The Way of Love
Reflections on Presiding Bishop Michael Bruce Curry
This is the last article in a series of tributes to Presiding Bishop Curry, as published in the May 26 edition of The Living Church.
When I first became president of the House of Deputies, I imagined that my interactions with the Presiding Bishop would be somewhat formal, usually conducted in offices or conference rooms and accompanied by staff, chancellors, and official memos and reports.
I did not anticipate early morning FaceTime conversations about the Buffalo Bills and America’s Got Talent, or the relative merits of various brands of hot sauce. But from 2015 until 2022, the years that Michael Curry and I served together, that’s often how it went. Whether the issue at hand was big or small — and we faced some big ones as we led through a global pandemic — Michael’s love of laughter and unsurpassed skill at building relationships allowed us to navigate difficult situations, and even some disagreements, with good humor and affection. He knew, and he helped me know, that in the end our shared love for both Jesus and the church would see us through.
Michael loves deeply. He loves Jesus and his family most of all, of course, but his love of life makes him an evangelist not only for the gospel, but also for Bit-O-Honey candy, cheesy videos of small children singing with big voices on reality television, his beloved Bills, and Tarheel basketball. During our years in ministry together, he won me over to AGT, but was never bitter that I remain an unregenerate Cleveland Browns and Syracuse basketball fan. I think he was gracious in defeat because he is a generous and loving soul, but perhaps it was because I sent him boxes of Bit-O-Honey, which, to his sorrow, cannot be bought in Raleigh.
In fact, Michael loves so deeply that his love has changed our church. He has spent his ministry as presiding bishop proclaiming the power of love, because he truly believes that love is so deep and broad that it can change the world and each of us. As our chief evangelism officer, he has helped us learn to articulate our faith more clearly, to proclaim with him the power of God’s transformational and unconditional love for humankind and for all of creation. We Episcopalians talk about Jesus more easily than we did nine years ago, thanks to Michael, and when he asks us to imagine a world in which sacrificial, redemptive love is the way, we can more easily imagine what it would mean for us to become that Beloved Community.
When I was president of the House of Deputies, I was often called on to speak immediately following Michael, and I joked that it was the least enviable role in Christendom. But the truth is that I was lucky, because people who have just been bathed in the love of Jesus and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry are nearly always a happy and generous crowd. Michael loves so deeply and so persuasively that he has made us all love better than we used to, and that legacy of love will bless our church for generations to come.
