North Carolina Bishop Michael Curry, who will be installed next month as the new head of the Episcopal Church in the United States, offered a possible preview Sunday of his agenda. Topping the list: Promoting a form of evangelism that calls on members to listen to others’ faith stories and then share their own.
He also wants to stress the love of Jesus, foster social justice, work for reconciliation ”“ racial and otherwise ”“ and preside over a church that’s open to all, including both supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage.
Curry, an outgoing preacher and author of “Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus,” will be the national church’s first African-American presiding bishop. In a Q&A with parishioners at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in uptown Charlotte, he said that Episcopalians have been so shy about advertising what their tradition has to offer ”“ including its liturgy, its sacraments and its commitment to social justice ”“ that many people don’t know the denomination exists.
“We’ve got to get to the day when the average Episcopalian is in touch with their own faith story and faith journey and is able to share that appropriately and authentically,” Curry said. “That may be the game-changer. ”¦ We’re good about doing. We’re nervous about talking.”
Read it all from the Charlotte Observer.
I was on the Evangelism legislative committee with him in 2003 in Minneapolis. He is a very nice and personable man. I think he can say the Nicene Creed without crossing his fingers. I also think the GAFCON/GS bishops will have no more to do with him than with KJS. It is way too late for TEC to do anything. Curry may delay the inevitable but TEC is dead. I have also heard from several clergy friends of mine that he was/is not quite as magnanimous with dissenters as he told the reporter.
I would be nervous about talking also if I were trying to maintain the facade of a church on their, at best, selective view of scripture. As Dick Lucas, long time rector of St Helens – Bishopsgate (London) said more than once, “We keep Bibles in the pews so that you can check up on the preachers.” St. Helens continues to flourish.
David Keller, he is very nice and personable. He is also a strong supporter of gay “rights.” To his credit, he is public about that. Any TEC evangelism under his leadership will be heavily weighted with the “new” Christianity.