Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preaches July 9 at It’s All About Love in Baltimore, Maryland.

[Episcopal News Service — Baltimore, Maryland] If you want to know God, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said, start with love. “Let love help you heal old wounds; let love lead and you’ll find life as God intended because love is God’s GPS,” Curry said in a July 9 sermon at the opening revival worship service of the “It’s All About Love” festival.

Love “is God’s global positioning satellite that will lead you to the heart of God, the heart of the world, the heart of yourself.”

Hundreds of Episcopalians from all nine of The Episcopal Church’s provinces are gathering July 9-12 at the Baltimore Convention Center for the churchwide festival of worship, learning, community and action.

The festival, whose sponsors include the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, Virginia Theological Seminary and Episcopal News Service, features more than 90 unique presentations, workshops and plenaries organized around themes of evangelism, racial reconciliation and creation care.

During his sermon, Curry also mentioned the 13-minute sermon about the power of love that he delivered during the 2018 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Many people reached out to him after the wedding, he said, unaware that Christianity is “all about love” until they heard his sermon, which was viewed by millions of people globally.

“I realized that Christianity needs a revival … of the teachings of Jesus, whose love is at the very center of those teachings,” Curry said, and that offered a lesson for The Episcopal Church. “Don’t you worry about the parochial statistics. Don’t you worry about all the facts and figures. If we love God and love our neighbor and love ourselves, we will work our way even out of our misery. Don’t you worry about it now, then talk about love.”

The Rev. Altagracia Perez-Bullard, director of contextual ministry and assistant professor of practical theology at Virginia Theological Seminary, led the evening worship service, which also included live music sung in English and Spanish from Florida-based band Live Hymnal and presentations from various artists.

Earlier in the day, past participants in Sacred Ground circles assembled to connect and discuss next steps in furthering The Episcopal Church’s racial reconciliation efforts. The church’s Sacred Ground curriculum is a 10-part film-based discussion that initially was developed as a resource primarily for white Episcopalians to learn about the history of racism in the United States and how that racism continues to manifest itself today in American social interactions and institutions, including churches. Since 2019, more than 2,000 small discussion groups churchwide have completed Sacred Ground.

Some members from Executive Council also hosted a town hall for people to learn about the work they do on behalf of The Episcopal Church and ask questions or express concerns.

An interactive, multi-sensory prayer room made up of curated prayer stations also opened to attendees prior to the evening revival worship service. The prayer room’s artist and curator, Lilly Lewin, has curated prayer rooms and prayer experiences at gatherings for churches across the United States and the United Kingdom. The prayer room will remain open to all attendees throughout the duration of It’s All About Love.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.