Disgraced Homosexual Priest Had Deep Anglican Roots

By David W. Virtue, DD

www.virtueonline.org 

May 5, 2026

Anglican bishops who should have known better must now face the uncomfortable fact that they allowed an allegedly non-celibate homosexual priest to officiate, speak, and pass himself off as a theologian and cultural spokesperson across some of conservative evangelicalism's most prominent platforms. The reckoning, long overdue, has finally arrived.

Sam Allberry — British-born pastor, apologist, and author — used Anglican and other platforms to ingratiate his views into the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, and The Gospel Coalition (TGC), before admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a man. The disclosure has brought down his ministry and embarrassed at least three Anglican bishops who, by their own enthusiastic association with him, demonstrated a staggering failure of discernment.

Oxford Roots and Early Formation

Allberry's Anglican connections run deep. He studied theology at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford — a historic Anglican theological college — which gave him the clerical credibility he would later trade on with considerable success. He cultivated a carefully constructed public identity as a man who experienced same-sex attraction but remained celibate, insisting that his sexual feelings were not part of his identity in Christ. That positioning made him a uniquely marketable voice across Reformed evangelical networks for well over a decade — orthodox enough for conservatives, sympathetic enough for progressives, and apparently unimpeachable to those who chose not to look too closely.

Canon Theologian in the ACNA

Upon moving to the United States, Allberry was appointed Canon Theologian — a formal theological adviser — in the Anglican Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast, under the authority of Bishop Clark Lowenfield, whose diocese covers Texas and Louisiana. He also served as Associate Pastor at Immanuel Nashville, an independent congregation founded in 2008 by Reformed evangelical theologian Ray Ortlund, who co-authored a book with Allberry and serves alongside him as Pastor Emeritus. Immanuel is also part of the Acts 29 Network, a Reformed evangelical church-planting network. That Allberry held simultaneous positions of influence across Anglican, Reformed, and evangelical institutional structures speaks to how thoroughly he had embedded himself — and how many gatekeepers failed to ask hard questions.

VirtueOnline reached out to Bishop Lowenfield requesting information on Allberry's current status in the diocese in light of the new revelations, but received no response.

Allberry has since resigned as Canon Theologian. However, ACNA Executive Director Kate Harris confirmed to reporters that he remains affiliated with the denomination: "Only a formal disciplinary charge and/or sentencing affects a priest's ordination status within the ACNA," she said, adding that Allberry "is in regular communication with his Bishop, The Rt. Reverend Clark Lowenfield." As of this writing, no formal clergy misconduct proceedings have been initiated against him within the ACNA — a fact that will strike many as deeply inadequate given the circumstances.

The Mere Anglicanism Conference

Allberry was a featured speaker at the 2024 Mere Anglicanism conference in Charleston, South Carolina, held under the authority of Bishop Chip Edgar of the Diocese of South Carolina. The same conference became notorious for a separate controversy, when the Rev. Calvin Robinson was removed from the speaker roster — reportedly after a browbeating session that Robinson himself likened to being called into a headmaster's office — for his views on the ordination of women. The irony is damning: Robinson was cancelled while Allberry remained most welcome. A subsequent panel discussion, from which Robinson had been removed, failed to produce a single voice willing to forthrightly state that attending a same-sex wedding would be wrong. That Allberry was present on that panel and said nothing definitive tells its own story.

Living Out and the Celibacy Framework

Living Out, the British ministry Allberry co-founded, was built on the premise that same-sex attracted Christians could live faithfully by embracing celibacy and finding their identity in Christ rather than in their sexuality. The organisation became one of the most influential voices in conservative evangelical and Anglican circles on questions of homosexuality and the church, its resources widely used in Church of England parishes, ACNA congregations, and Reformed churches alike.

Allberry was its most visible face — the living proof, as it were, that the celibate path was not only theologically correct but personally liveable. That proof has now collapsed. The revelations about his conduct strike at the very heart of what Living Out exists to promote — not merely as an institutional embarrassment, but as a profound pastoral betrayal of the many same-sex attracted Christians who looked to him as a credible model.

Living Out's response was notably more measured than that of TGC or Immanuel's elders, stating that his "many past contributions retain their value" and that the organisation "exists because of people like Sam, and for people like Sam." It is a careful attempt to separate the messenger from the message. Whether those he counselled toward celibacy will find that separation convincing is another matter entirely.

Dismissed from Immanuel Nashville

The elders of Immanuel Nashville announced that Allberry had been found to have engaged in "an inappropriate relationship with an adult man in 2022," constituting "a serious breach of trust and a failure to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel." The elders had first been made aware of the relationship in spring 2024 but initially determined it was not disqualifying. In January 2026 they received new information that had not previously been disclosed, reopened their investigation, and unanimously ruled him disqualified from ministry. Allberry agreed with the decision and resigned. That the elders had knowledge of the relationship two years before acting — and allowed Allberry to continue in ministry in the interim — raises questions of its own that have yet to be adequately answered.

In the wake of the announcement, TGC immediately began removing Allberry's content from its platforms. The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, where he had served as a Fellow, also accepted his resignation. Cru and its FamilyLife ministry, which had featured Allberry on 18 episodes of FamilyLife Today, announced they would remove all content featuring him, stating that his conduct was "inconsistent with the biblical convictions our ministries teach and uphold." The institutional scramble to distance was swift — though notably less swift than the years of platforming that preceded it.

The Broader Anglican Reckoning

The question now hanging over the ACNA is one of accountability — not just for Allberry, but for the bishops who elevated him. Several diocesan leaders platformed this man not despite questions about his theological positioning, but apparently without subjecting those questions to any serious scrutiny whatsoever. If the ACNA cannot exercise more discernment than the broader evangelical establishment that was equally taken in, its claim to a more rigorous orthodoxy is difficult to sustain.

Allberry's Anglican connections were ultimately threefold: his formation at Wycliffe Hall Oxford, his ordination and canonical role within the ACNA, and his platform at major Anglican gatherings. He has resigned the Canon Theologian role but retains his ordained status — a situation that, in the absence of any formal disciplinary proceedings, looks set to remain unresolved. Anglican bishops who opened their pulpits, their conferences, and their dioceses to Sam Allberry owe their people not just an explanation, but a thorough examination of how their vetting processes failed so completely and for so long.

Michael Clary, a Baptist theologian argues that the "same-sex attraction is not sinful" framework that Allberry promoted was theologically flawed from the start and that the church needs to call same-sex desire sin to be mortified, not an identity to be managed.”

Source: Religion News Service, The Roys Report, WORLD Magazine

Update:

STATEMENT FROM BISHOP CLARK LOWENFIELD CONCERNING SAM ALLBERRY

May 06, 2026

The Rev. Sam Allberry served as a Canon Theologian of the Anglican Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast from May 26, 2021, until his resignation on March 1, 2026, as part of a transition of Episcopal leadership within the Diocese.

During this time, he also served as an Associate Pastor at Immanuel Church-Nashville, a non-denominational congregation not affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America. On May 2, 2026, the leadership of Immanuel Church decided to disqualify Pastor Allberry from ministry following new information about an inappropriate relationship disclosed before his ministry at the church. The Rev. Allberry subsequently resigned from his role at Immanuel Church. He was still canonically resident with the Anglican Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast. On May 4, 2026, Bishop Clark WP Lowenfield, Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese, inhibited The Rev. Allberry from all ministry within the Anglican Church.

On May 5, 2026, Sam Allberry submitted his confession that he has committed conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense under Title IV, Canon 2, section 1 of the Canons of the Anglican Church in North America, and willingly submitted himself to the discipline of the Church pursuant to Title IV, Canon 3, section. On the same date, Bishop Lowenfield deposed him from sacred ministry.

“We are deeply grieved and broken-hearted for and with our brother in Christ, Sam, “Bishop Clark said. “And we are committed to see him through a Godly season of repentance, reconciliation, and restoration within the Body of Christ.”

The Rt. Rev. Clark Lowenfield is the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast