The Bishop who delivered the unforgettable sermon during the 2018 royal wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, has said he felt his ancestors around after preaching.
Bishop Michael Curry reminisced about his sermon and the wedding – which was attended by the British royal family as well as several celebrities – during an interview with People to talk about his new book, Love is the Way.
“After I preached the sermon, I just remember it was like I could feel slaves around the place,” Curry, who is the Episcopal Church’s first Black presiding Bishop, said. “I don’t mean to be spooky, but it was like their voice was somehow heard that day. I included one of their songs, ‘There is a Balm in Gilead.’”
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Bishop Curry said he saw his experience that day as a “sign of hope.”
“It was like their voice, one of their songs, one of their descendants was there that day. The Queen was most gracious,” he recalled. “The fact that all happened, for me, it’s a sign of hope. It’s a sign of hope that one who descends from people who were captured in the slave trade, probably the British slave trade, is brought from the shores of West Africa, to the shores of America. That one of their descendants was in the presence of the Queen of England, and he quoted one of their songs. That’s hope that we don’t have to be the way we’ve always been.”
Curry’s sermon on the day of the wedding was titled, The Power of Love, and he explained to People how that manifests in the royal couple’s union.
“What stood out for me was, these are two people who really do love each other,” he said. “It brought together two nations, Britain and the U.S. But it brought together people from around the world. I realized that the love of two people for each other brought together, at least for a moment, a world of differences. And I think that is a parable of what real love can do.”
Though the Bishop said he has been out of touch with the couple, he said he still keeps them in his prayers. He also commended Meghan’s activism in encouraging Americans to vote in November.
“I say, ‘Go for it,’” he said. “We need people to lift up other people. There’s enough negativity and enough putting people down, there’s enough hurt. We don’t need any more hurt.”
He added: “We need help. We need healing. She does that. She’s lifting up women and we need somebody to lift up women, lift up people. Lift up people of all colors. The truth is, a rising tide raises all ships.”
