[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe will be ceremonially seated at Washington National Cathedral on Feb. 2 during the cathedral’s main Sunday Eucharist, at which Rowe also will preach.
The 11:15 a.m. Eastern service will be livestreamed on the cathedral’s YouTube channel. The liturgy for the service is contained in the church’s Book of Occasional Services (page 355 here). Washington Bishop Mariann Budde will preside.
During the service, Rowe will formally enter the cathedral through its Great West Doors and take his seat in the Great Choir, according to a cathedral announcement.
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe will preach Feb. 2 at his ceremonial seating at Washington National Cathedral.
Rowe was elected by the House of Bishops and confirmed by the House of Deputies as The Episcopal Church’s 28th presiding bishop in June 2024 at the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. He took office Nov. 1, and the church celebrated the start of his nine-year term the next day with a Nov. 2 investiture at the Episcopal Church Center in New York that was livestreamed to a large churchwide audience.
Washington National Cathedral, located in the United States’ capital city, is known as the formal seat of both the presiding bishop and the bishop of Washington. While Rowe chose a more intimate setting for his investiture, the Feb. 2 seating ceremony acknowledges the cathedral’s place of importance in the life of the wider church, particularly where the church’s mission overlaps with issues in the public sphere.
The presiding bishop has a range of responsibilities, as outlined by The Episcopal Church Constitution and Canons. Those include presiding over the House of Bishops, chairing Executive Council, visiting every Episcopal diocese, participating in the ordination and consecration of bishops, receiving and responding to disciplinary complaints against bishops, making appointments to the church’s interim bodies, and “developing policies and strategies for the church and speaking for the church on the policies, strategies and programs of General Convention.”
One of Rowe’s first priorities after taking office has been to study churchwide structures and staffing and develop a realignment plan that is intended to greater assist dioceses and congregations. Rowe has said he expects to announce the initial details of that realignment when Executive Council meets next, Feb. 17-19 in suburban Baltimore, Maryland.