There were so many mis-steps in Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the Royal Wedding that it’s difficult to know where to start. Despite the fact that a billion people saw it, major media around the world are sharing it, and Episcopalians took pride and found joy in seeing one of our own bring the word there are ways he could have avoided a number of serious blunders.
Let’s just start at the beginning.
1. He opened with the egregiously outdated Trinitarian formula, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” There are far more creative ways that he could have talked about the various workplace roles of the Godhead and the sustaining work of the Redeemer. It just seemed unwelcoming.
2. Way too much Jesus. Really. Do a billion people need to be reminded of who Jesus is and the ways we are called to follow? Did they need the reminder to love God and love neighbor given by Jesus? People know more than enough about Jesus and really didn’t need a sermon that spent so much time on him. Besides this was a room full of people of all backgrounds and it seems like Bishop Curry could have chosen selections from world wisdom – these are not all followers of Christ after all and it’s not like we have some commission or the like to “evangelize.”
3. Too much love. Really. I think people have plenty of evidence these days that religion is about love. He could have spent time on any number of other topics without resorting to telling people that God is Love. Again, like with the Jesus thing, people can see everyday in our culture and news that Christianity is, at its heart, a movement of love.
4. Too personal. It’s weird when preachers show us how faith has reached them at a deep level. People need more information about God and these kinds of shows of deep devotion and conviction are confusing. It’s almost as if he was trying to say that Jesus (there he is again) can change who we are and how we see the world and not just tweak how we think about it.
5. Too political. I found it off putting that Bishop Curry wanted to bring uncomfortable things like slavery or Dr King into all of this. Why mix politics and faith? Jesus (oops, too much) rarely if ever mentioned these kinds of issues. If politics is about working out issues in community then it’s a little frightening to have someone say that Jesus (there he is again) has anything to do with the way we treat other people. Shaking hands at the Peace is about as political as we should get.
6. Too long. Really, if you are only preaching the Gospel to all nations then that could be creditably accomplished in four or five minutes.
7. Too predictable. It’s annoying that we can expect the Presiding Bishop to hammer, day in and day out, on Jesus and love. I wish he’d get more creative.
I’m sure that when time passs and the heady rush of the day wears off then people will be more appropriately critical of this personally convicted, Trinitarian, Jesus-proclaiming, socially conscious, and predictable sermon on the power of Love.
Feel free to watch and prove me wrong!
A Desert Father 
Too much Jesus? I thought ( as Episcopalians/Anglicans ) we are Catholic Christians, and Jesus is what Christianity is all about. Without Jesus, forget it! There are many religions to choose from. if all people want is religion, I’d just say forget it…..a boring head trip. Religion is humankind’s blind search for God. In college there was a poster that stated: “Religion is a drag……but having a personal relationship with Jesus is something else.” Rather than ‘a movement,’ Christianity is a relationship. As an Episcopalian I was proud to hear the proclamation our Presiding Bishop gave. ….a little too long, but right to the point of who we are, and what we are about.
Have you heard of irony?
Delicious satire Fr Shumaker!
Amen
I agree with you. The Apostle Paul once said “I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and HIM crucified. This should really be the teaching of the Church as a whole. As far as the Trinitarian formula, who said it is outdated. WE baptize in the Name of the “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” What other formula is there??? I thought he spoke very well. Some things I disagree with him on but not when it comes to Jesus. You can never get too much of HIM.
Folks, this post was a joke. The photo under the post even labels the post as satire. He’s making a joke about people picking the Bishop’s sermon apart and then inviting them to watch the sermon.
Amen brother A.M.E.N
That’s the problem with satire, Fr Robert.
Watched the replay of the wedding ceremony after missing the extended live coverage. During that recap, ABC effectively dealt with the length of the PB’s sermon. Substituted advertising for the opening, and cut to a commercial break when he started going on about Jesus.
I initially read ABC as Archbishop of Canterbury and thought there must have been some interesting arguments the BBC missed out!
CBS properly handled Pastor Curry’s over-long, over-emotional, over-religious address in their summary coverage later in the evening. They included only three sentences and scattered them through the recap, not burdening the viewer with all three bits of religion in one large gulp. Surely Mr. Curry could have restrained himself to only those bits; all the rest was obviously unnecessary.
April Fools! Haha. Never too much love or Jesus or time to listen or connection with deep personal conviction of the speaker. Perhaps Eucharist every Sunday and praying daily is too much love for some people. C’est la vie. Love to you all ❤️✝️🖖🙏
Such excellent satire! This made me laugh. I’m so very happy that PB Curry has had an amazing opportunity to reach out to those present and the world at large to offer the Good News in such a personal, effective manner. What a blessing equally for Christians and the unchurched as well.
YES. Thank you 🙂
Loved it.
LOL! Terrific satire, Father! Now let’s see how many of the tone deaf took you seriously and proceed to set you straight!
Quite a few, obviously!
Much too political for the event, and too long, felt he was revelling in his moment of glory. It was a wedding, not about him and his beliefs. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins.
Lots of people sadly these days have no idea who Jesus is!! All credit to the Bishop for telling it how it is!!!
Obviuously this writer needs more love to change his stone heart to real heart.
Tongue in cheek satire. Loved the sermon.
Oh, Jesus love, Jesus love, Jesus love!
I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Bishop Curry’s sermon and I thought it included everyone,after all meeting with Jesus is a ‘personal ‘ encounter for those who seek Him with all their hearts. This is the ‘heart’ of the Gospel!! Sadly,there are bound to be those that criticise but we can learn from their comments!!!
Tongue in cheek satire – loved the sermon.
I truly hope your reflection was satire. The entire wedding, including Bishop Curry’s sermon is a wonderful example of the breadth of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican tradition. Bishop Curry’s style and substance in his preaching has reached people that many preachers haven’t, can’t and/or won’t.
All satire – it was a great sermon!
Suppose the author of this article does not think The Episcopal Bishop of the United States should speak about…Jesus! About love (at a wedding)? About the Holy Trinity? About politics, like in the Beatitudes? Too long…less than 17minutes…Really?
I felt uplifted and enthusiastic to hear the Gospel, the Proclamation of Love, the Hope for the Fire of Love to fill the world. We could only be so fortunate!! God Bless You!♥️♥️♥️
All tongue in cheek satire – I loved the sermon!
Reblogged this on A DARING ADVENTURE.
Hilarious. Loved that!
I’m hoping this is a joke!
All tongue in cheek satire – I loved the sermon!
I knew that this was satire about one and a half sentences into “blunder” #1. What is the matter with you people?
Point 5 unfortunately shows that there are some things you can’t write satire about. For an episcopal church sermon, the PB’s sermon was basically apolitical.
I am assuming this is one of those posts that is written with a sarcastic voice because your criticisms are all those things that made this sermon great.
Brilliant – right down to your own quasi-hypocritical error in the title of your post! (“Sermonp”)
This is the problem with my “write and wash my hands” approach – I then not to look too closely and miss fun things like this! Thanks for pointing it out!
Have you ever met or even listened to Rev. Curry before? The man is about 3 things. Love, Jesus, & Evangelizing. I don’t always agree with him…but as Christians, it is what we are called to do. If you are going to take Christ out of Christianity, then honestly you need to find another religion. Mind you this is coming from a Liberal Christian who despises conservative evangelicals. However there are a few basic tenets of the faith that all are required to adhere to…preaching the message of Jesus Christ is one of them.
I cannot believe that people have no clue what satire is. This is astounding.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Triune God; thank God for the satire!
Um, what can I say? Brilliant. Just brilliant.
I know what satire is – BUT at a wedding? NO !
There was no satire at the wedding. The satire is to be found in Father Hendrickson’s blog post, which is a brilliant send-up of imagined criticisms of Bishop Curry’s sermon, from both viewpoints, left and right. Nothing disrespectful or cheeky is said about the wedding.
A sermon is a sermon. Why be so critical about it at all🤷🏻♀️
Yes, there were probably too many mentions of‘Jesus’, perhaps too much satire, which many people might have missed, but the sermon was brilliantly relevant to the occasion. It was all about that the all pervading power of God’s love, regardless of colour, ethnicity or any other man-made institution or religion, represented by the union of a member of a thousand year old monarchy and a mixed-race Hollywood film actress, the descendant of a slave.
Thank you, previous commenters, who reiterated that this was satire. I somehow missed that fact when I read it the first time; I was ready to pounce. Now I’m just chuckling at well-written satire. Thanks, Robert.
Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear!
How miserable and misguided you are.
Maybe YOU need some of the love he is talking about. Instead of picking (frankly debatable) holes in the sermon just be happy that the Bishop spoke of Jeaus’ Love to 1.8 billion people in the best possible terms.
Or maybe you’re just in the wrong job dear boy!
PS. I was there and lived every minute of it.
The piece is satire. The large image at the end says so. I loved the sermon. Thank you for the career advice.
Fr Robert, satire may be a lost art via digital media in our culture in this day and age—hence, not readily recognized by those who may not know (and miss) you. I propose that you find consolation in an awareness that your modest Juvenalia has not stirred people to an equivalent level of outrage as Jonathan Swift’s epic example.
Disagree. Everyone knew that he was a Christian preacher in the daughter faith expression with comparable religious beliefs and discipleship norms. Why should be not talk about these things?
It’s tongue in cheek satire. Loved the sermon.
Many Waters, Cannot Quench Love,
Love Is Stronger Than Death✝️🛐💜
This was his “5 minutes of fame” so, of course, Bishop Michael Curry needed to, literally, stretch it out to 15 minutes while he still got world attention and camera time. Who cares if the “music was cued”, this was his “Oscar moment” so he needed to perform fully, darn it (!) and… expounded on the same old sermonsy banalities of Jesus, MLK Jr., and luv. This is a man who’ve obviously never heard of note cards or talking-points organization before public speaking. He was all over the place, and seemed to lose track of what he was saying quite a few times. Unfortunately, he sounded no better or different than some overzealous, mentally-challengeged persons often seen screaming about Jesus and love on street corners. It was very disappointing.
Folks – this is the difference between satire, which I wrote, and criticism.
Well, you never even mentioned that he got the love thing from a French Jesuit!! As a member of the Board of Directors of the American Teilhard Society, I object to your satire not mentioning Teilhard. JUST JOKINIG!!!
Also want to add that half of Rev. Michael Curry’s sermon at the Royal Wedding had nothing to do with Jesus and love as it strangely took an unexpected turn to inventions of fire, tweeting, texting, flying across the Atlantic, and driving…. all irrelevant and incongruous tangents to the subjectat hand. And then as if he ran out of steam and had no clues of how to tie them together, he blandly wrapped up with another mention of love. Jesus!
Get on with life. Do you think anybody cares about your critique?
I will simply offer the same kindly tendered advice in return.
Satire does not work for me anymore. For almost anything that someone may say sarcastically it is possible to find someone on twitter who could say it sincerely. I hate to have to do biographical research in order to decide if something is a joke.
Robert, I disagree so whole heartedly that I hope this is said tongue in cheek. As a persons on the fringe, as a person that is attacked regularly by the majority of “Christian” Churches, and a person who sees what damage the Church is still doing to the marginalized. As a Christian I cannot have or hear too much Jesus. I need Jesus with me and to talk about him all the time. The Christian Church talks a lot more about Judgement than it does Love, Bishop Curry talked bout what we need to show so much more. I dare say, even though I know you have worked with those on the fringe, working with them does not allow you to live their experience. Bishop Curry has lived the Experience and I think we would all be well to listen and act.
I have read this is Satire and it makes more sense now.
When our church is in serious decline, I hardly think that satire/irony is an appropriate mode for discussing our Presiding Bishop’s homily. Leave that to the heathen who immediately jumped on the homily as “inappropriate.” Many people just do not understand irony.
I would vigorously disagree. This is precisely the time for satire. First, we have taken ourselves too seriously and our theological, evangelical, and sacramental obligations far too lightly. It is a good time to satirically take on the lazy and hazy spiritualism that has brought us to empty churches and emptier platitudes. There has not been a time more ripe for satire – the satire was not about the sermon but about the complaints from people who have driven the church to a vague, anything-goes, quasi-Unitarianism that has nearly leveled us in too many places now complaining that the one thing which can transfix the next generation, authentic witness to Christ, is somehow inappropriate or too much or insensitive. That is deserving of much mockery and satire (and a good deal more prayer).
I’m an Australian. I wasn’t sufficiently interested to watch the whole wedding but my wife drew my attention to the sermon so I watched it on iView. It was brilliant and exactly the right thing for an occasion which might otherwise have become bogged down in English Anglican ceremonial (as good as that is). I know people whose Christianity is of the four-wheeled variety who told me that the sermon really hit them between the eyes (in a good way) and gave them a perspective on the faith they hadn’t heard before – that’s a judgement on our proclamation of the Gospel as much as a reflection on his. (One person did comment on the funny American get-up he was wearing, so before I had to kill him I explained that he wasn’t just an American preacher but was in fact but was in fact what we would call an Archbishop and was wearing what any Anglican bishop would wear).