On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, the House of Bishops, after a lively service of Holy Eucharist in many languages, filed out of the convention center and proceeded to Christ Church Cathedral. After one round of voting and a brief lunch, the House of Bishops elected the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe as the next Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. Presiding Bishop-elect Rowe has served both dioceses of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania.
A graduate of Grove City College (B.A. History, 1997), Virginia Theological Seminary (2000), and Gannon University (PhD Organizational Learning and Leadership, 2014), Presiding Bishop-elect Rowe was ordained as the bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania in 2007 at the age of 32. He then served as bishop provisional for the Diocese of Bethlehem from 2014 to 2018, and as the bishop provisional for the Diocese of Western New York from 2019 onward.
Bishop Brian Cole has commended a number of Presiding Bishop-elect Rowe’s recent remarks and interviews for the people and clergy of East Tennessee to read. First, Presiding Bishop-elect Rowe addressed the House of Deputies shortly after his election. Here are his remarks.
Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe said in a press conference after his confirmation, “It’s an honor to have been elected today and to succeed Michael Curry in November, who as has brought life to this church and a kind of energy and a focus on Jesus and the gospel in a way that we’ve not seen in a generation. It’s humbling to be following in those footsteps. I look forward to the opportunity to do that and to help to usher this church into whatever it is being called into and this next phase and season of life. I think we don’t exactly know what that is or what it looks like. What we know is that that God is in the midst of it and that love is the way. And that as we continue to live and move ever more deeply into those ways that the world can be transformed around us and Jesus.”
“I look forward to helping The Episcopal Church continue that work. This is not new work for us, but to grow and deepen. And I think we’re at a pivot point with the state of Christianity, particularly in this country, but also around the world and in our given contexts. We’ve got some work to do, and a lot of that is going to be getting our structures and governance and budgets, and strategies in alignment with the mission God is calling us into.”
In his sermon on Friday, he stated, “The struggle ahead will require a tolerance for uncertainty, a willingness to make real sacrifices. We’ll actually need to let go of some of our grievances and hold more lightly our beliefs about how the church should work and who has a voice. And we must learn to have hard conversations with each other with love and respect, so that we’re all one in the same direction.”
Later, in July, Kirk Petersen with The Living Church sat down with Presiding Bishop-elect Rowe to discuss his vision of the future of The Episcopal Church, the changes he foresees, and his previous work on reforming the size and scope of governance in The Episcopal Church.
In an effort to reduce cost and environmental impact, Presiding Bishop-elect Rowe has decided that the installation service will take place on November 2 at the Chapel of Christ the Lord at The Episcopal Church Center in New York City with a diocesan roll call video beginning at 9:30 am and the service starting at 11:00 am. Extensive livestreaming production is planned. Be on the lookout for local efforts to form watch parties!
Episcopal News Service writer, David Paulsen, has also written an extensive article outlining Presiding Bishop-elect Rowe’s 24 years of ‘adaptive ministry’ in which he has tackled the changing religious landscape of America in the 21st century.