USA: no Love for Curry?

Last summer the world was captured by the wedding of the year. Prince Harry married Megan Markle. The most talked-about moment, however, was not the kiss, nor the exchanging of the rings, but rather the sermon.

The preacher was the Most Revd Michael Curry. Surprisingly, his 14-minute dialogue was the most treasured component of the whole service, with 40,000 tweets being sent about it per minute. Even more shockingly was the prevalent commendation he received from many Christians. Mark Woods, of Christian Today, described Curry’s sermon as a ‘potent gospel message’.

However, on 14 January, the very same Mark Woods, reported that the once-loved Curry has now taken disciplinary action against Bishop William Love for opposing same-sex marriage. Christian Today, wrote that Curry has ‘moved to restrict Bishop Love’s ministry after he introduced a policy in the diocese preventing churches from performing gay weddings’.

Bishop Love previously said that homosexual marriage should not be used anywhere in the Diocese of Albany. Consequently, the outranking Curry has prohibited him from partaking in the Church’s processes regarding marriage. Love maintains that his policy reflects the official teaching of the Church and plans to appeal Curry’s disciplinary action. He is recently quoted as saying: ‘It is important that you understand I have not changed my understanding or teaching regarding the sacrament of holy matrimony.’

Last May, I wrote a piece on the royal wedding, which ended: ‘I fear that the only reason Curry was able to capture the world is because he has already been captured by it.’ Perhaps this development furthers my case.