The Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry is opening up to ET about one way Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding was incredibly special.
The Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry is opening up to ET about one way Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding was incredibly special.
Curry delivered a memorable 14-minute sermon during the couple's fairy-tale wedding on Saturday at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, in which he passionately talked about the power of love. Curry's sermon was based off the bible passage from the Song of Solomon that was read at the wedding by the late Princess Diana's sister, Lady Jane Fellowes, in yet another touching part of the ceremony.
Curry revealed to ET on Wednesday that Harry and Meghan actually chose the particular passage for their wedding, which he says surprised him the most.
"We met at the wedding, which was actually wonderful," Curry says. "I met them when you all met them ... but I have to admit, I mean, obviously we all read about them and that kind of thing, but they selected the passage of scripture. I ended up preaching on that passage that was their decision, which I think was a remarkable decision, it really was."
Curry says their choice of scripture was definitely a unique one.
"I've been ordained since 1971, a long time," Curry notes. "I've done many weddings. I've never preached a wedding, sermon or homily on that text ever before ... a couple may have selected it before, but I don't remember off the top of my head. The selection of that text was really significant because that text created the sermon."
Part of the passage reads, "Set me as a seal upon your heart, a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death. Passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire. A raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it out."
Curry says he looked at the quotes under a new light after reading it.
"It's in the Song of Solomon or Song of Songs sometimes in the Hebrew scriptures, so it's right there in the Bible," he explains. "It's been there all along, it's in what's called the wisdom literature with Ecclesiastes and Proverbs and books like that, but it's a series of love poems. ... The reason it actually is in scripture is that the woman realized or sensed that their love for each other ... their experience of love was a reflection or outgrowth of a greater love, which was clearly beginning to point in the direction of God -- the source of all love. And that was when I realized. It took me a while to see that. I hadn't seen at first. When I realized that I said, 'Oh my god, there's the message. The source of all love is God and it changed their lives.'"
"They thought about this," he says of Harry and Meghan's pointed choice. "Again, I wasn't part of their thinking, but when I saw that, I knew it was almost as though the text that they selected had already preached the sermon, and all I did was gift it a voice."
Curry is obviously still moved by Harry and Meghan's love for one another.
"Their love for each other brought us together even if it was just for a few moments," he reflects. "It brought us together across lines of nationality, across lines of race and ethnicity, across politics... I mean, you think about it. It never ends. Their love helped to reorient how we relate to each other, even if it was just for a moment."
"I got a feeling, like in the movie, The Color Purple, when they were singing the song, 'God Is Trying to Tell You Something?'" he continues. "I got a feeling that God was trying to tell us something -- that this love could help us reshape the world and make it a little bit better."
It was Meghan and Harry's decision to include Curry, who's the first black leader of the Episcopal Church in the United States, in the wedding. Kensington Palace announced the choice in a press release a week before the wedding.
For more on Harry and Meghan's romantic nuptials, watch the video below:
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