Sean Rowe, leader of Episcopalians in Penn., N.Y., elected next presiding bishop

(RNS) — Bishop Sean Rowe of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and the Diocese of Western New York has been named the next presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, succeeding Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who concludes a 9-year term later this year.

Rowe, 49, received the vast share of votes from the bishops at the church’s General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, on Wednesday (June 26). He received 89 votes when 82 votes were needed, while the four other nominees received between 9 and 24 votes each. After the House of Bishops completed their votes on the first ballot, the House of Deputies confirmed the results of the election, with the bang of a gavel, cheers and applause.

Rowe, who will be the 28th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, became bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania in 2007 and has been bishop provisional of Western New York since 2019. A native of Sharon, Pennsylvania, he is a graduate of Grove City College and of Virginia Theological Seminary. He also has a Ph.D. in organizational learning and leadership from Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania.

In a video posted on the General Convention website as nominees were considered, Rowe said the next presiding bishop must be attentive to voices that can “breathe fresh air and new light and life into our beloved church,” helping the church “hear the testimony of the women at the empty tomb” and “recognize Jesus on the road.”

The gathering of Episcopalians at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, Kentucky has been attended by about 3,500 people, including 160 voting bishops and 829 deputies, clergy and lay representatives of more than 100 dioceses, or regional districts, of the 1.4 million-member denomination.

On the day before the election, the co-chairs of the committee that nominated a slate of four bishop nominees — a fifth, and the sole woman, was added through a petition process — described what a survey completed by some 6,000 Episcopalians had said about their wishes for the next bishop.

RELATED: The Episcopal Church announces four candidates for presiding bishop

“You’re looking for a strong leader — and I might add a strong leader in adaptive thinking to meet the changing church of our time,” said Bishop Mark Lattime, of the Diocese of Alaska, who led the committee with Dr. Steve Nishibayashi, a lay leader and retired pediatrician from the Diocese of Los Angeles. “Also looking for somebody who has a love of preaching and communicating the good news of Jesus Christ and his love. And of course, a person of strong faith.”

In mid-June the Episcopal Church announced that two of the five bishops being considered for the top leadership position of the denomination were currently subjects of church discipline investigations and hadSean RoweSe previous complaints dismissed, as did a third nominee. Rowe was not among those three.

Curry, whose term ends Oct. 31, was elected the first Black bishop of the Episcopal Church in 2015. His term included preaching the sermon at the 2018 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, being the subject of an internal clergy misconduct complaint for his response to abuse allegations of a former bishop, and enduring hospitalizations and medical treatment for a brain bleed, internal bleeding and heart conditions.

Bu he kicked off the weeklong meeting, which ends Friday, by declaring to Episcopal leaders that he was not worried about the future of their church.

“I’m here to tell you this Episcopal Church is stronger, more durable and has a future that God has decreed and that God has figured out,” he said in opening remarks at a June 22 joint gathering of the House of Deputies and House of Bishops before legislative meetings started the next day. “And I’m here to tell you, don’t you worry about this church. Don’t you weep and don’t you moan. Just roll up your sleeves and let’s get to work. That’s our future.”

But at a news conference on the Friday preceding the meeting, Curry acknowledged the challenges ahead for his successor.

“Somehow our next presiding bishop in our church going forward is going to listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches, and follow,” he said. “That’s not easy.”

In a separate election, the president of the House of Deputies, Julia Ayala Harris of the Diocese of Oklahoma, was re-elected to her post. After defeating two other candidates, Alaya Harris, the first Latina and the first woman of color in the post, is set to begin her second term when the convention concludes on Friday.

RELATED: The Episcopal Church reveals clergy misconduct cases involving nominees for presiding bishop