by Susan Russell

Late last week the news broke that Bishop Michael Curry — Presiding Bishop of our own Episcopal Church — has been invited by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to preach at their May 19th wedding. It was breaking news in the secular media and also big news in church media as every diocese he ever served was falling over itself to claim him as a native son — to the amusement of some and the annoyance of others.

But here’s the deal: Wherever you stand on the Royal Wedding continuum … from hanging on every detail, DVRing all the PBS specials and setting your alarm to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to watch it in real to time to totally over all the obsession with wealth and privilege and wondering why anyone cares who wears what or gets invited where … as Episcopalians this is both a historical moment and an evangelism opportunity for us. Let’s do the history first.

Exactly ten years ago we were sweating out the beginning of Lambeth 2008 — the every ten year gathering of bishops from all around the global Anglican Communion — under the cloud of threats that the American Episcopal Church would be voted off the Anglican Island because of our commitment to full inclusion for LGBTQ people. The clouds had been a long time gathering but were arguably seeded by the 2003 decision of the Episcopal Church to consent to the election of Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in Anglican history. There was lots of drama and many threats and a boatload of blame being thrown at our branch of our Big Fat Anglican Family for daring to live out our baptismal commitment to respect the dignity of every human being. LGBTQ Episcopalians were quite literally turned into bargaining chips in a game of global Anglican politics and much damage was done to many precious souls as what I have come to think of as “The Anglican Inclusion Wars” raged and pressure was placed on the Episcopal Church to be blackmailed into bigotry.

But instead of caving to the blackmail, the American Episcopal Church stayed the course, continued to expand the circle and in 2015 we not only changed our canons to make the sacrament of marriage equally available to all couples seeking God’s blessing on their lives and on their love, we elected a prophetic, outspoken champion of inclusion as our Presiding Bishop — and he has now been tapped to preach at the upcoming royal wedding. I think it is fair to say that those of us who survived Lambeth 2008 could not have imagined — in even our wildest dreams — that we would be where we are today … and yet, here we are.

And where we are is a moment of evangelism and an opportunity to proclaim the Good News of an inclusive church and the expansive love of God to a world in desperate need of it. And there is nobody better for the job that Michael Bruce Curry — child of God, preacher of the Gospel and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church … illustrated by this “Exhibit A:” the sermon he preached for us here at All Saints in Pasadena five years ago this week on the Feast of Pentecost.

As the feature in Christianity Today put it: “The service will be broadcast to millions around the world. For Curry, who refers to himself as the CEO of the Episcopal Church – the Chief Evangelism Officer – the opportunity to talk passionately about what he calls the Jesus Movement won’t be missed.”

So wherever you stand on the Royal Wedding Continuum, on Saturday May 19th I invite you to take a moment and give thanks. Give thanks for the young couple doing what young couples do all over the world when they find each other and find love and find the courage to pledge themselves to each other until death do they part. Give thanks for all those who have loved this church enough to call it to its best self and to raise up prophetic leaders like Michael Curry. And give thanks for all those who will continue that work at our General Convention in Austin this summer … working to make sure that all the sacraments are once and for all finally available to all the people.