irregular heart rhythm

Bishop Curry to receive pacemaker to treat irregular heart rhythm

Published by Sam

(RNS) — The Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop, Michael Curry, is scheduled to have a pacemaker implanted Friday (March 1) to treat his atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, the denomination announced Thursday. The procedure is expected to require an overnight hospital stay. Curry, who has been keeping to a lighter, modified work schedule while dealing with recent health issues, will continue doing so until his medical team releases him for additional duties, the announcement said. The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs asked for continued prayers for Curry, his family and his medical team. Curry, 70, is in the last year of his nine-year term as the 27th presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church. Earlier this month, he authorized Vice President of the House of Bishops Mary Gray-Reeves to carry out select duties on his behalf as he recovers from a Jan. 18 procedure to treat recurring subdural hematomas, or brain bleeds. Since May 2023, Curry has been receiving medical treatment for internal bleeding and heart conditions. He was hospitalized for internal bleeding in …

The Episcopal Church takes steps to improve protocols for bishop misconduct

The Episcopal Church takes steps to improve protocols for bishop misconduct

Published by Sam

(RNS) — After months of allegations that it lacks a credible process for disciplining its bishops, the Episcopal Church is taking steps to make it simpler to report misconduct, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said in an announcement Thursday (Feb. 22). “Given the current atmosphere, I have chosen to exercise my canonical discretion to adopt a general protocol for transparency in Title IV matters involving Bishops,” Curry wrote in a letter delivered to the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops, referring to the denomination’s internal mechanism for holding clergy accountable. The changes are intended to address a string of allegations against Episcopal bishops and come after lay and ordained Episcopalians have voiced their concerns about Title IV publicly. Last year, Julia Ayala Harris, who as president of the Episcopal House of Deputies is the second-highest ranking officer of the church, made public a letter detailing her concerns about her own experience after she filed a formal complaint against a retired bishop who, she said, had subjected her to “non-consensual physical contact” and “inappropriate verbal statements.” Rather than …

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry subject of clergy misconduct complaint over handling of allegations

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry subject of clergy misconduct complaint over handling of allegations

Published by Sam

(RNS) — Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, head of the Episcopal Church, is the subject of an internal clergy misconduct complaint for his response to abuse allegations against Bishop Prince Singh, the former bishop of the Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan. Singh resigned in September after allegations that he had physically and emotionally abused his ex-wife and sons, Nivedhan and Eklan Singh. His sons originally disclosed their abuse allegations to Curry in December 2022, but a Title IV process — the Episcopal Church’s protocol for responding to accusations of clergy misconduct — was not launched against Singh until the brothers went public with their allegations in June 2023. For months, the family has called for investigations into Curry and Bishop Todd Ousley, who was the intake officer for Title IV complaints against bishops at the time, saying the two mishandled their allegations by failing to initiate the Title IV process. “We have been saying the same thing since day one: This has very little to do with a personal conflict between sons and their father, …