The youngest leader in the history of the Episcopal Church has been elected.
Rt Rev Sean Rowe was told he had the top job on Wednesday.
The bishop, who officially takes office on 1st November, admitted the church faced an 'existential crises' following long-term membership loss.
Bishop Sean will succeed Bishop Michael Curry, the first African American to hold the position, and who has been in position for nine years.
The first ballot in the House of Bishops, which convened behind closed doors on Wednesday in the Episcopal cathedral in Louisville, received 89 votes for Bishop Sean which, the was the majority needed.
There were four other candidates on the ballot.
The 49-year-old became a bishop back in 2007 when he was elected to the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and for most of that time was the youngest bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Two years after becoming bishop he oversaw the union of two diocese, his own and that of Western New York in Buffalo with a combined membership of just 10,000.
Citing that as a way the church could adapt he said: “It’s not too strong to say that we’re facing an existential crisis,” as he addressed the House of Deputies after his election.
“It’s not because our church is dying, or because we’ve lost the belief in the salvation of God in Jesus Christ, but because the world around us has changed and continues to change. It changes all the time. And God is calling us ever more deeply into the unknown.”
The Episcopal Church is an offshoot of the Church of England in the United States and was formed after the American Revolution in 1789 when the clergy were required to swear allegiance to the British monarch.
Membership has been declining for decades. In the 1950s it had 3.4 million. That had dropped to 1.9 million by 2015, dipping to under 1.6 million in 2022.
Average Sunday church attendance for Episcopalians nationwide was 372,952 by 2022.
Numbers took a steep drop during covid with many not returning once restrictions had lifted. In many cases the number of funerals now outstrip weddings.
Bishop Sean compared the church’s challenges to the collapse of the steel industry, which had employed his grandparents, when he was grew up in Pennsylvania.
“I’ve been around to see things that I love go away,” he said. “I watched everything that I had known evaporate.”
He called on members to be more gracious and forgiving toward each other and called for a the church to avoid a top-heavy set up and move more of its money towards local and diocesan ministries.
The new leader will follow a man who became a global star after presiding at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle in 2018.
Throughout his ministry, Curry has been an outspoken leader on a range of issues that divide congregations, including racial reconciliation, climate change, immigration, and LGBTQ+ equality.