Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe elected 28th Presiding Bishop, will begin nine-year term Nov. 1
Photo by Deputy the Rev. Ale Trillos:
the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop Elect Sean Rowe, the Most Rev. Michael Curry
By David Paulsen
Episcopal News Service – Louisville, Kentucky
The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, bishop of Northwest Pennsylvania and bishop provisional of Western New York, was elected June 26 by the House of Bishops to serve as the 28th presiding bishop, and his election was confirmed by the House of Deputies at the 81st General Convention.
Rowe’s election was announced by House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris on the house’s afternoon session, and the deputies proceeded to confirm him with a nearly unanimous majority, 95% in favor. After the confirmation vote all rose in applause.
Rowe will begin his nine-year term as the public face and voice of The Episcopal Church and its chief pastor on Nov. 1, succeeding Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.
The House of Bishops met in a closed session at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Louisville for the election. Rowe was elected by bishops on the first ballot, a result that was announced publicly in the House of Deputies and greeted by cheers from the standing-room-only crowd on the floor of the convention hall at the Kentucky International Convention Center.
Rowe was elected from a slate of five nominees chosen through a process led by the Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop, which is made up of 20 bishops, clergy and lay leaders – 15 elected by General Convention and five appointed by the church’s presiding officers. The other presiding bishop nominees were Nebraska Bishop J. Scott Barker, Central New York Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe, Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel G.P. Gutiérrez and Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright.
Rowe, 49, has led the Erie-based Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania since 2007, and he also serves as bishop provisional of the Diocese of Western New York through a partnership the dioceses established in 2019. He previously served as bishop provisional of the Diocese of Bethlehem from 2014 to 2018. Originally from western Pennsylvania, Rowe is a Virginia Theological Seminary graduate and was ordained to the priesthood in 2000 in Northwestern Pennsylvania, where he served in congregational ministry until his election as bishop. He currently serves as parliamentarian of the House of Bishops and Executive Council.
He becomes the youngest bishop ever elected to serve as the church’s presiding bishop.
General Convention, the triennial churchwide gathering, splits its authority between the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, and each house plays a distinct role in the selection of a new presiding bishop – with the bishops electing and the deputies confirming.
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.”
There are few canonical requirements for presiding bishop candidates. They must be members of the House of Bishops and cannot yet have reached the church’s mandatory retirement age of 72.
Curry was elected in 2015 as the church’s first Black presiding bishop. Before him, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, elected in 2006, was the church’s first female presiding bishop. Her predecessor, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, was the first to serve a nine-year term, after the church shortened the presiding bishop’s term from 12 years.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].
