Head of US Episcopal Church expected to make full recovery from brain bleed

The head of the US Episcopal Church was hospitalised on Sunday with a bleed on his brain, church officials said, but he is expected to make a full recovery.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, the first black person to take on the role, preached at Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia on December 6. Following the service, he was taken to hospital after struggling to recollect words.

He was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma and transferred to a hospital in Richmond where he was scheduled to have surgery today.

In a letter published online, President of the House of Deputies, Rev Gay Clark Jennings, said Curry was "in good spirits and confident in the care he is receiving".

He also published a link to a video that Curry had made from his hospital bed.

"I'm doing fine," Curry says jovially in the clip. "I will be back preaching like normal, but for the next few days I'll be taking it easy and I'll be just fine.

"God bless you, keep the faith."

The Church has published a prayer for the bishop which was said today by his chief of staff in New York.

"Let us stand today, even though we know you are doing for us better things that we can ask or imagine, to seek your presence with Michael and among us. Strengthen him on this day of his surgery. Guide those who care for him on your behalf in the hospital. And bring us all together again in your way and in your time that we can live lives of gratitude and love from this day onward."

Previously the bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, Curry formally took his current office in November of this year.