We all remember the priest that officiated Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding. The Black American priest nearly stole the show (or is the wedding?) with his powerful sermon about love.
Now Bishop Michael Curry has revealed the relatable way in which Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan showed their adoration for each other at the royal wedding.
According to a report by Us Weekly, Curry didn’t know the couple before being asked to speak at their May 19 nuptials, but it didn’t take long for him to discover what they have is real.
“Once I realized this was really happening, it was a real blessing to be a part of that. Because what they did, you could see it. They actually love each other. They really do,” he is reported to have said at the 2018 VH1 Trailblazers event held last Thursday.
Prince Harry Removes the Veil.
“They look at each other like they love each other. I remember thinking after the sermon, once I preached the sermon, I said, ‘These two people love each other.’ They look at each other, and their love brought the rest of us together.”
The 65-year-old bishop felt the magnitude of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s affection, which he conveyed in his sermon. “Their love for each other brought two countries together, in Great Britain and the United States. They brought people of different religious perspectives and different religions together. They brought people of different political persuasions, people of different sexual orientations, people of different classes, people of different races, people of different nations,” he explained. “Their love, even if it was just for a few moments, showed us the power of what unselfish love that gives itself to another can actually do.”
Curry said the bride and groom selected the scripture passage, but he was given the freedom to form his own sermon. His power of love-themed message became one of the highlights of the royal wedding, though the bishop did not know about its effect until much later.
Meghan Markle’s mother trying to keep calm during the ceremony.
“I honestly didn’t know what reaction there was to the sermon for almost 24 hours, because I had gone to a service. There were a thousand teenagers at a service in St. Alban’s Cathedral. Literally, I left the reception and went up to the church. Then I got on an airplane the next morning,” he said. “I didn’t know about Saturday Night Live. I didn’t know about any of that until I got back here, a good 24 hours, so I had no idea. I didn’t know the sermon connected. I really didn’t. I’d say what surprised me, but in a hopeful way, for some reason the message of love resonated, which tells me we all are longing not only to be loved but to actually be people of love.”
In the moment, Curry — who hopes he played a role in advancing royal traditions — was just himself, despite the millions of eyes watching the Windsor Castle ceremony from home. “It was episodic, momentarily, periodically,” he said of the big day. “Every once in a while, I would feel [the pressure], but once I got up, I became a parish priest again. I’ve probably done hundreds of weddings, and it became they were a couple who had their family there and friends and a couple billion other people. I basically turned into a parish priest again and talked to them like I’d talk to any other couple.”
What spiritual advice does Curry have for Meghan and Harry moving forward? “The truth is, if you’re involved in the work of trying to make a better world, you need a relationship with a power greater than yourself in order to help you do that, because you’re going to try to change the world and to change lives. You’re going to encounter resistance. It’s not going to be easy. It doesn’t happen overnight, and the truth is, you need a God behind you, because the resistance ahead of you is going to be real,” he reasoned. “Finding ways to cultivate a spiritual life that informs and enables your life of service, that’s what makes it possible.”
He added: “Doing it together with other people of goodwill, whatever their faith, other people of goodwill, because they’re out there. There are more good people in this world than bad ones.”
