Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe takes office, proclaims ‘one church in Christ’ for a changing world
[Episcopal News Service] The Most Rev. Sean Rowe began his nine-year term as the 28th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church with an intimate but festive investiture service on Nov. 2 in New York that was livestreamed to close to 20,000 viewers in homes, churches and dioceses in the United States and around the world.
Rowe’s two living predecessors as presiding bishop, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, elected in 2006, and the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, elected in 2015, were among the small group of attendees celebrating the new presiding bishop’s primacy at an in-person Holy Eucharist in the Chapel of Christ the Lord at the church’s Manhattan headquarters. Participants in watch parties across the church joined in the festivities, as Rowe preached a message of Christian unity and purpose.
Video and worship bulletins available in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Mandarin.
“We need to become one church, one church in Jesus Christ,” Rowe said in his 10-minute sermon. He emphasized the importance of supporting the church’s ministries at the congregational and diocesan levels – already a central theme of his nascent term, which officially began Nov. 1.
“That’s where ministry happens – where people are gathered today to be a part of this investiture,” Rowe said. “That’s where ministry is taking place. It’s in these places where faithful Episcopalians gather day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, to worship God, to celebrate and mourn their sorrows and to care for God’s people.”
Sermon text: Presiding bishop preaches at investiture on story of Lazarus
Rowe, 49, was elected in June on the first ballot by the House of Bishops and confirmed by the House of Deputies at the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. He was partly chosen for his experience overseeing adaptive responses to the challenges of denominational decline, as bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania and bishop provisional of Western New York. In his investiture sermon, he sought to prepare the church for what is expected to be a time of great change.
Just as Jesus commanded his disciples to unbind and liberate Lazarus, raised from the dead, “this unbinding and liberating of ourselves and our structures and our hurting world will take all the resilience we can muster,” Rowe said. “It will require us to set aside our disbelief and our divisions, our attachments to the things of this world, and maybe our attachment to the way we think things ought to function.
“But if we can be faithful in this work of unbinding, we will find that we can become the stewards that God needs us to be of our congregations and communities across our church.”
The scaled-down investiture was a deliberate contrast to the church’s past tradition of welcoming new presiding bishops with greater fanfare at installations hosted at Washington National Cathedral, the seat of the presiding bishop, in the U.S. capital.
The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe was consecrated as bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania in 2007. Since April 2019, he also served as bishop provisional of the Diocese of Western New York.
Rowe was partly motivated by an interest in reducing the service’s carbon footprint while increasing opportunities for churchwide virtual participation. All the church’s more than 100 dioceses were invited to send video greetings for a “roll call” that preceded the investiture. The videos demonstrated the diversity of both the church’s membership and its local expressions of the faith.
“We are excited to join with you in the mission and ministry of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Colorado Bishop Kym Lucas said during her diocese’s video for Rowe’s investiture. “We will hold you in our prayers and we are thankful that you have answered this call to serve.” She also attended the investiture in person.
The Diocese of Easton in coastal Maryland incorporated canoe paddles as props into its video clip. It concluded with the message “Let’s get Rowe-ing!” The Diocese of South Dakota offered verbal “blessings” in short clips from each of its congregations. Other dioceses offered prayers for Rowe’s new term, while the Diocese of Northern Michigan serenaded him with a short hymn.
And in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, Bishop Russell Kendrick was joined by a large crowd of Episcopalians who wished Rowe well with their feet planted in Gulf waters – specifically Weeks Bay at the diocese’s Beckwith camp and conference center.
“Come on in, the water’s fine,” they shouted in unison.
Rowe was greeted with plenty of good cheer in person as well. Some 127 people filled the chapel for the investiture, including Rowe’s wife, Carly Rowe, and their 12-year-old daughter, Lauren.
PROFILE: Rowe’s story is rooted in working-class western Pennsylvania
Lauren read the service’s New Testament lesson, Revelation 21:1-6A. A reading of Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 was presented in the Eastern Shoshone language by Ronald Braman from the Diocese of Idaho. Two deacons, The Rev. Pedro Rodriguez and the Rev. Lillian Davis Wilson, read the Gospel reading, John 11:32-44, in Spanish and English.
The service incorporated a wide range of cultural traditions and languages, most notably in its intercessions, spoken in Spanish, Mandarin, German, French and other world tongues. The intercessors also included interfaith guests, Mohamed Elsanousi, a Muslim who spoke in Arabic, and Rabbi Esther Lederman, speaking in Hebrew.
Music for the service was coordinated by Dent Davidson and the Rev. Lester Mackenzie.
House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris attended, as did representatives from all nine of the church’s provinces. Several ecumenical guests included Anglican Communion Secretary General Bishop Anthony Poggo, originally of South Sudan. Poggo spoke about halfway through the service, offering a celebratory message on behalf of the communion, of which The Episcopal Church is one of 41 autonomous, interdependent provinces.
“Bishop Sean, you bring a wealth of experience and Christian wisdom to this role at a time when careful discernment and confidence founded in the Gospel is so much needed,” Poggo said.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby sent his regrets that his busy schedule prevented him from attending Rowe’s investiture in person. The Very Rev. Sammy Wainaina, one of Welby’s advisers, read the archbishop’s message on his behalf.
“The church has placed a trust and a responsibility on your shoulders,” Welby said. He alluded to global contexts, from the upcoming presidential election in the United States, to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, to violent conflict in Africa and forced migration.
The church “is called to respond with hope to the needs of humanity,” Welby said. “I therefore encourage you to rise up to the occasion through the power of the Holy Spirt to lead The Episcopal Church in responding to its ministry context.”
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.”
Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe is flanked by 26th Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and 27th Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in June during the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Photo: Randall A. Gornowich
One of Rowe’s first tasks as presiding bishop is to oversee a “structural realignment” of churchwide operations while developing a plan to save $3.5 million on staff over three years, or about 5% of the church’s total personnel costs. Last month the church, at Rowe’s request, contracted with Compass, a consulting firm with experience in organizational development, to help facilitate engagement with the churchwide staff. Those discussions will continue Nov. 7-9 when Rowe chairs his first Executive Council meeting in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
As Rowe prepares to grapple with weighty organizational matters, his Nov. 2 investiture served as a ceremonial changing of the guard – featuring a literal passing of the staff, as Curry handed his primatial cross over to Rowe during the service. Curry, whose nine-year term concluded Oct. 31, now plans to spend much of his retirement closer to home in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Rowe and his family will maintain their primary residence in Erie, Pennsylvania, though he has already begun traveling around the church and will continue to visit its more than 100 dioceses, as is required of him as presiding bishop under Episcopal Church Canons. His message to those dioceses is that their good work is part of something greater.
“The days are over, if they ever existed, that diocese and congregations and institutions of our church could just go it alone and do it their own way,” Rowe said in his sermon. “For we must acknowledge our mutual interdependence, our need to do ministry together, to share what we have and to sustain one other. Especially now, in this badly hurting world, we need to become one church.”
God has given the church the resources and talents to invest in its ministries, “building communities, advocating for justice and saving lives,” Rowe said. “This work, the work of proclaiming in word and deed Jesus’ resurrection and life, is the work to which God has called The Episcopal Church, now and always, as one church, together.”
Western Oregon Bishop Diana Akiyama was among those attending in person, to represent Province VIII. “My hope and excitement is that we continue to move forward with strength and great faith and as one church, as the presiding bishop said in his sermon, to remember that we are one church that we need to help each other, we need to collaborate,” Akiyama told Episcopal News Service. “We need to try new things as we lean into these next nine years.”
Also in attendance was Nathan Brown, vice president of Province III. Brown, 34, served with Rowe on the General Convention Title IV legislative committees during the 80th and 81st General Conventions, and he also is a member of the Under 40 Caucus.
“He really embodies a lot of the skills that are really needed right now, particularly with administration, and he has such a great vision for the church. He’s led dioceses through very difficult times, and just on a personal level, working with him, he’s an amazing bridge builder,” Brown told ENS. “I’m sure he’s going to bring those gifts to the whole church. I’m really looking forward to that.”
