-810x500.jpg)
LifeSiteNews has been permanently banned on YouTube. Click HERE to sign up to receive emails when we add to our video library.
ALBANY, New York, March 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – After facing condemnation from an official church tribunal for ordering clergy not to perform homosexual “marriages,” Bishop William Love of Albany resigned from his see after a long-running conflict with the Episcopal Church.
After the November 2018 implementation of “trial rites” in The Episcopal Church (TEC), which prevented bishops from prohibiting same-sex “marriages” in their diocese, Bishop Love issued an eight-page letter to his faithful, explaining that the new law would not be implemented in his diocese, since it would force him “to compromise the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.”
Same-sex “marriage” was “in direct conflict and contradiction to God’s intent for the sacrament of marriage as revealed through Holy Scripture,” he continued, noting that such relations were “a distortion of His design in creation and as such … to be avoided.”
The cleric faced opposition from his brother clergy, resulting in restrictions being imposed upon him just a few months later, in January 2019. Charges were then levied against him, and he subsequently faced a canonical tribunal in June 2020.
Love did not deny the charges but argued that he had not violated canon law, since the new resolution held no canonical status, and thus he had acted only in accord with the canonically approved Book of Common Prayer, and the catechism.
Bishop Love was found guilty of “failing to abide by the Discipline and Worship of The Episcopal Church,” a decision that he warned would “severely impact” his ministry as bishop.
Just weeks later, he reached an accord with Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, meaning that Love would resign his bishopric from February 1, 2021, after a month of sabbatical leave before that date. Curry noted his own “sadness for the pain that has been experienced across the theological spectrum and also his continuing support for the Church’s intention that all persons have access to marriage rites authorized by the Church.”
However, it seems that Love’s firm belief that same-sex “marriages” were a “distortion” of God’s creation remained an untenable one to hold, even when not bishop of a diocese.
The so-called 'Equality Act' contains deadly poison for Christian democracy in the United States. And, its harmless-sounding name tries to hide this insidious reality.
But, unfortunately, Pelosi and company have JUST PASSED this morally repugnant bill in the US House of Representatives.
Pro-life and pro-family organizations, as well as Christian churches and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and freedom-loving groups everywhere, are now sounding the alarm.
Wake up, America, this is RED ALERT time!
This petition, therefore, calls on every US Senator to vigorously oppose and reject this bill.
Yes, it's THAT important.
The bill has nothing to do with "equality," or with extending the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which is how it is being touted by the leftists in the mainstream media.
It is, rather, one of the MOST EXTREME anti-life, pro-LGBT indoctrination bills ever proposed.
It has been described as a short-list of the worst possible elements of the Radical Left's agenda in Congress...and, REMEMBER, it has just passed the House!
We need to tell all US Senators, in no uncertain terms, that WE WILL NOT ACCEPT this outrageous attack on our freedoms and on life, itself!
SIGN AND SHARE THIS URGENT PETITION, TODAY!
And, after you have signed this petition, please CLICK HERE to DIRECTLY CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATORS, and tell them to oppose this assault on our freedoms of thought, speech, conscience and religion.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Below are some of the devastating critiques of 'Equality Act,' leveled by some of the best conservative, Christian minds in the country.
ON LIFE:
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), has written that the 'Equality Act' will include, "the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion this country has ever seen.”
"Under this big new umbrella of 'discrimination,'" continued Perkins, "any American who doesn’t want to fund, offer, perform, or participate in abortion on demand will have no real choice. They can conform — or they can be punished."
"Every wall that’s been built between abortion and the government would come crashing down, including the Hyde Amendment, the pro-conscience Weldon Amendment, and several international barriers that keep our country from exporting abortion."
ON CHRISTIANITY, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM and LGBT INDOCTRINATION:
Lloyd Marcus, of the American Thinker publication, has written about the 'Equality Act' in the following terms:
"LGBTQ enforcer and homosexual Democrat congressman David Cicilline is sponsor of the Equality Act. Cicilline's evil bill is the most aggressive assault on our constitutional religious liberties in U.S. history...If the Equality Act becomes the law of the land, every outrageous, tyrannical demand [of LGBTQ activists/enforcers] will become reality."
And, Liberty Counsel Action, a law and policy education, training and advocacy organization which, among other things, advances religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and the family has extensively criticized the 'Equality Act'.
On their webpage, dedicated to analyzing the 'Equality Act', which you can access below, Liberty Counsel Action state: "The 'Equality' Act' elevates 'sexual orientation and gender identity' to the same protected category as race. It will violate the religious freedom of Americans in numerous ways."
The go on to list the areas of life which this will affect: "It will impact all employers, including religious and non-profit organizations; contractors; houses of worship; public, private, and religious schools; curriculum; bathrooms; sports; daycare providers; shelters; hospitals; places of gatherings; entertainment providers; counselors; foster care and adoption; biological parents; landlords; anywhere providing a “good, service, or program,” including those advertised online; transportation drivers; and all local, state, and federal entities and many other areas."
And, as they note: "[T]here is NO RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION to this bill!"
Taking into account all of these potential threats to Christian democracy, Life and religious freedom, it is easy to see how the so-called 'Equality Act' has been called a "poison pill."
It is imperative that the US Senate vigorously reject this bill, AND EXPOSE IT FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS.
Please SIGN this urgent petition, TODAY!
The following links will take you to more information about the 'Equality Act'
The House version of the so-called 'Equality Act' (HR 5): http://lc.org/PDFs/Attachments2PRsLAs/2019/031819EqualityActHR5.pdf
Liberty Counsel Action's full analysis of the so-called 'Equality Act': https://www.lcaction.org/HR5 and https://lc.org/newsroom/details/022421-equality-act-guts-religious-freedom-1
LifeSiteNews opinion and analysis of the so-called 'Equality Act':
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-us-house-passes-pro-abortion-equality-act
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/biden-names-pro-lgbt-equality-act-as-top-priority-if-elected
As such, he is set to leave TEC and hopes to join the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).
In a statement released March 30, Bishop Curry revealed that Bishop Love “asked to be ‘released and removed from the ordained Ministry’ of The Episcopal Church.”
After this request, Curry had met with his “Council of Advice,” who gave a “majority” consent to the move.
Curry did not further address the circumstances surrounding Love’s resignation or his reasons for leaving TEC, but merely continued by declaring that “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.'”
The presiding bishop’s text alluded to the undercurrents of liberal theology in TEC, which prompted Love to leave, hinting at same-sex “marriages” being a way to implement “the beloved community,” and “to pray not only with our lips but with our lives.”
LifeSiteNews contacted TEC for a comment but did not receive any reply at the time of publishing.
Meanwhile, Love released his own statement, noting that his conservative views were no longer acceptable among fellow Episcopalians, and thus defending his move to the ACNA.
“As a cradle Episcopalian (with nearly 30 years of ordained ministry as a deacon, priest and bishop), that was not an easy decision, but given all that has transpired these past couple of years and the constraints placed upon me as a theologically conservative and orthodox bishop within TEC, I believe it is the right decision,” he said.
The move came after “much time in thought and prayer,” revealed Love, wherein he had sought “God’s guidance in how I might best remain faithful to His Holy Word and serve Him and His Church.”
His final service in the Diocese of Albany took place on February 27, and though Love is set to officially leave TEC on April 2, Good Friday, he gave no details about his future position with the ACNA.
Nor will Bishop Love be alone in moving. Reports have noted that a number of Episcopalian clergy are leaving the Diocese of Albany for the ACNA. In a statement released by the ACNA, it was revealed that “a number of clergy from the Episcopal Diocese of Albany” had approached the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word, with a view to joining.
The clergy are currently being “licensed to minister” within the diocese, which currently has 39 congregations and a total of 96 clergy.