Leaves church
Former Episcopal bishop is joining the Anglican Church in North America
The Rev. William Love, who resigned as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany after a disciplinary panel determined he had violated church rules when he barred clergy from performing same-sex marriages, is leaving the church, Presiding Bishop Michael Bruce Curry announced Tuesday.
The Episcopal News Service reported Love is joining the Anglican Church in North America. Love’s decision was widely seen as a possibility after a five-member panel in October concluded that he had violated church doctrine, discipline and worship rules when he imposed the ban even though the church has allowed same-sex ceremonies since 2015 — the same year marriage equality was made national law by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Curry said he acted on Love’s request to be released and removed as an ordained minister of the Episcopal Church.
“Yesterday, I met with my Council of Advice and, with their advice and consent, granted Bishop Love’s request,” Curry said in a statement. “Deep in my heart I believe that as a church we are called, as Jesus once said, to be ‘a house of prayer for all people,’ where, as my slave ancestors used to sing, ‘there is plenty good room for all of God’s children.’”
“That conviction is not based on a social theory or capitulation to the ways of the culture,” Curry continued. “Rather, it is born of my belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are the ultimate sign of the very love of God reaching out to embrace and welcome us all.”
The diocese on Tuesday distributed a letter from Love. In it, he wrote: “There is no way to adequately express how truly honored and blessed I have been to serve as your bishop these past 14 years. It has been one of the greatest highlights and privileges of my life.”
Love wrote that since his resignation he’s prayed that God would guide him to “how I might best remain faithful to His Holy Word and serve Him and His Church in this next chapter of life.”
“It is my hope and plan to be received into the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) in the very near future, at which time all the details of what I will be doing and where I will
be serving will be shared in a separate announcement.”
Love’s stance on samesex marriage led to a disciplinary hearing last summer that ultimately resulted in the decision that Love should be removed as bishop.
After that judgment, Love entered into an agreement to step down as bishop that resolved the disciplinary case against him. It was clear at the hearing that Love’s opposition to same-sex marriage rites and non-heterosexual sexual relations was unlikely to budge regardless of the outcome of the hearing or any future moves by the church.
At the hearing, Love contended “holy Scripture” revealed that God approves of sexual intimacy only “in the confines of marriage between a man and a woman.”
Once the church took action, Love agreed to work with the presiding bishop’s office to foster a healthy transition for the diocese, church officials said at the time.
In 2018 — three years after the Episcopal Church said the faith recognized same-sex marriages — church leadership issued Resolution B012, which ordered bishops not to impede same-sex weddings. As a compromise, individual priests and bishops could recuse themselves from specific rites.
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.
In response, the Rev. Mary Robinson White, the rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Albany, said
that she was prepared to implement Resolution B012 and that requests by same-sex couples would be overseen by Bishop Dede Duncan-probe of the neighboring Diocese of Central New York.
Love, though, said the diocese church hadn’t yet worked out plans for B012 and the prohibition on same-sex marriage should remain in effect.
The Anglican Church in North America, which split from the Episcopal Church more than a decade ago, bars samesex marriage rites and views same-sex attraction as sinful and a “disordered affection” that can be changed through prayer and discipline, according to a pastoral statement released in January.