He did not look like a person who had been hospitalized seven times in the past 13 months.
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry addressed a plenary session of the General Convention for the last time as Presiding Bishop on June 22 in Louisville, Kentucky. The speech was vintage Curry: Soaring words and soaring hands, a style inherited from the Black Baptist preachers in his family tree. Self-deprecating humor. Scripture passages, cited chapter and verse from memory.
Perhaps most of all, he delivered a profound, tangible expression of gratitude, with multiple targets: Gratitude for his recovery; gratitude for the colleagues who tended the store while he could not; gratitude for the privilege of serving as Presiding Bishop; and gratitude to God, just because.
Despite declining attendance and other woes, Curry told the assembled multitudes he sees a bright future for the Episcopal Church.
“Jesus said this at the Last Supper: I still have many other things to say to you, but you cannot hear them now,” Curry said. “There are many other things the Spirit could tell us, Episcopal Church. But we can’t handle it right now. But this much Jesus told us: there’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place. And I know there’s a Spirit of the Lord. There is a Spirit of the living God, and God is not finished. That Spirit is not finished with this Episcopal Church.”
Just a few short months ago, it was not the least bit obvious that Curry would even be able to attend General Convention, let alone deliver a speech that was as energetic and inspirational as any he has given in recent memory.
In January, he underwent his third brain surgery in less than two months — a scheduled procedure called a middle meningeal artery embolization, designed to address the subdural hematomas that twice required emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. It seems to have worked.
Then in March, he had a pacemaker implanted to address the irregular heartbeat that developed when he was hospitalized for internal bleeding in May 2023. Later in 2023 he had an adrenal gland and attached noncancerous mass surgically removed.
For months the church buzzed with worries about whether he would recover and be able to serve out his term. It looks like a good bet now — his successor will be elected June 26, and take office November 1.
During his remarks, Curry praised the host Diocese of Kentucky for its hard work in preparing for General Convention, and for its role in helping Louisville recover after the police killing of Breonna Taylor in an apartment 10 miles south of the Kentucky International Convention Center.
“The Cathedral Church, where bishops will go to elect our next presiding bishop, was a station house for nonviolent training,” he said.
He praised the other two most senior executives of the church, President of the House of Deputies Julia Ayala Harris and Secretary of the General Convention Michael Barlowe, who will retire in August.
“I have to say a word of thanks at the very beginning to President Ayala Harris for her ministry as president of the House of Deputies, but also in the months that I was in and out of hospitals. … I just thank her for her leadership in that time,” he said, in words that could be relevant to Ayala Harris’s reelection chances.
Two deputies, the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton and Zena Link, are challenging Ayala Harris in an election scheduled for June 25.
In her own remarks, preceding Curry’s, Ayala Harris said: “As we gather for this 81st General Convention, may we come with open and expectant hearts, ready to be led by the Spirit into God’s future for our church. May we commit ourselves anew to walking together in love, even when the road is hard. May we draw strength from the living waters of our faith, trusting that the same God who has brought us thus far will surely lead us into our future church.”
Curry ended his speech by returning to the theme of a bright future. “I’ve learned about Jesus in this church. I’ve learned about Jesus’ way of love and his call for that love to be manifest in our personal relationships, but also in our social, our political, and our economic arrangements. I learned about that in this church. So I’m not worried. I’m not worried about the future of the Episcopal Church,” he said, and paused a beat.
“I got a pension!” he said, and the audience roared with laughter.
“Praise God, but I’m really not worried about the future of this church, because I know him, and whom we have believed. I’m not worried about the gift. It’s not going to be easy. It never has been easy,” he said.
“But I’m here to tell you this Episcopal Church is stronger, more durable, and has a future that God has created and that God has figured out. And I’m here to tell you, don’t you worry about this church. Don’t you weep, and don’t you moan. Just roll up your sleeves and let’s get to work,” he said, to an extended standing ovation.
