Bishop leaving
The Rev. William Love is stepping down following same-sex marriage fight./
The Right Rev. William Love, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, will step down Feb. 1 after a disciplinary panel earlier this month determined he had violated church rules when he told his clergy not to perform same-sex marriages.
The resignation, which will come after a sabbatical starting Jan. 1, was agreed to by a church disciplinary board during a virtual meeting on Wednesday, according
to a statement by the church.
The five-member panel concluded that Love violated church doctrine, discipline and worship rules two years ago when he told his bishops not to perform the marriages, even though the church has allowed them since 2015.
Love, after the panel’s finding, entered into an Accord, or agreement to step down, which resolved the disciplinary case against him.
Love has agreed to work with the Presiding Bishop’s Office to foster a healthy transition for the diocese, according to a statement by the church.
The Episcopal Church’s national leadership in 2015 said they would recognize same sex marriages.
Then in 2018, church leadership issued its Resolution B012, which ordered bishops not to impede same-sex weddings although as a compromise, individual priests and bishops could recuse themselves from specific rites if they felt the need to.
Shortly after that Love issued a written rebuttal to the idea of same-sex marriage, contending that it violated Scripture. “Satan is having a heyday bringing division into the Church over these issues and is trying to use the Church to hurt and destroy the very ones we love,” he wrote.
Later in the year, the Rev. Mary Robinson White, the rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Albany, said she was set to implement Resolution B012 and that requests by same sex couples would be overseen by Bishop Dede Duncan-probe at the Diocese of Central New York.
Love, though, said the diocese church hadn’t yet worked out plans for B012 and the prohibition for same sex marriage should remain in effect.
By January 2019 the church had banned Love from penalizing clergy involved in same-sex marriage.
Eight months later church authorities said they would hold a disciplinary hearing regarding Love, who hadn’t changed his position.
The hearing was originally set for April but delayed until June and was conducted over the internet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In reaching the panel’s decision, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said he regretted the pain that has been felt over this matter across the theological spectrum and said he would continue his support for access to marriage rites in the church.
“Depriving same sex couples of access to matrimony materially and substantially impacts their spiritual, emotional and physical well-being as people of God,” the Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, a Rhode Island-based bishop, said in writing the decision on the case.