The Most Rev. Michael Curry

Denomination: The Episcopal Church (TEC)
Organization: The Episcopal Church

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry is Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church. He was elected at General Convention in 2015 and installed in November of that year.

For 15 years he served as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, based in Raleigh, NC. He was consecrated on June 17, 2000, at Duke Chapel on the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. 

Born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 13, 1953, Bishop Curry attended public schools in Buffalo, New York, and graduated with high honors from Hobart College in Geneva, New York, in 1975. He received the Master of Divinity degree in 1978 from Yale University Divinity School. He has also done continued study at The College of Preachers, Princeton Theological Seminary, Wake Forest University, the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary's Seminary, and the Institute of Christian Jewish Studies.

Bishop Curry was ordained to the diaconate in June 1978, at St. Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo, New York, by the Rt. Rev. Harold B. Robinson and to the priesthood in December 1978, at St. Stephen's, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, by the Rt. Rev. John M. Burgess.

He began his ministry as deacon-in-charge at St. Stephen's, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1978 and was rector there from 1979-1982. He next accepted a call as rector at St. Simon of Cyrene, Lincoln Heights, Ohio, where he served from 1982-1988.

In 1988 he became rector of St. James', Baltimore, Maryland, which he served until his election as bishop.

In his three parish ministries in North Carolina, Ohio, and Maryland, Bishop Curry had extensive involvement in Crisis Control Ministry, founding of ecumenical summer day camps for children, preaching missions, the Absalom Jones initiative, creation of networks of family day care providers, creation of educational centers, and the brokering of millions of dollars of investment in inner city neighborhoods. He inspired a $2.5-million restoration of the St. James' church building after a fire. The St. James' After School Academy was designated a Jubilee Ministry by Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning.

Bishop Curry serves on the boards of a large number of organizations, including the Day1 Advisory Committee, and was a member of the Commission on Ministry in each of the three dioceses where he has served. He has a national preaching and teaching ministry, having been featured on The Protestant Hour and as a frequent speaker at conferences around the country. He has received honorary degrees from Sewanne and Yale.

He is married to the former Sharon Clement, and they have two daughters, Rachel and Elizabeth.