(RNS) — Sean Rowe, the newly installed presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, knows a thing or two about austerity.
As a boy, growing up in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, he saw Westinghouse Electric Corp. shutter its plant. Later, Sharon Steel went bankrupt, laying off thousands of workers, among them his uncles.
Now, at 49, Rowe’s been chosen to bring some fiscal and organizational restructuring to a denomination in decline.
The Episcopal Church’s membership dropped just below 1.6 million in 2022, down 21% from 2013. Over the past two years the decline appears to be accelerating rather than slowing, occasioning headlines such as “Episcopal Withering on the Vine,” and “The Death of the Episcopal Church is Near.”
When casting for a new leader to replace Michael Curry, the denomination’s first Black presiding bishop, Episcopalians nominated Rowe on the first ballot. Rowe had been serving as bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania, and under a novel partnership, he also served as provisional bishop of the Western New York diocese, a collaborative model now being tried in other places.
At the same General Conference in which Rowe was elected, he was tasked with developing a plan to save $3.5 million on staff over three years.
Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe speaks after his election during the Episcopal Church General Convention in Louisville, Ky., June 26, 2024. (Photo by Randall Gornowich)
Rowe, who has a Ph.D. in organizational learning and leadership, has already talked about cutting back the church’s hierarchy and mov …