Episcopal Church is electing a successor to Michael Curry, its first African American leader

The Episcopal Church — at its General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky — is about to elect a new leader to replace Bishop Michael Curry. For the past nine years, Curry has served as the first African American presiding bishop of the 239-year-old denomination. There are five nominees for presiding bishop, who serves as the Episcopalians’ chief pastor, president and CEO. The nominees include two bishops from Pennsylvania, and one each from Georgia, Nebraska and New York. One of them — Daniel Gutiérrez of the Philadelphia-area Diocese of Pennsylvania — would be the first Latino to hold the church's top post.