Buffalo bishop elected head of Episcopal Church in the United States

Rowe, 49, is the youngest person elected to lead the denomination, dating back to 1785.

He will succeed Bishop Michael Curry, who has served as presiding bishop since 2015 and will resign on October 31. Curry gained international fame after delivering a rousing sermon at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. He also has ties to Buffalo, where he grew up and graduated from Hutchinson Central-Technical High School before to pursue the priesthood like his father, the Rev. Kenneth Curry, former pastor of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.

“I thank God for the opportunity to serve the Church in this role, and I am especially grateful to each of you who supported me and prayed for me during my discernment for this office,” Rowe said in a statement posted on the website of the Episcopal Dioceses of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania shortly after his election was confirmed Wednesday afternoon. “Our ministry together and your resilience and creativity in the face of change have prepared me for this new calling, and I will always be grateful for your faithfulness and courage.”

In a 14-minute speech on the House floor, Rowe recalled his childhood years as the grandson of steelworkers in a Rust Belt town and compared that moment in Episcopal Church history to the time when steelworkers and other manufacturers left the area and left the area. behind an “economic disorder” in communities.

“The people of our region are resilient, but we have spent years resisting the change that has been imposed on us, hoping that things will go back to the way they were,” he said.

With years of declining membership, the Episcopal Church finds itself in a similar situation and facing an “existential crisis,” due not to a loss of faith but to major changes in the world.

The church can no longer operate as it has in the past, said Rowe, who called for a denomination-wide shift in resources toward supporting dioceses and congregations on the ground as they undertake innovative ways to minister and spread the gospel message.

Rowe was ordained bishop of the Diocese of Northwest Pennsylvania in 2007 and for many years was the nation’s youngest Episcopal bishop. He became provisional bishop of the Diocese of Western New York in 2019 as part of a partnership between the two dioceses to share a bishop and diocesan staff. Rowe has maintained offices in the city of Tonawanda and Erie, Pennsylvania, for the past five years under this agreement.

An evaluation of the partnership has been underway since April, with a vote on the future of the two dioceses expected in 2025.

Rowe said on the dioceses’ website that he plans to finish his day-to-day work in the dioceses by mid-September.

Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, Rowe is a 1997 graduate of Grove City College and a 2000 graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary. He is married to Carly Rowe and they have an 11-year-old daughter.

Other candidates for the position of 28th presiding bishop were: Most Reverend J. Scott Barker, bishop of the Diocese of Nebraska; Mgr Daniel GP Gutierrez, bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania; Mgr Robert Wright, bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta; and Most Rev. DeDe Duncan-Probe, bishop of the Diocese of Central New York.

Rowe was elected with 89 of 158 votes during a morning meeting of bishops at the 2024 General Convention in Louisville. The election was confirmed by a 95% vote in the Chamber of Deputies in the afternoon.

Rowe’s nine-year term will begin Nov. 1, with installation the following day at the Washington National Cathedral.