This is one of a series of tributes to Presiding Bishop Curry, as published in the May 26 edition of The Living Church.
The brief General Convention of 2022 gave me a key to understanding Presiding Bishop Michael Curry beyond his ability to brighten any photograph with his reliable smile. Because this General Convention was so abbreviated and constricted by COVID-19, it seemed less like the noisy sausage factory of legislation than usual.
I had only copy editing to tend to, and TLC was not publishing a brief daily edition, unlike during previous conventions. I took some leisurely moments to watch the streaming video of the House of Bishops in action. When he was presiding in the house, which was most of the time I tuned in, Bishop Curry was a source of joy and mirth. He would greet other bishops with affection, and murmur playful asides when the bishops turned their attention to a dreary and boring topic.
Within minutes of hearing this steady beat, I began to feel something unfamiliar from roughly 30 years of writing about General Convention. I felt loose, relaxed, and almost entirely peaceful.
Then the gear clicked into place. Bishop Curry, I realized, is a life-giving extrovert. As a lifetime introvert, who has sometimes felt alienated and scorned by groups of extroverts, I’ve developed a deep gratitude for life-giving extroverts. They are not simply people who enjoy being in the spotlight or telling loud jokes at large parties. Instead, the life-giving extroverts I’ve come to love are those whose joy is natural, unforced, and so essential to their identity that the world seems off-kilter if they appear unhappy or troubled.
I love that for nine years a life-giving extrovert has led a denomination that has a special appeal to introverts. If you doubt this, you have had exceptionally good luck at coffee hours. He helped more Episcopalians learn to speak about Jesus without throat-clearing. To paraphrase a joke, he could read from the phone book and make it a stirring sermon. He nearly stole the show when he preached at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. I have often hoped that his homily for that day would bring healing to the grief-laden quarrels among Prince Harry, Prince William, and King Charles III.
Bishop Curry will be an impossible presiding bishop to follow, and I expect the five nominees for the office realize this. I am glad he breathed more life into the lungs of a church that has sometimes struggled with its identity. I hope we all honor him by keeping a mirthful twinkle in our eye and greeting one another with affection, especially when we are in the path of the juggernaut known as General Convention.
