Sean Rowe, a 49-year-old bishop from western Pennsylvania, on Wednesday became the youngest person ever elected as leader of the Episcopal Church.
Rowe will succeed Bishop Michael Curry, the first African American to hold the position, when Curry’s nine-year term ends on Nov. 1. The presiding bishop serves as the denomination’s chief pastor, president and CEO.
Rowe was elected over four other nominees in voting during the Episcopalians’ weeklong General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The only presiding bishop to take the post at a younger age than Rowe was the first one, William White, who was 41 when he served briefly in 1789 when there was no leadership election.
Rowe was 32 in May 2007, when he was elected bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania. For almost 12 years, he was the youngest bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, Rowe graduated from nearby Grove City College in 1997 with a B.A. in history.
He graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2000, before returning to western Pennsylvania.
The bishop is known for his research and work on organizational learning and adaptive performance in the church. He earned a Ph.D. in organizational learning and leadership at Gannon University in Erie in 2014.
The Episcopal Church is an offshoot of the Church of England in the United States and has been the spiritual home of many of the American founding fathers and U.S. presidents.
As with other mainline Protestant denominations, membership in the Episcopal Church has been declining for decades. After peaking at 3.4 million in 1959, it had fallen to 1.9 million when Curry was elected leader in 2015 and dipped to under 1.6 million in 2022. Average Sunday church attendance for Episcopalians nationwide was 614,241 in 2015; by 2022 it had dropped to 372,952.
Curry, in opening remarks to the General Convention on Sunday, urged delegates to remain optimistic.
“This Episcopal Church is stronger, more durable and has a future that God has decreed and that God has figured out,” he said. “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.”
Throughout his ministry, Curry has been an outspoken leader on a range of challenging issues, including racial reconciliation, climate change, immigration policy, and LGBTQ+ equality. Among his favored causes: establishing ecumenical summer day camps for children, creating networks of day care providers, and encouraging large investments in urban neighborhoods.
In 2018, he became a global star with a stirring sermon at the widely televised royal wedding of Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Curry, 71, has battled a variety of health problems since May 2023, when he was hospitalized for treatment of internal bleeding and an irregular heartbeat. In March, doctors successfully surgically inserted a pacemaker as part of ongoing treatment.
