Bishop William Love

Bishop William Love to Visit Advent March 15, 2020

On March 15, 2020 Bishop William Love, Bishop of the Diocese of Albany and our DEPO Bishop, will visit Advent for one service at 10:00 a.m. Bp Love will celebrate Holy Eucharist and preach the sermon. Bishop Love last visited Advent on August 28, 2017 for a healing service.

We are honored to have Bp Love join us. We pray this will be an occasion to celebrate his ministry as a faithful witness for Biblical truth; to lift him up and encourage him in his ministerial, pastoral and spiritual leadership responsibilities; and to use it as an occasion to build-up the body of Advent. How often do we worship with a bishop?!!

We will lay hands on the Bishop during the service and pray for him, we’ll give him a gift to memorialize his ministry and his time with us, and we will enjoy a reception afterwards organized by Advent ladies during which people can interact personally with him. He is a godly man firm in his convictions for the truth in God’s Holy Scriptures.

Please come! Invite former Advent parishioners who may be open to attend. Volunteer to provide rides to folks not as mobile. Let’s celebrate his life and our united lives as the body of Christ.

Why is Bishop Love our Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO) Bishop?

The Episcopal Church has a democratic organization structure and lacks a single leader who defines “truth” for the entire denomination. In 2004, the Episcopal Church (bishops, clergy and lay) voted to support and consecrate the election of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who was a non-celibate homosexual. Some in the denomination were keen to maintain traditional beliefs and practices and opposed his ordination. Others interpreted the topic in terms of human rights and wanted change and thus supported his consecration. Subsequently, differing views surround establishing and implementing church rituals that recognize same-sex relationships and performing a marriage ceremony for same-sex couples.

In response to these differing views, in 2004 the Episcopal Church developed a “Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight,” (DEPO) procedure. DEPO is the Church’s response for parishes that find themselves in distress over these changes, who refused to accept Robinson’s consecration, and who cannot support other such non-traditional rituals and practices. Advent appealed to our diocesan bishop, Mark Hollingsworth, to appoint another bishop to provide pastoral oversight to Advent. Bp Hollinsworth graciously agreed to delegate his oversight of Advent to, first, Bishop Ed Little, now retired bishop of Northern Indiana and later to Bishop William Love, Bishop of Albany. “Oversight” means the episcopal acts performed as part of a diocesan bishop’s ministry or by another bishop to whom such responsibility has been delegated by the diocesan bishop (Hollingsworth).

Bishop visitations to a parish, celebrating confirmations and baptisms, and spiritual and pastoral care of a congregation by a bishop are duties Bp Love has agreed to provide Advent. In all other aspects of our congregational life, Advent continues to be a part of the Diocese of Ohio, we pay our assessments to Ohio, and we participate as full parishes in good standing at Diocesan conventions and other Diocesan matters. Advent continues in this DEPO arrangement from 2004 to the present.

Who is Bishop William Love?

A cradle Episcopalian and native of Texas, Bishop Love moved to up-state New York in the fall of 1982, complements of Uncle Sam. He served in the United States Air Force as an Air Intelligence Officer stationed at Plattsburgh AFB in Plattsburgh, NY from 1982-1986. At the rank of captain, he resigned his commission in order to enter the ordination process in the Diocese of Albany.

He is a graduate of Nashotah House Seminary (Wisconsin). Bishop Love was ordained Deacon in June 1991 and ordained as a priest in March 1992. In May 1992, he became the Rector of St. Mary’s Church, Lake Luzerne. He was elected as bishop coadjutor and subsequently installed as the 9th Bishop of Albany at the Cathedral of All Saints on Sunday, February 4, 2007.

Bishop Love firmly believes in the authority of Holy Scripture as the living Word of God. He describes himself as Anglo Catholic, Evangelical and Charismatic, committed to the Great Commandment and Great Commission. He is a strong believer in the healing power of Jesus Christ. His constant prayer is to be a channel of God’s love and mercy and healing grace in this broken and hurting world in which we live. He has served on several short-term mission trips to Uganda, Bolivia, Peru, South Sudan, Northern Malawi, and Haiti, as well as visits to the Diocese of the Arctic, the Diocese of Down and Dromore in Northern Ireland and the Diocese of Maridi in South Sudan.

Bishop Bill and his wife Karen (a retired USAF Colonel and current high school math teacher) have been married 36 years. They are richly blessed with two adult children and their spouses: Chris and his wife Lauren, and Catie and her husband Doug Jones, in addition to four grandchildren. Personal hobbies include: hiking, kayaking, photography, and travel enjoying the beauty of God’s creation.

 

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