Bishop William Love

Conservative Episcopal Bishop: Out!

Jeffrey Walton on March 30, 2021

A traditionalist Episcopal Church bishop who resigned as a diocesan in February after being found guilty of failing to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Episcopal Church is no longer a part of the denomination.

Bishop William H. Love cited biblical teaching and the Book of Common Prayer in his 2018 decision not to permit clergy to solemnize same-sex weddings in his upstate New York diocese.

In a statement released today, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry wrote that Love asked to be “released and removed from the ordained Ministry” of The Episcopal Church, pursuant to Episcopal Church Canon III.12.7.

“Yesterday, I met with my Council of Advice and, with their advice and consent, granted Bishop Love’s request,” Curry wrote.

Curry had earlier restricted Love’s ministry, preventing him from disciplining any clergy who violated his restriction on the use of same-sex rites. Later brought up on charges before a church Hearing Panel, Love did not contest the facts of the case, but argued that he acted in accordance with his ordination vows.

Love cited his obligation as a bishop “called to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church” among several reasons for his decision against implementing the rites. The bishop characterized the dispute as part of his dioceses’ “faithfulness in upholding God’s Word.”

The Hearing Panel disagreed, finding that Love’s refusal to implement same-sex marriage conflicted with a resolution passed by the church’s General Convention. Prosecutors argued that the resolution was effectively an authorized revision of the Book of Common Prayer, while Love’s defense argued that it was advisory.

Curry and Love negotiated Love’s resignation, which discharged the need for any disciplinary action from the panel.

Love released a statement today about his plans for the future.

“It is my hope and plan to be received into the Anglican Church in 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 wrote.

The former Bishop of Albany is a participant in the GAFCON movement, a traditionalist grouping within the worldwide Anglican Communion that is largely centered in the growing Global South.

A number of clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of Albany have already begun the process of being licensed in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) according to representatives from the Diocese of the Living Word (ADLW). Additional clergy are in conversation with other ACNA jurisdictions, none of which has made public announcement.

  1. Comment by Jeff on March 30, 2021 at 1:22 pm

    Thank you for this article, Mr. Walton.

    This… THIS… is what clerical courage looks like in the present age.

    Sucking up to the alphabet people, BLM and the rest of the critical marxists is not clerical courage.
    Denigrating the USA for its supposed “systemic racism” and other flaws is not a demonstration of clerical courage.
    Smearing as “insurgents” all supporters of the most Christian president we have had in decades — as judged by his ACTIONS not his words — that takes no clerical courage.
    Posing for photo ops at the Right to Life prayer room, while spitting on an administration seeking with all its might to actually end abortion, is not clerical courage!
    Repeatedly calling Officer Derek Chauvin a murderer in these pages when he has not even gone to trial, is SLANDER — not clerical courage. (By the way, Officer Chauvin is on trial right now… please pray that REAL justice, not political-agenda “justice”, is done.)

    Standing up with steadfast faithfulness for the Truth of the Word, Jesus the CHRIST, at the cost of one’s career (and I am sure much pain and cost beyond that) — as Bishop Love has done — THIS is clerical courage.

    May GOD bless you richly, Bishop Love.

    Tooley? IRD?? Are you paying attention?

  2. Comment by Pirate Preacher on March 30, 2021 at 2:29 pm

    Tha Apostle Paul warned us ter avoid chatter that deny Skipper’s authority. Folks who say such things be plotting mutinous plans in thar heart. Fellers of this sort ‘ill go from bad ter worse. Thar lies and lecherous tales ‘i’ll spread like gangrene. Skip knows who be with him. Ever man who signs on to follow tha Sun must turn aside from all manner of wickedness. (2 Timothy 2:16-17)

    Paul also calls us ter live at peace with others and avoid quarrels, senseless conflicts, and ter resist tha proud in humility. Seems ter me this be what Bishop Billy Love ‘as done. Sooner tha GMC gets its fleet launched, the sooner them who like Lot be distressed by tha lives of lawless fellers kin set sail fer new horizons.

  3. Comment by Pat on March 30, 2021 at 3:14 pm

    Thank you Jeff. Your written response is on target and true. Written much better than I could have. The stall on the official split is about power, money and property. The battle over faithful biblical teaching was abandoned long ago.

  4. Comment by ERIC on March 30, 2021 at 10:32 pm

    While I do not know the exact circumstances of his departure, priests and bishops that have left the Episcopal “Church” under similar circumstances have forfeited their pensions. Given how close Bishop Love was to retirement, if he did have to forfeit his pension, that is worthy of some respect.

    “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.”

  5. Comment by Rev. Jack Richards on March 30, 2021 at 11:49 pm

    As someone who departed the ELCA ten years ago for the North American Lutheran Church, I welcome the courage and witness of Bishop Love and know that God will continue to help and guide him as his next chapter unfolds. The Anglican Church in North America will be further blessed by such additions to its roster!

  6. Comment by Steve on March 31, 2021 at 9:50 am

    Re: prior comment: I assume he gets to keep his pension, considering how careful respectful and diplomatic both sides have been in the matter, unless I hear otherwise. I hope TEC has given up scorched earth tactics like denying people pensions, it certainly can’t have been good for their reputation.

  7. Comment by Loren J Golden on March 31, 2021 at 11:27 pm

    “They will put you out of the synagogues.  Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.  And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.” (John 16.2-3)
     
    “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his own brother.  And why did he murder him?  Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.  Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.  We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.  Whoever does not love abides in death.  Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (I John 3.12-15)
     
    Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and those with him may think they were offering service to God, when he placed a restriction on Bishop William Love’s ministry, after Love had forbidden the priests in his diocese from using the rites mandated by the 2018 General Convocation of the Episcopal Church to consecrate the “marriage” of two people of the same gender.  And Curry and those with him may think that consecrating same-sex “marriages” somehow demonstrates love to their homosexual neighbors, whereas refusal to permit this consecration somehow translates to a failure on Love’s part to show love to his homosexual neighbors.  Indeed, had Love not resigned after Curry restricted his ministry, the restriction would have led to disciplinary action, likely a trial, with the end that Love would have been stripped of his ministry credentials.  If this situation had occurred in an earlier era in Church history, Curry would have had Love put to death for his failure to abide by the Convocation’s mandate.  As it is, he was only put out of the synagogue.
     
    But, “whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to (men) rather than to God, you must judge.” (Acts 4.19)  And more explicitly, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5.29)  Homosexuality, which is a form of sexual immorality, is expressly forbidden by God (Gen. 19.4-11,24-25, Lev. 18.1-5,22,24-30, 20.13, 23.17-18, I Kg. 14.24, 15.12, 22.46, II Kg. 23.7, Rom. 1.18,24-28,32, I Cor. 6.9-11, I Tim. 1.8-11, Jude 7), and to consecrate what God expressly forbids is sacrilege.
     
    Marriage has revelatory significance.  The coupling of man and woman within the covenant of marriage points to the union of God with His people, of Christ with His Church, where the husband, and not the wife, represents God or Christ, and the wife, and not the husband, represents the people of God or the Church (Is. 54.1-8, 62.1-5, Ezek. 16.1-58, Hos. 1-3, II Cor. 11.2, Eph. 5.22-33, I Pet. 3.1-7, Rev. 19.7-8, 21.2,9-11, 22.17).  And this correspondence is nowhere in Scripture reversed, as if the wife could represent God or Christ, or the husband the people of God or the Church.  Thus, to treat same-sex “marriage” as equivalent to the marriage covenant of one man and one woman, as instituted by God at Creation (Gen. 1.26-28, 2.18-25, Mt. 19.4-6, Mk. 10.6-9), is tantamount to blasphemously suggesting that Christ should forsake the Church and marry Himself, or that the Church should forsake Christ and marry herself.
     
    But just as mainline Protestant denominational officials like Curry have trodden over the revelation of God in Holy Scripture for more than a century now, they have thought nothing of treading over the revelation of God in Holy Matrimony for the past few decades.  The decisions of fallible General Convocations, General Assemblies, General Conferences, and Synods are regarded as more significant in discerning the will of God than the infallible Scriptures and Covenants established by our Lord.  “My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” (Jas. 3.10)
     
    And so, Bishop Love’s resignation and request to be “released and removed from the ordained Ministry” of the Episcopal Church stands as condemnation that from that denomination, along with others (like the Presbyterian Church [USA]) who have trodden the Word of God underfoot in the idolatrous pursuit of cultural relevance, “the glory has departed.” (I Sam. 4.21)

  8. Comment by Loren J Golden on April 2, 2021 at 2:15 pm

    Correction in the above comment:
     
    “…Lev. 18.1-5,22,24-30, 20.13, 23.17-18…” in para. 4 should be “…Lev. 18.1-5,22,24-30, 20.13, Dt. 23.17-18…”

  9. Comment by George Brown on April 2, 2021 at 7:38 pm

    As is so often the case, the “bad guys” accuse the “good guys” of their own crimes! It seems to be a satanic tactic widely used in the world. This faithful bishop was formally charged with doing what the apostate Episcopal denomination itself has done by departing from the historic teaching of the denomination. Love is correct in asserting that to acquiesce to their apostasy would be to violate his ordination vows to uphold the same. Blessings upon him for his faithfulness and courage!

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