Friday, October 16, 2015

The Washington Post: "Episcopal Church’s first black leader — and its ‘tortuous’ path toward integration"

Interestingly, just recently posted an article about the Episcopal Church on the fallout following the promotion of a gay man to Bishop in the church. After years of research it was discovered that the church retained 90% of its membership despite the upheaval that move created. The members who stayed with the church worked out their differences and moved on. The current Presiding Bishop is a woman, Katharine Jefferts Schori, who will be stepping down soon. The new Presiding Bishop taking over for her is a Black man, Bishop Michael Curry. Here is an excerpt from the article in The Washington Post:
     Bishop Michael Curry vividly remembers growing up in segregated Buffalo in the 1950s and ’60s, where on one bright morning in 1963, he crossed Main Street from East Buffalo to West Buffalo to attend an integrated school.
     As an Episcopal priest and civil rights activist, his late father, Kenneth Curry, helped lead the boycott of the city’s segregated public schools. And yet, like the larger culture at the time, worship in the Episcopal Church he so loved was largely segregated. As leader of a black congregation in Buffalo, he never would have been called to the pulpit of a white Episcopal church.
     Five decades later, Kenneth Curry probably would never have imagined that his son would be chosen to lead the entire denomination.
Soon-to-be Presiding Bishop Curry is on Twitter. You can Follow him by clicking on the "Follow" icon in the Tweet below: