Just weeks after the effective date of Bishop William Love’s resignation, his predecessor as Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. Daniel Herzog, announced March 15 that he is resigning from the House of Bishops and from ministry in the Episcopal Church as of the week after Easter, “because of the direction of the church.”
It is the second time Herzog has taken this step. Episcopal News Service reports:
“This is without any anger or animosity, only sadness on the parting of friends,” Herzog wrote. “2021 marks fifty years of ordination. I am very grateful to Christ Jesus for the high privilege of serving Him and the Diocese of Albany, whose clergy and people I cherish in my heart.”
Herzog served as diocesan bishop from 1998 until his retirement in 2007, and during that time he expressed disagreement with some church decisions, including the 2003 consecration of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire. After retiring as bishop, he renounced his ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church and joined the Roman Catholic Church. However, he sought to rejoin The Episcopal Church in 2010, and then-Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori restored his ordained ministry.
Herzog’s successor in the Diocese of Albany, the Rt. Rev. William Love, also disagreed with the church’s stance on LGBTQ issues. Love resigned, effective Feb. 1, 2021, after a disciplinary panel found that he violated church law by banning same-sex marriages in his diocese.
Read the rest at Episcopal News Service.
