Bishop Michael Curry Will Visit 50th Annual Convention of Southwest Florida Diocese
PUNTA GORDA, Fla., Oct. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, will attend the 50th Annual Convention of the Diocese of Southwest Florida, set for the weekend of Oct. 12-13, 2018.
Bishop Curry will give a lead address to the convention, and preach and celebrate the Holy Eucharist at 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12 at the Charlotte Harbor Event & Conference Center. Over 1,100 Episcopalians from across Florida and the nation will gather at the convention, which will celebrate the first 50 years of the Southwest Florida diocese, which includes 77 congregations and 13 parochial schools from Marco Island north to Brooksville.
Bishop Curry was installed as the 27th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church on November 1, 2015. Presiding Bishop Curry maintains a national preaching and teaching ministry, and is a frequent speaker at churches, cathedrals, and conferences around the country and internationally. He achieved worldwide recognition for his preaching when he spoke at the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018. At the convention, he will both preach at the Friday service, and speak to gathered delegates.
The worship service in Punta Gorda will include 10 bishops from the Episcopal Church, as well as a 70 person choir and brass. Over 250 clergy from across Southwest Florida will participate. The diocese includes some of the oldest continuously operating churches in Southwest Florida; it is one of five Episcopal dioceses in Florida. Bishop Smith is the fifth bishop of the diocese, which was created in 1969 from the old Diocese of South Florida, which then included Orlando and Miami.
The Episcopal Church, which has almost two million members, is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a denomination that includes the Church of England. Worldwide, there are approximately 120 million members of the Anglican Communion, many of which are in former colonies of the United Kingdom. The primate of the church is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The Episcopal Church also includes the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba, which this year was re-admitted to the church. The Diocese of Southwest Florida, led by Bishop Dabney Smith, has about 30,000 active members.
More information about the diocese is at www.episcopalswfl.org
Contact: Garland Pollard, Director of Communications, Diocese of Southwest Florida, 941-556-0315 or (cell) 941-981-2320 or [email protected].
Nancy Davidge, Public Affairs Officer, The Episcopal Church, 212-716-6138 or [email protected].
Hi resolution photos available
SOURCE Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida
Share this article