Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to speak at Mother Emanuel commemorative service

[Office of Public Affairs] Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will offer closing comments and a benediction at the Inaugural National Bible Study that will be livestreamed at 7 p.m. ET on June 17, 2022, at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. This marks the seventh anniversary of the shooting deaths of nine Black church members attending Bible study.

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., will also participate in the program, which will feature a panel of biblical scholars and church leaders discussing “The Parable of the Soils” in Mark 4:1-9—the same text church members were studying the night they were killed by a white supremacist.

“Remembering the Emanuel Nine in Charleston is also a call to action, calling people of faith, as the parable of the soils suggests, not to get weary but to keep sowing seeds for change,” said the Rev. Margaret Rose, deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations for The Episcopal Church.

After last month’s racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 people, Curry issued a pastoral statement, noting, “The loss of any human life is tragic, but there was deep racial hatred driving this shooting, and we have got to turn from the deadly path our nation has walked for much too long.”

The commemorative service will kick off a nationally coordinated weekend of Bible study, prayer, and preaching that will conclude on June 19 in celebration of Juneteenth, the U.S. holiday marking the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

Find details and handouts for the June 17 event.

Watch the livestream on the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference Facebook page.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in choir dress

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

Being a Christian is not essentially about joining a church or being a nice person, but about following in the footsteps of Jesus, taking his teachings seriously, letting his Spirit take the lead in our lives, and in so doing helping to change the world from our nightmare into God’s dream.

―Michael Curry, Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus

The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry is Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church. He is the Chief Pastor and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer, and as Chair of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.

Presiding Bishop Curry was installed as the 27th Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church on November 1, 2015. He was elected to a nine-year term and confirmed at the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 27, 2015.

Read Presiding Bishop Curry’s biography and find out about the Jesus Movement.

The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, reaching out to the world.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6210 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.