Hearing date set for Bishop Love

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William Love (1).jpg

A Message From Bishop Love Regarding the Upcoming Hearing
January 21, 2020

To the Clergy and People of the Diocese of Albany,

Several of you have been asking about the status of the Title IV Disciplinary proceedings directed against me in regard to B012. I have been notified that a Hearing, headed by The Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, (President of the Hearing Panel) is scheduled to be held at the Desmond Hotel in Albany on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. The subject of the Hearing is “The Matter of Allegations Concerning the Rt. Rev. William H. Love, Bishop of Albany.”

It is alleged by the Intake Report and Investigator’s Report that I have “violated Canon IV.4.1(c) by failing to abide by the promises and vows made when he [I] was ordained, specifically the Declaration he [I] signed at his [my] ordination as bishop in which he [I] promised to ‘conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church.’ ”

The above charge is the result of my unwillingness to abide by Resolution B012, passed by the 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which if followed, would allow for same-sex marriages to occur in the Diocese of Albany.

The Hearing Panel convened for this case is made up of the following five individuals:

· The Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, Convener
· The Rt. Rev. Herman Hollerith
· The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davidson
· The Rev. Erik Larsen
· Ms. Melissa Perrin

In accordance with the Canons, the Hearing is “open” to the public however, under the control and direction of the Hearing Panel. Space will be limited. While the exact starting time has not yet been released, I anticipate it will begin by mid-morning and will most likely take only a few hours. Both sides have agreed that there are no contested facts regarding my actions and neither side will be presenting witnesses. Instead, the attorneys will be making arguments as to what the canon law requires.

I want to thank all of you who have been holding me and my family and the Diocese of Albany up in your prayers these past many months. It is greatly appreciated. Whatever the outcome of the Hearing, I pray God’s will and purpose will be accomplished.

Faithfully Yours in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. William H. Love
Bishop of Albany

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28 COMMENTS

    • He is already the last man standing for orthodoxy in the House of Bishops.
      There do remain a few scattered among the non-bishop clergy and laity.

  2. So much for via media. You could have said that TEC had many lanes in it’s highway, but over time the lanes have decreased in number. It would seem to me that there are maybe as few as two lanes left and one of them sees very little traffic.

    • I think it may be more a matter of them reconstructing the highway. It has as many lanes as always, but now all of them are left lanes, their having closed all the right and center lanes.

    • May I ask a foolish question? What are Communion Partner Bishops? Are these Episcopalean Bishops who support a traditional definition of marriage?

      • At this point, I think there are more Anglican Church of Canada bishops than TEC bishops. To see their current stance, I would suggest you look up their website. Their “line in the sand” moves on a convention by convention basis- at least for all the TEC members other than +Love.

      • Go to communionpartnersDOTorg. There’s a link to Bishops. They are the supposedly orthodox bishops remaining in TEC. In fact, they have all basically caved, accepting the regime established by GC2015 and 2018. Bishop Love is the exception. As far as I know, none of the other bishops has shown support, at least publicly.

  4. It’s possible the TEC trial will find it better to age Bp. Love out of the picture instead of inhibit; put their woman in place after he retires. Bp. Love’s vows can be construed to be to those in effect at the time of his installation. In reality it is tough to find any bishop that doesn’t revel in being a rule breaker.

    The corporate religious machine runs over and eats its own. TEC isn’t unique. I’m thinking of Bp. Iker of ACNA as I write.

        • I did not know. Any of them looking like good candidates to replace Bp. Love when he retires or forced out?

        • To the point…. Nov 19, 2019
          “A longtime member of St. John’s Episcopal Church was ordained to the priesthood and installed as the church’s new rector during ceremonies on Saturday afternoon.

          Sonya A. Boyce was ordained by William Love, bishop of Albany, during the ceremony, which was attended by a full church of family and friends.

          Among those in attendance was the Rev. Elizabeth Papazoglakis, who led St. John’s from 2013 to 2015.”

        • And clergy in ACNA are ordained by individual bishops, not by ACNA. And most ACNA bishops do not ordain women.

  6. The problem here is that Bp.Love did/has “conform[ed] to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church.’ ”. TEC has moved considerably away from those things which Bp. Love did swear to uphold back when he was made a bishop.

  7. “…promised to ‘conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church.’ ”

    So, what about those priests and bishops who actively invite those who have not been baptized to Holy Communion? Aren’t they breaching the doctrine & discipline of TEC? Or is this only enforced against traditionalists?

    • Actually, technically, given his adoption of women clergy, +Love is more a moderate conservative than a traditionalist. The last traditionalist bishop given a hearing was +Schofield in 2006 (he was acquitted at the time). Since then, traditionalists (including +Schofield a year or 2 after the acquittal, IIRC) have been removed by declaration of the PB that they have “renounced their orders”. Most famously, the removal of Bishop Ackerman, whose letter to KJS made clear that he was NOT renouncing his orders, but KJS declared it a renunciation, plain English notwithstanding.

  8. Some of you hoary-headed folk may remember the “First Promise” movement of the late 1990s. “First Promise” claimed that the ordination vow in the 1979 BCP [page 526] “to be loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them,” followed as it is by the solemn commitment to the authority of Scripture, preempted any promise to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church as legislated by canons or resolutions of General Convention.

    The problem facing clergy at that time was how to be loyal in an increasingly heretical church. Most of those in the First Promise movement came to a point where we felt conscience required us to leave. Hence First Promise ultimately led to the formation of the Anglican Church in North America. Bishop Love chose to remain loyal to the faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic church while remaining in a church which officially has departed from it. One may question his prudence, but one cannot doubt his courage and faithfulness to his vocation as a bishop of the church of God.

    • So how does the new 2019 ACNA Book of Duncan stack up in its protection of the faith? Do you think this time around a lack of transparency is the proper course? We are told it is based on the 1660 BCP when on first reading it looks like a very poor rewrite of 1979 which in of itself was based on the lie that there was a general clamor to rid the BCP of formal pronouns and beautiful prose.

      Last Sunday the bishop told us the parishes can continue to have services with the BCPs they are comfortable using. HOWEVER, all priestly formation and devotions and catechism teachings are based on the new Book of Duncan. There must have been some pushback as we now hear about a traditional language Book of Duncan.

      Are you aware of any “Second Promise” movements forming in ACNA? Is the REC happy? How about someone explaining to the rabble why the catechism teachings are based on Duncan think and past BCPs are so sorely lacking? Women priests will grow ACNA like they did TEC? Hey, three people at church last week were quite enamored with Bob Duncan. I’m odd man out.

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