A bishop of The Episcopal Church announced that he’ll be stepping down from office weeks after the denomination’s disciplinary panel ruled that he violated canon law by refusing to allow same-sex marriages in his diocese.

Addressing the Diocesan Convention on Saturday, Bishop William Love of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany said he will resign as bishop on Feb. 1, 2021, according to Anglican Ink.

On Oct. 5, the denomination’s Hearing Panel found Bishop Love guilty “by clear and convincing evidence” of violating Resolution B012, a measure passed in 2018 requiring that all Episcopal dioceses allow for the blessing of same-sex unions.

The panel stated: “Depriving same-sex couples of access to matrimony materially and substantially impacts their spiritual, emotional and physical well-being as people of God. The expression of love changes dramatically when it is recognized, welcomed and witnessed. The loss of a public ceremony impacts the couple, the family and friends and the community.”

“I am very disappointed and…

Editor’s note: This two-part series explores why some evangelicals have chosen to convert to other branches of Christianity, namely Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

Evangelicalism was not enough for Joel and Stephanie Dunn, though they come from several generations of Baptists.

And in desperate pursuit of God, they wound up amid candles, incense, beautifully-painted wooden icons, and Divine Liturgy — in the communion of saints whose lives they now say have provided the medicine for their sin-sick souls.

Though Orthodox Christians comprise only 0.5% of the United States population, many of them relatively recent immigrants, some believers in Jesus have found their way into Orthodoxy after experiencing profound dissatisfaction with various forms of modern Christianity. And while many in the contemporary West have abandoned the Christian faith entirely, which The Christian Post explored in a multi-part series last year, others have traveled a more ancient path.

For the Dunns, things came to a head in 2016 when they realized that their current faith tradition, Southern Baptist, was inadequate. They were received into the Eastern Orthodox…

Editor’s note: This two-part series explores why some evangelicals have chosen to convert to other branches of Christianity, namely Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism. Read part 1 here.

The first time Jon Schweppe remembers palpably experiencing the manifest presence of God was at a Roman Catholic Mass, in what proved to be an unusual yet ultimately irresistible divine encounter.

For the 32-year-old Midwesterner turned D.C.-area policy director for the American Principles Project, faith was something that his family always took seriously, particularly as his father was a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His dad was a theologically orthodox minister in an otherwise liberal mainline denomination.

He called his upbringing in this particular faith “a liturgical tradition with really good hymns,” in a recent interview with The Christian Post as part of its two-part series about former evangelical Protestants who instead of leaving faith behind, as some have done, have traveled down a more ancient road. You can read part one…

Christianity is a faith with a long and extensive history, with numerous events of lasting significance occurring throughout the ages.

Each week brings the anniversaries of impressive milestones, unforgettable tragedies, amazing triumphs, births, deaths, and everything else in between.

Some of the things drawn from over 2 millennia of history might be very familiar to the reader, while other happenings might be previously unknown.

Here are three things that happened this week, Oct. 25-31, in Church history. They include the confirmation of a saint’s historical existence, the establishment of a charity aimed at combating prostitution, and the birth of the Reformation.

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Sunday, October 25, 2020

Responding to a new report showing a growing number of coronavirus cases connected to clusters in religious gatherings, World Overcomers Christian Church, one of North Carolina’s largest churches, announced Thursday it will not hold in-person services until a vaccine is developed.

“When our people are able to come back together, they’re going to want to greet one another and hug one another, and in my estimation, the risks are too great,” Andy Thompson, senior pastor of the 15,000-member church, told CBS 17.  “We have to figure out ways to minister to people beyond just them risking contact in the middle of a pandemic.”

A report from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released Wednesday said in the last two weeks, clusters of coronavirus infections from social gatherings have increased. A cluster is defined as the occurrence of five or more epidemiologically linked cases within 14 days of one another. The link could be through common residence, sports team, fraternal organization membership or similar gatherings.

Data from the report show…

According to the latest survey by the Nashville-based LifeWay Research Center, the majority of Protestant churches in America have held in-person services in September but attendance has not been the same as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey, which was released Tuesday, found that 87 percent of Protestant pastors in the U.S. say their church met in person in September, while 13 percent did not.

Additionally, 60 percent of African American Protestant pastors said that their congregations did not physically meet in September.

LifeWay Research also found that 31 percent of mainline pastors are more likely to have physically gathered in September while 7 percent of evangelical pastors did not.

Regarding denominational groups, Methodists (22 percent) and Presbyterian/Reformed (23 percent) are more likely to have not met in person as opposed to Lutherans (12 percent), pastors in the Restorationist movement (10 percent), or Baptists (9 percent).

Scott McConnell, the executive director of the LifeWay Research, explained that while “more and more churches across the U.S. have found ways to meet again, things are not back to normal.”

“The impact of regulations, caution and hardships mean more than 1 in 10 churches are still not meeting in person for any type of worship service,” he noted. “Churches are living organisms, and when more than a third…