SALISBURY — About 10 years ago, when he was confirmed at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Salisbury, Brian Whitson experienced a moment during the service when he thought only himself, Bishop Michael Curry and God were present.

Even though a couple of hundred people were watching.

“It just seemed so personal,” Whitson says.

Whitson thinks Bishop Curry, now head of the Episcopal Church in America, made that same kind of link with people Saturday when he gave his 14-minute sermon at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

It might be the reason people are still talking about Curry’s message days later and why Curry has found himself making appearances on the national morning television programs “TMZ” and “The View.”

“People felt a personal connection to what he was saying,” Whitson says.

Folks in Salisbury who know Curry, have been confirmed by him and have heard him preach are not surprised by his recent celebrity.

They even think Curry might have been holding back Saturday.

“He was restrained, for him,” says the Rev. Robert Black, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. “He gets much more animated than that, (but) he knew his audience and did well.”

In what Black and many others consider a well-crafted address, Curry was able to blend his clear, joyful message of the redemptive power of God’s love with the civil rights teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Curry sounded his own notes of inclusiveness.  “Imagine our world,” he said, “when love is the way.”

He added, “When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields.”

This is not always the kind of phrase you hear at a wedding, but Curry realized the moment in history he was participating in and the message people needed to hear.

“The world was just hungry for something like this,” Black says. “… Clearly, he tapped into something we are hungry for.”

Curry wove in beautifully his message of love while recognizing, as Black mentions, that the centuries-old burdens of colonialism, imperialism and slavery are still circling overhead for everyone.

Before becoming the 27th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in America in late 2015 — and the first African-American to hold that position — Curry served for about a dozen years as bishop of the North Carolina diocese.

In that capacity, he came to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church about once a year for confirmations, and he visited on other occasions. Many Rowan County youths and adults have been confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church by Curry.

He also has been a close mentor and acquaintance of Black and former St. Luke’s Rector Whayne Houghland.

Curry preached at the ceremony in which Houghland became the bishop of the Western Michigan Diocese, after leaving St. Luke’s in Salisbury. He also presided over the welcoming service for Black in January 2015 when Black became the new rector at St. Luke’s.

Curry ordained Black into the ministry, and Black has served with him on several church committees.

Black describes Curry as a man of deep joy and faithfulness, who as bishop on both the state and national levels has been a “brilliant administrator.”

“Everyone knows him as the great preacher, but he’s a great pastor as well,” Black says.

Whitson has heard Curry preach elsewhere and says “he’s very bold with what he has to say, and he always preaches love.”

Whitson was confirmed at St. Luke’s Episcopal the same day his wife, Michelle, was received into the church, also by Curry. They made sure to watch the royal wedding together after learning Curry would give the message.

“I thought it was wonderful,” Michelle Whitson says. “Now it was a bit different. … I think ‘restrained’ would be a great way to put it.”

Anne Scott Clement and four of her girlfriends gathered at 5 a.m. Saturday at Cathy Sexton’s home for a royal wedding watch party.

Clement, who had no idea Curry would give the wedding sermon, couldn’t believe it when she realized the bishop who had confirmed both of her children was speaking to the crowd of 600 at St. George’s Chapel.

“It was awesome to see him on television,” Clement says. “I was just so excited to see him there, and that’s exactly how he is all the time. He doesn’t put on airs. It was no different as it would be if he were here at St. Luke’s.”

George Simons of Salisbury has a close connection to Curry through Simons’ late father, Harrison, who was an Episcopal minister in Oxford, and two of his uncles, John and Webster, who also were Episcopal clergy.

Harrison Simons was “a big fan of Curry’s,” George says, and if he were living, his dad would have desperately wanted to travel to England to hear Curry’s royal wedding sermon.

George Simons met Curry several times while attending events with his father. The connection is even closer given that Harrison Simons’ longtime church secretary moved from Oxford to Raleigh and became the secretary for Curry.

Curry confirmed both of George Simons’ sons.

George said he watched Curry’s wedding sermon live Saturday morning and has “rewatched it a couple of times, it was so good.”

Simons says you were not listening if you went to a service in which Curry was giving the message and you didn’t leave the church wanting to improve your relationship with the rest of the world.

“He’s always enjoyable to listen to and be inspired by — he’s very good at that,” Simons says.

Michelle Whitson says she had a similar experience to her husband’s when she was received into the Episcopal Church by Curry back in 2008.

“When he speaks directly to you,” she says, “you feel like he’s never said those words to anybody before. It’s just a very powerful experience.”

And a personal connection with God.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mark.wineka@salisbury post.com.