Michael Curry bounced himself into stardom with 14 minutes of charismatic, riveting preaching to tens of millions at the Royal wedding last Saturday.

Less than a week later and Curry, now back in the US where he is presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, has dominated celebrity chat shows all week. Not limiting himself to ITV's Good Morning Britain, Curry has appeared on NBC's Today show and ABC's The View and even featured in a spoof sketch on Saturday Night Live.

Such coverage is unprecedented for the Episcopal Church which, while being the national Anglican church in America, has lost nearly a fifth of its members in the last five years alone.

Renowned for being the first Anglican province in the world to permit gay marriage, the Episcopal Church has been outspoken in its criticism of Donald Trump and is considered a pariah by the president's white evangelical supporters, such as Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jnr.

Outside of America the Episcopal Church is seen as either a leading light or a left-of-field enigma, depending on your point of view.

In 2016 the other 38 provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion imposed de facto sanctions on the Episcopal Church, saying its acceptance of same-sex marriage represented 'a fundamental departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of our provinces on the doctrine of marriage'. This means that for three years it is banned from representation on key bodies and barred from voting on issues relating to doctrine or strategy.

The measure was designed to avoid a permanent split between the American church and the socially conservative provinces in the global south, who make up the majority of 85 million-strong communion.

However leaders from the powerful conservative faction GAFCON within the Anglican Communion have criticised the so-called 'consequences', which were also imposed on the Scottish Episcopal Church after its recognition of same-sex marriage in 2017. They say the punishments are not effective and have not been imposed properly and are demanding harsher penalties on churches who break the status quo on marriage.

All this makes Curry's appearance as the preacher at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding all the more intriguing.

While his passionate style may have raised eyebrows among some members of the Royal family and caused sniggers from Victoria Beckham, it came as no surprise to those who know him.

One tongue-in-cheek fan in the episcopal diocese of Fort Worth has even designed a bingo chart for phrases you can expect to hear in a Curry sermon (he hit nine of them on Saturday).

Certainly his preaching would have been no surprise to the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who formally made the invitation and recommended him as a choice for the Royal couple.

So is the archbishop, who has cautiously walked the tightrope between the opposing factions, setting out his stall? Is his recommendation of Curry as preacher over someone with more traditionalist views an indication of which way he is leaning?

'It [the wedding] needed someone from America to preach and preferably someone black, and it would be good if they were Anglican,' a senior clergy figure close to Lambeth Palace told Christian Today.

'He fitted all three.'

The source indicated that within the Church of England's hierarchy, the service is seen as a triumph.

'Instead of having Pippa's bum trending on Twitter it was Michael's sermon that was trending.' 

Despite the reaction from some conservative critics within the CofE, it seems impossible to read too much into Welby's suggestion of Curry to Kensington Palace.

Sources close to him say he does not think issues of sexuality should define the church. He regularly expresses frustration at constantly being asked about gay marriage by journalists and frequently cites a claim that the average Anglican is a 30-year-old woman in sub-Saharan Africa. There are more important issues for her, says Welby, than constant debates about gay marriage. 

It seems more likely that Curry fitted the bill of what Meghan Markle and Prince Harry wanted, rather than being a subtle hint at the archbishop's thinking over sexuality.

For Welby, there are bigger issues.