Christians view themselves differently than others view them. It's time to change that gap.

If you are near the Kentucky International Convention Center this week, you might spot a few thousand Episcopalians walking around as we come together for worship, prayer, and a fair bit of business at our triennial churchwide gathering. You may hear us chatting about resolutions and budgets and elections. But my biggest hope and prayer is that Episcopalians — or the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, as I like to call us — will make you feel the love of neighbor modeled in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.

This kind of love is not always easy. It takes patience and sacrifice, particularly as we face major transitions as a church. On Wednesday, around 200 bishops of The Episcopal Church will head to Christ Church Cathedral here in Louisville for some important business: the election of our denomination’s next presiding bishop. The bishop elected will serve as the 28th person in that role, and, in collaborative leadership with other clergy and laypeople, they will serve for nine years as our church’s chief pastor and spokesperson.

Leadership is critical to the Episcopal Church

Leadership is critical in any organization, and ours is no exception. Our next presiding bishop will shepherd us at a pivotal juncture in the life of our church. We will need to be especially agile and attuned to the shape-shifting needs of our communities as we live out our call to protect the dignity of all people and advocate for justice.

We are a U.S.-based church of 1.4 million members across 22 countries or territories. Like most bodies of organized religion, we face a contracting membership, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It would be easy to wring our hands and worry about what will become of us as attendance declines. But we are called not to be a people of fear, but a people of hope and a people who look, live and love like Jesus.

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Two years ago, we undertook a national research project to ask Americans about their beliefs about Jesus — and their attitudes toward church. We found that while 84% of Americans polled believe Jesus was an important spiritual figure and want equality in society, they believe Christians often fall short of Jesus’ teachings, and they feel judged when talking about their own beliefs.

Folks are down with Jesus, but they take issue with his followers

In other words: folks are down with Jesus, but they take issue with his followers. We also learned there is a perceptual gap between how Christians view themselves and how others view them. Christians describe themselves as being giving (57%), compassionate (56%), loving (55%), respectful (50%) and friendly (49%) while non-Christians associate Christians with characteristics like hypocrisy (50%), being judgmental (49%), self-righteousness (46%), and arrogance (32%).

Our real work, I believe, is to close that perceptual gap, and to do so in ways that make sense in each of our contexts.

What is true on a national level is often seen most clearly in daily, locally lived experience. After Breonna Taylor was killed, Bishop Terry White and the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky helped to find a nonviolent way for people to respond to yet another innocent human life being taken. The cathedral church where we will elect our next presiding bishop was transformed into a station house for nonviolent training. It was a place where everybody was welcome, and everybody was God’s somebody in the struggle for racial justice.

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Since the beginning of 2023, the people of Christ Church have mounted placards on the interior cathedral walls documenting every mass shooting location along with the counts of people killed and injured. There are 656 placards. This number is shocking, and it should be. This week, our deputations from around the church will be presented with those placards based on the locations of their dioceses. While mass shootings have become routine and disappear quickly in the news cycle, these placards cry out and bear permanent witness to the fact that every human child of God matters, and we cannot rest until this nightmarish reality is replaced by God’s dream for us as a human family.

In celebration of Pride month, Calvary Episcopal Church is hosting “Drag Me to Church: A Gospel Drag Show” for a second year in a row. In addition to raising $9,000 last year to support the church’s food ministry, this event reinforces that every person is beloved and made in God’s image, and all are welcome.

This good work inspires me and fills me with hope for the future, even and especially amidst uncertainty. Everyone counts. Everyone is loved. No exceptions.

As I have said before, our commitment to being an inclusive church is not based on a social theory or capitulation to the ways of the culture, but on our belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are a sign of the very love of God reaching out to us all.

And if it’s not about love — it’s not about God.

By the Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Episcopal Convention bishop vote comes at church's moment of reckoning