[Episcopal News Service] It was the year a presiding bishop said goodbye – and the year The Episcopal Church said hello to a new presiding bishop. Episcopalians put the pandemic (mostly) behind them, yet plenty of uncertainty remained, regarding the church’s long-term membership decline, dioceses’ financial sustainability and a possible clergy shortage.
And 2024 was a General Convention year. Bishops, deputies and other Episcopalians met in June in Louisville, Kentucky, for the first full churchwide gathering since the first outbreaks of COVID-19.
From leadership transitions to new churchwide ministry trends to the unique programs of individual congregations, The Episcopal Church was full of interesting stories in 2024. Looking back on all the news that Episcopal News Service covered during the year, several stories stood out for their significance and for high levels of reader interest.
So, as we prepare to greet 2025, ENS is highlighting these 10 stories from the past year. All 10 ranked among our top stories in pageviews, and several of them entailed ongoing coverage of an evolving story, combining breaking news and subsequent updates. Some stories will continue developing into the new near, so watch for continued coverage by ENS.
And look further below here for a list of additional articles that resonated with our readers in 2024, from a certain faith-based documentary about love to priests on “Jeopardy!” to one congregation’s knitted octopus ministry.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry receives applause from bishops and deputies during his opening remarks before a joint session June 22 at the 81st General Convention, with House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris behind him. Photo: Scott Gunn
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry concludes his eventful term
Episcopalians began the year praying for the health of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who was in the middle of recovering from a series of medical emergencies and procedures.
Curry, elected in 2015 as the church’s first African American denomination leader, was wrapping up the final year of his nine-year term as the 27th presiding bishop. By April, with his condition improved, he chaired his final Executive Council meeting, and in June, he preached a final revival sermon in Louisville to kick off the 81st General Convention.
“Choose love because love can save us,” Curry said. “Love comes from the heart of God.”
Curry traveled to more than 100 dioceses during his nine-year term. His last pastoral visit was to the Diocese of Wyoming in September. He also reflected on his nine years as presiding bishop in this Q&A with ENS.
The 27th Presiding Bishop Michael Curry presents 28th Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe with the primatial staff during Rowe’s investiture Nov. 2 at Chapel of Christ the Lord at the church’s New York headquarters.
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe elected, takes office
No news generated more interest among ENS readers in 2024 than coverage of the nomination, election and installation of Curry’s successor.
Four nominees were announced in April. A fifth was added by petition two weeks later. Then at the 81st General Convention, the House of Bishops elected and the House of Deputies confirmed the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe as the 28th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church.
“We know that we cannot continue being The Episcopal Church in the same way, no matter where we live,” Rowe said in his acceptance speech in Louisville. “It’s time to reorient our church … to support dioceses and churches on the ground, where ministry happens.”
Rowe had served as bishop of two dioceses, Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York, through a partnership that has been a collaboration model for other dioceses. (ENS interviewed Rowe for a biographical profile here.) He took office on Nov. 1, and his term was celebrated the next day at a scaled-down, livestreamed investiture in Chapel of Christ the Lord at the church’s New York headquarters.
Episcopalians of African, Asiamerican, Indigenous and Latino/Hispanic heritage gathered on the opening night of the 81st General Convention, June 23, at Cathedral of the Assumption in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, for the New Community Festival hosted by The Episcopal Church’s Department of Ethnic Ministries. Photo: Wilfreddy Alexander Carmona Arias
General Convention returns to full gathering in Louisville
It was no surprise that some of the most engaging news of the year focused on preparations for the 81st General Convention and the latest developments at the June 23-28 in-person gathering.
Meetings of General Convention, the church’s governing body, also typically serve every three years as a hub for formation, fellowship and networking, and at this meeting, COVID-19 protocols were eased, allowing for greater interaction among bishops, deputies and observers.
In addition to electing churchwide leaders, approving a 2025-27 churchwide budget plan and considering hundreds of resolutions, attendees enjoyed the host Diocese of Kentucky’s hospitality while looking ahead to the 82nd General Convention, which will be held in 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Milwaukee, Fond du Lac and Eau Claire deputies celebrate the House of Deputies approving their dioceses’ reunion as the Diocese of Wisconsin on June 28. Photo: Scott Gunn
Trend toward diocesan mergers picks up steam
One of the big stories at General Convention – actually multiple stories – was the church’s changing diocesan landscape, with an increased focus on collaboration that sometimes is leading to diocesan mergers.
General Convention authorized the reunion of the three dioceses in Wisconsin as one, and separately it approved the creation of the Diocese of the Great Lakes through a merger of the dioceses of Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan. It also cleared the Micronesia mission to combine with the Diocese of Hawai’i.
Since General Convention ended, the dioceses of Central Pennsylvania and Bethlehem also have voted to pursue a merger. Similar talks are underway in the dioceses of Northern Indiana and Indianapolis.
As for Rowe’s two former dioceses, Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York, they are considering their next steps in their partnership. The two dioceses remain separate entities but have shared a bishop and partnered on administration, governance and ministry since formalizing their partnership in 2018.
The House of Bishops poses for a photo at its March 2024 meeting at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas. The meeting came a month after the church, on Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s direction, launched a webpage focused on greater transparency in Title IV cases involving bishops. Photo: Frank Logue
Renewed focus on handling of bishop disciplinary cases
The church’s Title IV disciplinary canons already were in the news in 2023, particularly after House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris revealed that she had been the complainant in a case against a bishop. Such cases raised churchwide concerns of a perception that not all clergy were being held to the same standards of discipline and transparency.
Cases involving bishops continued to generate stories in 2024, including in the dioceses of California, Easton, Florida, Massachusetts and Wyoming – and in the presiding bishop nominating process.
Curry joined Ayala Harris in asking the Standing Commission on Constitution, Canons, Governance and Structure to study the matter and suggest reforms, some of which were adopted by the 81st General Convention.
Curry also directed the launch of a new page on The Episcopal Church’s website in February to provide basic information and timelines for several publicized cases involving bishops and to make it easier for people to file new complaints.
The Rev. Kimberly Culp, left, is joined by Nebraska Bishop Scott Barker and members of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Alliance for a May 1 installation service, after the congregation spent three years trying to fill its open rector position. Photo: Diocese of Nebraska, via Facebook
Dioceses and congregations respond to ‘clergy shortage’
Not everyone agrees that the trends in clergy deployment in recent years can accurately be described as a “shortage” – the church still has thousands of priests, and hundreds more are ordained every year – but diocese and congregations undeniably are facing growing challenges.
Diocesan transition ministers and other church leaders, in interviews with ENS, described a churchwide landscape with exponentially more open priest positions than there are priests available and willing to fill them.
To serve nearly 7,000 congregations, the number of active Episcopal priests has fallen over the past 20 years to fewer than 6,000. Local leaders say parish priests in recent years are less willing to relocate to new dioceses to start new positions, and recent seminary graduates typically prefer full-time parish employment, at a time when about half of all Episcopal congregations offer only part-time calls, often because of financial constraints.
Even so, some diocesan officials are touting fresh approaches to congregational leadership. They point to more flexible models of discernment and training, the expanded role and importance of bi-vocational priests, creative partnerships that allow clusters of congregations to share full-time priests and an increasing churchwide emphasis on local empowerment in lay-led parishes.
General Theological Seminary, located in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, regularly welcomes outside groups to use its facilities for events, including Chapel of the Good Shepherd, especially organizations from the vibrant Chelsea arts community. Photo: General Theological Seminary
Episcopal seminaries reposition themselves for future
Dramatic changes in theological education have been underway for several years, particularly some Episcopal seminaries offering hybrid learning options or moving their entire programs online. That trend continued in 2024, along with some other new developments.
After a January meeting of the Council of Episcopal Seminary Deans and other church leaders, the deans released a statement committing to “a season of cooperation, data sharing, and imaginative mechanisms to coordinate and strengthen theological education for leaders so that The Episcopal Church can flourish.”
In February, Virginia Theological Seminary said it would begin this fall to offer full scholarship packages to all full-time residential students, covering tuition, housing and meal plans. A similar announcement was made in November by the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, which said it would offer full scholarships to all full-time residential Master of Divinity and Diploma of Anglican Studies students beginning with the 2025-26 academic year.
In other seminary news, Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, announced it was withdrawing from the Graduate Theological Union. And General Theological Seminary reached an agreement to lease its New York campus to the Tennessee-based Vanderbilt University.
General Conference of The United Methodist Church convenes April 23-May 3 in Charlotte, N.C. Photo: United Methodist Church
Steps forward in ecumenical dialogue with United Methodist Church
The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church have been in talks for years over the possibility of someday reaching a full-communion agreement, similar to the one The Episcopal Church has with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and several other Christian denominations. One of the key advantages is the ability of clergy to serve and celebrate sacraments in partner denominations’ churches.
Those talks, however, stalled in recent years amid a schism among the Methodists over issues of human sexuality. Then in April 2024, the denomination’s General Conference voted to approve full communion with The Episcopal Church, and later in the meeting, it struck down a ban on gay clergy and ended the United Methodist Church’s condemnation of homosexuality.
The Episcopal Church responded by taking up Resolution A049 at its 81st General Convention regarding next steps in the dialogue with the Methodists. In June, bishops and deputies approved an amended resolution that “joyfully anticipates advancing towards full communion” between the two churches and encourages Episcopalians to learn more about these efforts over the next three years.
Talks between the two denominations have resumed, with a goal of voting to approve full communion in 2027 at the 82nd General Convention.
Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina, is one of two remaining historically Black colleges with Episcopal roots. Photo: Saint Augustine’s University
Saint Augustine University struggles to fend off challenge to accreditation
There are only two remaining historically Black colleges with Episcopal roots: Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina and Voorhees in Denmark, South Carolina. Both are independent institutions, though The Episcopal Church continues to support them, including with fundraising.
The past year has been a rocky one for Saint Augustine’s, which has struggled to maintain its accreditation after its accrediting agency found it had failed to meet six of the agency’s requirements and standards, including those relating to the university’s governing board, its financial resources and financial documents.
University officials spent months shoring up the institution’s finances and governance, and in July, they announced “a triumph” in their efforts, after the agency appeared to have backed down in its effort to remove Saint Augustine’s from membership. Those celebrations, however, were premature. In December, the accrediting agency again voted to end Saint Augustine’s membership.
The university responded in a Dec. 10 statement vowing to continue its ongoing fight to maintain its accreditation, which remains active while Saint Augustine’s leaders pursue their latest appeal. A hearing is scheduled for February 2025.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said Nov. 12 he will resign after an investigative report found he did not do enough to respond to allegations of child sex abuse by a British lawyer at a Christian youth camp. Photo: Neil Turner/For the Lambeth Conference
Archbishop of Canterbury to resign under pressure
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, at 68, already was approaching the Church of England’s mandatory retirement age of 70. In November, he announced he would resign sooner than expected, after facing criticism for his delayed response to allegations of abuse by a British lawyer on young victims he met at youth camps tied to the church.
Welby, in a Nov. 12 statement, acknowledged that a newly released investigative report “has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.”
The report said Welby and other top Church of England officials first learned of the allegations in 2013, the year Welby became archbishop of Canterbury. At that point, they “could and should” have followed up with police, but “there was a distinct lack of curiosity shown by these senior figures and a tendency towards minimization of the matter, demonstrated by the absence of any further questioning and follow up.”
Welby is scheduled to complete his official duties by Jan. 6. King Charles III is expected to nominate Welby’s successor, with advice of England’s prime minster and input from a 16-member Crown Appointments Commission. More on that process can be found here.
Other top ENS headlines from 2024
House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris addresses the House of Deputies June 25 after her election to a second term as president. Photo: Scott Gunn
- House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris reelected on first ballot
- ‘A Case for Love’ documentary gets theatrical release in January; film is released in fall for streaming on demand
- Episcopal Church marks 50th anniversary of the Philadelphia 11 ordinations
- Founded by a ‘witch,’ Salem’s oldest Anglican church tells its unique history
- Episcopal priest competes in “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions in March; a second Episcopal priest appears on game show in November
- Virginia priest defends his Eucharistic fast to Court of Review in fight against removal from priesthood
- Retired Episcopal priest, ‘Gilded Age’ actor Jack Gilpin reflects on his life in theater, on screen and the church
- Florida priest describes surviving stabbing attack at coffee shop
- New Jersey convent welcomes its first new postulants in over a dozen years; TikTok played a role
- Wisconsin community mourns church’s closing, celebrates decades of ministry and memories
- Removed from ministry for being gay, priest is restored at service lamenting church’s past LGBTQ+ exclusion
- Massachusetts church collects crocheted, knitted octopuses to comfort premature babies
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.