The Rev. Yehiel Curry, who grew up Roman Catholic on the South Side of Chicago, has been elected to a six-year term as Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Curry has served as ELCA’s Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod since 2019, which also has a six-year term. He was elected to a second term in that role in June.
He was elected by ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly, which convened in Phoenix on July 28 and will meet until August 2.
In remarks he made just after his election, Curry referred to himself as a return on investment in what the ELCA calls benevolence, or mission support. Curry recalled a time when members of Shekinah Chapel in Riverdale, Illinois, urged him to become a lay mission developer.
“Perhaps I’m out there in one of you,” Curry said. “I never saw myself as good enough, so for two years, I said no. I finally said yes. When I said yes, your support, this church’s support, of that ministry meant everything. So if you want to know what your benevolence dollars look like, it looks like me, and I want to say thank you. Thank you for your investment.”
Curry, 53, is a graduate of the Catholic Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
Curry was elected on the fifth ballot. He was in third place on the first two ballots, when many candidates had single-digit votes. The election was open to any “minister of Word and Sacrament” within the ELCA.
By the third ballot Curry broke into a decisive lead of 41.45 percent. The closest runner-up was Bishop Kevin Strickland of the Southeastern Synod in Atlanta, at 13.86 percent.
By the fourth ballot, the only remaining candidates were Curry, Strickland, and Bishop Tracie Bartholomew of the New Jersey Synod. On the fifth ballot, when the choice was between Curry and Strickland, Curry sealed his victory with 70.34 percent of the vote.
He still lives on the South Side with LaShonda, his wife of 30 years, who succeeded him for a time as pastor of Shekinah Chapel. One of their three daughters, Shemiah, was profiled in 2023 as a student at the Lutheran School of Theology, and is graduating this year.
Curry’s synod does not place activism at the center of its identity, judging by its website, but Curry has spoken at various times about racism.
“I am extremely concerned that racism is still a major problem,” he said in an interview with Lutheran World. “The ELCA has been very supportive, but there is still a lot more to do. People of color make up small numbers in the ELCA, so we must continue to be innovative and to lift up leaders, otherwise our efforts won’t be sustainable.”
When Curry wrote about the large and loud protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he said many people he knew wrote “If it was us, we would have been shot.” But he also cast a vision for change.
“Of our leaders, I ask that you take this moment as an opportunity to have courageous conversations with your family, neighbors, and community. We trust that when we gather in Christ, God might instigate change in even the most hardened of hearts and that God, indeed, is with us as we work toward a church and a world where nobody has to say, ‘If it was us, we would have been shot.’”
Curry showed a sly sense of humor during his post-election remarks. Responding to questions about why he was limping, Curry said to wide laughter that he wanted to know if his wife was in the room so he would know which story to tell. He said the limp resulted from hitting his foot with a golf club during marathon sessions while his wife was out of town.
The ELCA and the Episcopal Church have been in full communion since both parties approved the statement “Called to Common Mission” (ELCA in 1999, the Episcopal Church a year later). The ELCA generally has moved at a faster pace in its ecumenical agreements.
Curry will be installed as ELCA’s Presiding Bishop at 2 p.m. October 4 at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
