Episcopal Church installs new leader amid declining membership

The Episcopal Church has installed a new leader as it deals with declining membership.

The Right Rev. Sean Rowe was officially installed as presiding bishop during a recent ceremony at the Chapel of Christ the Lord in New York City.

“We will find ourselves, I believe, reflected in the crowds standing around Lazarus’ tomb,” Rowe said in a sermon. “Over and over again, we will stand together, sometimes afraid, sometimes bewildered, looking for life, hoping for wholeness in all things.”

Rowe said the “unbinding and liberating of ourselves and our structures and our hurting world will require us to set aside our disbelief and our divisions, our attachments to the things of this world and maybe our attachment to the way we think things ought to function. This sort of unbinding, though, is nothing less than standing against the lies of the enemy. This is the enemy who would keep us small and lifeless and hopeless.”

Rowe, formerly the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, was elected at the 81st General Convention in June. Rowe received 89 out of 158 votes from the Episcopal House of Bishops, passing the minimum threshold of 82 votes. His election was then confirmed in a vote by the Episcopal Church House of Deputies.

According to his official biography, the Christian Post reports, Rowe was elected bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania on the first ballot in 2007 at age 32, making him the youngest Episcopal bishop at the time. Rowe also has served as parliamentarian for the House of Bishops; a member of the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance and Constitution and Canons; chair of the Episcopal Church Building Fund; and a member of the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable.

The Episcopal Church traces its roots to the late 18th century and has been a prominent denomination in U.S. history. Over the past few decades, however, it has experienced considerable membership decline because of multiple factors. According to a report from September 2023, the church’s membership in 2022 was approximately 1.58 million, well below the nearly two million members reported in 2010.

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice