The Right Rev. Sean W. Rowe has been elected the new presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church on the first ballot amid a crowded field to determine the head of the mainline Protestant denomination.
The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, Rowe was elected Wednesday at the Episcopal Church’s 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.
Rowe received 89 out of 158 votes from the Episcopal House of Bishops, which passed the minimum threshold of 82 votes. Rt. Rev. J. Scott Barker of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska came in second, receiving 24 votes.
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Rt. Rev. Robert Wright of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta placed third with 19 votes, while the Rt. Rev. Daniel G. P. Gutiérrez of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania placed fourth with 17 votes. In fifth place was the Rt. Rev. Dr. DeDe Duncan-Probe of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, with nine votes.
After being elected by the House of Bishops on Wednesday morning, Rowe’s election was confirmed in a vote by the Episcopal Church House of Deputies in the afternoon.
Rowe will succeed Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who was elected in 2015 and the first African American to serve in the denomination’s leadership position.
A native of Sharon, Pennsylvania, Rowe graduated from Grove City College in 1997 with a bachelor of arts in history. He later graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2000 and then earned a Ph.D. in organizational learning and leadership at Gannon University in 2014.
According to his official biography, Rowe was elected bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania on the first ballot in 2007 at the age of 32, making him the youngest bishop in the denomination at the time.
Rowe has also served as parliamentarian for the House of Bishops, chair of the Episcopal Church Building Fund, a member of the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, and Constitution and Canons, as well as a member of the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable.
The Episcopal Church traces its roots to the 18th century and is part of the global Anglican Communion, which is led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rev. Justin Welby.
While a prominent church in American history, the denomination has experienced considerable membership decline over the past several years due to multiple factors.
According to a report from last September, the Episcopal Church lost more than 90,000 members in 2022, putting its membership at approximately 1.58 million, well below the nearly 2 million members reported in 2010.
