ALBANY, N.Y. — Michael Curry, the presiding “bishop” and primate of the apostatized Episcopal Church, has issued a partial restriction against a New York minister who recently released a directive prohibiting any pastors in his jurisdiction from officiating same-sex “weddings.”
Curry, who had been chosen to deliver a message at last year’s royal wedding in the United Kingdom, recently forbade William Love of the Diocese of Albany from participating in any disciplinary procedures against clergy in his diocese who participate in homosexual ceremonies.
“I am … persuaded that as presiding bishop I am called upon to take steps to ensure that same-sex marriage in The Episcopal Church is available to all persons to the same extent and under the same conditions in all Dioceses of the Church where same-sex marriage is civilly legal,” Curry wrote in a response published by the Episcopal News Service.
He stated that while he believes that Love’s convictions about homosexuality are sincere and of “good will,” he noted that a resolution passed last year at the General Convention, B012, requires ministers who object to same-sex “marriage” to contact another member of the clergy to officiate in their place. Therefore, Love can’t ban all clergy under his authority from officiating such ceremonies.
“[I]n dioceses where the bishop exercising ecclesiastical authority … holds a theological position that does not embrace marriage for same-sex couples, … the bishop exercising ecclesiastical authority (or ecclesiastical supervision) shall invite, as necessary, another bishop of this Church to provide pastoral support to the couple …,” the resolution reads.
However, in a letter issued in November, Love opined that the resolution could cause “tremendous damage” among Episcopalians as it “is in direct conflict and contradiction to God’s intent for the sacrament of marriage as revealed through Holy Scripture.”
“B012 ignores God’s Word regarding marriage and thus ignores the authority of Holy Scripture,” he wrote. “When asked about marriage and divorce, Jesus stated, ‘But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”‘
“As the Son of God, God incarnate, God—‘the Word became flesh’ (John 1:14), it would stand to reason that Jesus would know God’s purpose or intent for marriage. Jesus could have allowed for, or made provision for, a wider interpretation of marriage (to include that between two men or two women), but He didn’t,” Love noted.
He also outlined that the canon of the Albany diocese upholds both the biblical and traditional Episcopal view of marriage, and that to follow B012 would be to violate the diocese canon.
“With the passage of B012, the 79th General Convention of The Episcopal Church in effect is attempting to order me as a bishop in God’s holy Church, to compromise ‘the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3), and to turn my back on the vows I have made to God and His People, in order to accommodate The Episcopal Church’s ‘new’ understanding of Christian marriage as no longer being ‘a solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God …'”
Therefore, “Until further notice, the trial rites authorized by Resolution B012 of the 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church shall not be used anywhere in the Diocese of Albany by diocesan clergy (canonically resident or licensed), and Diocesan Canon 16 shall be fully complied with by all diocesan clergy and parishes,” Love declared.
Read Love’s letter in full here.
Love said that he plans to appeal the partial restriction issued as a result of his directives. He faces potential further disciplinary action.
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