Presiding Bishop Elect Michael Curry and Diversity

This morning in Eucharist, our preacher was from Navajoland. She told us about her call from God in the form of her father's voice telling her to come to the aid of His people. She shared that she does not relinquish her Navajo spirituality to be an Episcopalian, she can be both. I was moved by her conviction. Our music was provided by another Native woman who played a Native flute. It was the kind of music that fills your ears and your soul responds in a very earthly and natural way. I just sat there with my eyes closed. I wanted to absorb that music and Holy Spirit and visual distractions were preventing my openness... so I removed them. At the end of the service the Bishops departed to deliberate about their choice of Presiding Bishop. The flute played as they walked out of the worship space and I prayed that the will of God be fulfilled. God already knew who our next Presiding Bishop would be, we just needed to be open to hear it. (have I mentioned that you can live stream the worship services online? Well I commend this to you http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/gc/ )

Then, the whole ordeal of finding out who they had decided on went on. The House of Deputies declined a lunch break in hopes of getting to know the PB sooner. So we stayed and starved. But then we found out who it was! Bishop Michael Curry! Praise be to God. You can read the Twitter stream at #GC78. Someone even started the hashtag #purplesmoke which I thought was just delightful.

Bishop Curry was the only non-white nominee. He was the only one who talked about Jesus in a way that was so compelling that there you couldn't help be get excited about his Jesus, our Jesus. There was really no decision. It can be shown in the fact that the Bishops decided on only one ballot where he received 121 votes. The next closest was 21 votes. The Holy Spirit spoke loud and clear! She demands that we are inclusive and take a stand in support of diversity! It is time for a Presiding Bishop of color. Can you even believe that he will be the first?



The House of Deputies kept breaking into musical prayer singing, "We are one together, yo yo yo. We are one together, yo yo yo!" It was spontaneous prayer and it came from our inner most parts. We are one! We are Navajo and we worship the work of Mother Earth. We are Black and we cry for our brothers and sister who suffer racism. We are young and old and liberal and conservative. We are traditional and new age. We are every color of the rainbow anywhere on the spectrum between man and woman and gay and straight. We are here and we are together! I am so excited for Bishop Curry to march at the head of our Church into the future without shame or embarrassment of our point of view and desire to be ever more inclusive. The love of Christ does not discriminate and we will not either. I would gladly give up my lunch for the opportunity to be a part of the Body of Christ. That is what I am here for.