"A gift to the church" is how the Rev. Charles L. Smith of Massachusetts, who delivered the sermon, described the Rt. Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, consecrated 11th Bishop of North Carolina June 17 before an overflow crowd at Duke University Chapel in Durham, N.C.

Bishop Curry, 46, took over the spiritual reins of the 45,000-baptized-member diocese in a colorful three-hour service filled with dancers, music from a 200-strong diocesan choir, and participation by nearly 40 bishops. Hundreds of people from his former parish of St. James', Baltimore, Md., rode chartered buses to attend the event.

"Wow! I've never seen anything like this before," said Bob Comey of Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill. Nearly 1,700 people jammed the Gothic chapel and another 500 watched by closed circuit television in a nearby auditorium.

Following a luncheon after the service, Bishop Curry stood for two hours and autographed hundreds of service bulletins and posed for photos with friends and well-wishers.

He succeeds Bishop Robert C. Johnson Jr., who retired after a six-year tenure. Chief consecrator was the Rt. Rev. Robert H. Johnson, Bishop of Western North Carolina and vice president of Province 4.

Bishop Curry is the first African-American ever to be elected diocesan bishop in a diocese in the South, but North Carolina did have a black suffragan bishop, the Rt. Rev. Henry Beard Delany (1918-1928), who was limited to "colored work." For Bishop Curry's consecration, the elaborate bishop's seat once used by Bishop Delany was transported from St. Augustine's College in Raleigh to be used in the service.

Bishop Curry, a native of Illinois and son of an Episcopal priest, began his ministry as rector of St. Stephen's, Winston-Salem, N.C., before moving on to larger parishes in Ohio and Maryland. He has been praised as one of the finest preachers in the church.

(The Rev. Canon) E. T. Malone, Jr.