Bishop of the Episcopal Church Michael Curry presides over ceremony

Dorothy Sanders Wells will make history on Saturday as the first woman and first Black person to become the Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi. 

Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Michael Curry, known for delivering the famous sermon on the power of love at the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, arrived in Mississippi on Friday ahead of the ordination and consecration of Reverend Wells that he will preside over. 

“I’m still really just filled with awe that God has called me to this ministry,” Wells said on Friday, one day before she goes from Bishop-elect to Bishop of Mississippi. 

Wells said she has been doing a lot of traveling within the diocese and already begun forming relationships with religious leaders and constituents. 

For Wells, this moment is both historic and personal. 

“My great grandfather, I’m told, never learned to read or write, but he understood the significance of education for his family,” Wells said. 

When there was no school for his daughter, Wells’ grandmother, to attend, he built a school on his land to make sure everyone in the community could get an education. 

“I would want to think that today, if he were able to see all of this, he would say, ‘I did a good thing. I invested in the future of my family, and I did a good thing,’” she said. “A lot of us have gone on to really rather extraordinary things to come from a man who couldn’t read or write and who himself was born into slavery.” 

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Wells said her first priority as bishop will be getting out into the community and building relationships. She wants people to see their bishop more frequently because official visits from the bishop are few and far between.

Curry, who made history as the first Black person to serve as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, emphasized that Wells represents what the Episcopal Church strives to be. 

“We are a church of great variety, of great diversity, and as time marches on, we will find that the Church will grow and make a difference as we embrace all sorts and conditions of God’s humanity,” Curry said, adding the Wells will help not only Mississippi, but the Episcopal Church across the nation and world. 

“Bishop-elect Wells’ election, consecration — that’s the picture of leading this incredible diocese, which has always been at the forefront of doing good in this world,” he said.