Sunday, September 9, 2018





BISHOP LOVE'S MESSAGE 
ON CLERGY MEETING




Bishop William Love, of Albany, released a letter on September 7, about the diocesan clergy meeting of September 6. Find the letter here . 

In his letter, Love says the purpose of last Thursday's meeting was simply to give a closed-door platform for everyone to discuss the impact of B012 on the diocese. There was no diocesan policy decision made. Love promised to issue a directive for the implementation of B012 in the diocese and to do so prior to December 2, the starting date of the resolution in the Episcopal Church. Under the resolution, same-sex couples are allowed to marry in their local parishes.

Love had been the strongest ally in the House of Bishops of Bishop Mark Lawrence in the run-up to the schism of 2012. However, Love's letter of two days ago shows no hint of schism, only how B012 is to be enacted in the diocese. Those who hoped Love would follow Lawrence's example and make a schism must be disappointed at this even though nothing rules out an eventual schism. In my view, the signs are not there in Albany the way they were in South Carolina before October 15, 2012.

Be sure to read the poignant words of an insider who also sees no schism, "Being Disarmed" by Leander Harding, in The Living Church, Covenant. The Very Rev. Dr. Leander S. Harding, dean of the All Saints Cathedral, Albany NY. Find his essay here .