Anglican bishop opens up about leaving the Episcopal Church
By Ashley Kaitz, Hillsdale Collegian:
Bishop William Love talked to Hillsdale students on April 8 about his experience fighting for Biblical truth in the face of intense pressure to perform gay marriages from the Episcopalian Church.
Love, a self-described “cradle Episcopalian,” served as an Episcopal priest, deacon, and bishop over the past 30 years in the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, New York. In April 2021, however, he chose to leave the Episcopalian Church and become Assistant Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word.
“It’s very difficult seeing the church decline as it has in recent years,” Love said. “Not only the Episcopal Church, but the mainline denominations … to see all the things going on, and to not be able to stop it.”
According to Love, he began to have problems with the Episcopal Church in 2015, the year the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage with the Obergefell v. Hodges case.
“The Episcopal Church as an institution comes together every three years – it’s called the General Convention in the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, which is made up of laity and clergy,” Love explained. “They all meet together at some place throughout the country and talk about the governance of the church in depth.”
Just a few days after Obergefell v. Hodges passed, the Episcopal Church held a General Conventions, and passed a resolution authorizing same-sex marriages to occur within any diocese where the bishop of that diocese gave his permission.
Out of the 150 bishops at the convention, only eight – including Love – stood against the new resolution.
The message of the eight, Love said, was this: “We understand that this permission is being given in parts of the church, but in our dioceses, based on our understanding of God’s intent for marriage as between a man and a woman, we are not going to allow for same-sex marriages to occur,” Love said quoting the message of the eight.
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