Meet the Next Presiding Bishop
The Rt. Rev. Sean W. Rowe was elected the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church on the first ballot at General Convention in Louisville. Since 2007, he has served as the bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania, and in 2019, he became bishop provisional of Western New York. He assumes the role of Presiding Bishop on All Saints’ Day of this year and will serve a nine-year term.
Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, the bishop graduated from Grove City College in 1997 with a B. A. in history and graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2000 and returned to the diocese. Rowe was 32 in May 2007, when he was elected bishop on the first ballot. For almost 12 years, he was the youngest bishop in the church. He is known for his research and work on organizational learning and adaptive performance in the church. He earned a Ph.D. in organizational learning and leadership at Gannon University in Erie in 2014.
He serves as parliamentarian for the House of Bishops and the Episcopal Church Executive Council; chair of the Episcopal Church Building Fund; and as a member of the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, and Constitution and Canons. He also serves on the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable. In 2018, he became the first bishop to serve on the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church, a position he held until 2023.
He is married to Carly Rowe, a Christian educator, and they have a daughter, Lauren.
