Bishop Michael Curry’s civil rights ministry

Amid the ongoing threats to civil rights in the United States, which were earned through blood, sacrifice, marches – both silent and loud – and the peaceful demonstrations of those who fought for justice, Bishop Michael Curry, the first African-American Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, delivered a powerful sermon at Kingston Parish Church.

His words, carefully crafted and rooted in history, called upon the legacies of both Black and church history. Bishop Curry, having spent his life in the heart of religious resistance, stood as a descendant of those who preached love, strength, and justice from their pulpits.

Bishop Curry’s own connection to the civil rights movement runs deep. As the son of a priest, he witnessed his father not only preaching in the church but also fighting for justice in the streets, standing up for the betterment of communities.

Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner, he reflected on how the teachings of equity and justice shaped his ministry.

“Being a child of the civil rights movement has impacted my preaching and ministry. I grew up with a father who was both a priest at the altar – preaching, administering the sacraments – and a priest in the streets, standing up for justice participating in public acts that sought to better our community in our society,” the clergyman said.

Secondly, he is “providing leadership and joining with clergy of different ecumenical groups to help to uplift the African-American community in Buffalo so that all citizens might enjoy full rights of citizenship and all might be equal before the law just as we are equal before the God who made us all.”

Bishop Curry’s work also draws from the struggles and legacies of influential figures such as Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Jesse Jackson. For him, ministry is about spreading the gospel and reaching out to the world, preaching not only inside the church but beyond its walls.

“I see the gospel ministry as a ministry that both proclaim the word of God in the church and beyond the church, a ministry that, as Jesus says, when he’s in Luke’s gospel, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has annoyed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

For him, the gospel is a message of both personal salvation and societal liberation.

“I see the social gospel, the personal gospel, the gospel of eternal salvation, and temporal liberation as one in the same. For Jesus came to save souls and to save a society so the children don’t go to bed hungry; so that all people are treated as children of God, and that our society may be one where justice rolls down like a mighty stream, and righteousness like an overflowing brook,” said Bishop Curry, who preached the sermon of the redemptive power of love at the royal wedding of Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

In his stirring sermon two weeks ago at the Kingston Parish Church, during the closing Eucharist to mark the 200th anniversary of the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, Bishop Curry skillfully wove metaphors of church history with the legacy of civil rights struggles. He compared the church to the towering trees in Ghana – giant, resilient, and deeply rooted, despite the challenging soil conditions. These trees, which offered shade to birds, also became a place of refuge for enslaved Black people before their forced journeys across the Middle Passage.

“We are the descendants of survivors,” he told the congregation.

Citing the civil rights anthem I Shall Not Be Moved, he expressed his hope that the church, too, would remain steadfast and resilient for the next 200 years. Like the trees, he said the church must provide respite for the downtrodden, for those seeking shelter from the storms of life.

Addressing the state of the Black church in the United States, Bishop Curry acknowledged its profound transition, as well as the broader shifts occurring within Christianity. Though the church ages, it has also inspired a new generation of young people dedicated to following Jesus and embodying his teachings of love. For Bishop Curry, the church’s role is to focus on making disciples – followers of Christ – rather than simply counting members.

“The church can no longer wait for the congregation to come to it. The church must go where the congregation is. People are not always automatically going to come to the doors of the church. They must see the church in action in the world, not only in the sacrament of the altar, but in the sacrament of the streets,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

The church must offer itself “to do justice and love, mercy, and walk humbly with God”.

When asked about the Black church’s contribution to the dysfunction of Black families, he acknowledged the complexity of the issue. While society has changed since his childhood, Bishop Curry emphasised that the church has always shaped communities and individuals, offering support even during difficult times.

“I know of the churches like that, but I also know that it’s more difficult to do these days. And so the Black church as well as the entire church must not give up on children and young people, but we must remember, we cannot wait for them just to come to us. We must go to where they are. The Shepherd must not wait on the sheep,” Bishop Curry said.

The Episcopal Church has been embroiled in controversy over LGBT issues since the 1970s, when it declared that gay men and lesbians “have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church”. It later accepted the ordination of LGBT bishops.

Commenting on his history-making status of being the first African-American to head the Episcopal Church, Bishop Curry described it as a rarity.

“Well, it was clearly rare in the sense that an African-American had not been the presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church until I was. And yet I have to say that at the time that I became presiding Bishop, the Episcopal Church had known bishops like John Walker … and John Burgess and so many others. So by the time I was elected, it was not unusual for the church to see black leaders in leadership positions,” he said, noting that one of the most beloved of bishops in the history of the Episcopal Church is Bishop Barbara Harris, an African-American woman.

“And so my being elected, while it was a different, I hope that I was able to be a voice for those who did not have a voice in the councils of the church, and in the meetings and gatherings of the primates of our Communion; in the fellowship of our beloved Anglican communion, I hope and pray that I was a voice for those who did not have a voice at the table,” he said.

“I hope and actually believe I was a force for good in our Anglican Communion and that some relationships began to find healing, in part, because of my ministry, but, in part, because our fellow Anglicans reached out across any devices and we reached out. And so healing doesn’t happen overnight, but it happens when people of goodwill, when followers of Jesus, make a commitment to follow in His way and to walk in His footsteps, and reached across any divide or difference to join hands, following in the way of the Lord and Master of us all,” he said.

Bishop Curry remained humble about his own accomplishments, focusing on the broader mission: “I hope and pray that my ministry, both as a priest and as a bishop and then presiding Bishop, may have helped us find our way to not just be members of a church, as important as that is, but to be followers of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, in community,” he stated.

The Episcopal Church, officially the Protestant Episcopal Church, is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com