Bishop Stacy F. Sauls
Founder and President
The Right Reverend Stacy F. Sauls is the founder and president of Love Must Act. An Episcopal bishop, Sauls has a long track record of excellence in ministry and mission, as well as in his administrative, managerial and corporate leadership.
From 2011-16, Bishop Sauls served as Chief Operating Officer of The Episcopal Church, a two million-member Christian denomination with a presence in 17 countries around the world. In that capacity, Bishop Sauls gained widespread acclaim for renewing the Church's focus on missionary service and its presence in and among the poor. In particular, he initiated groundbreaking new programs in world mission, domestic poverty, racial justice and reconciliation, and financial sustainability for the Church in the developing world. In 2015, Bishop Sauls was unanimously commended by the Church's Executive Council (its Board of Directors) for his leadership toward record-breaking budgetary surpluses while simultaneously expanding the Church's missional and programmatic footprint.
Prior to Bishop Sauls' tenure as the Church's Chief Operating Officer, he served as the Sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, KY from 2000-11. His episcopacy there was recognized for his focused and creative work on mission, and his vision in the context of a smaller diocese in Eastern Kentucky, which contains 14 of the 100 poorest counties in the United States. Bishop Sauls guided the diocese to address issues and needs of the poor, especially in Appalachia, through education, healthcare, and housing initiatives. Known particularly for his work with youth, Bishop Sauls founded Lexington's celebrated Reading Camp program to help children from Appalachia in need of intensive remedial literacy work, and to help other Christians experience the transformational love of God lived out through mission. Based on Bishop Sauls' leadership, the Reading Camp program has been replicated in multiple other other communities across the United States and has spread to South Africa and Liberia. The lessons of that success helped inspire Bishop Sauls' vision for Love Must Act.
Prior to his ordained ministry, Bishop Sauls pursued a legal career, graduating from Furman University in Greenville, SC, where his thesis examined the political involvement of Southern clergy, and from the University of Virginia School of Law. He worked as a corporate lawyer, most notably with the law department of Delta Air Lines. From there he attended and graduated from the General Theological Seminary in New York City and was ordained a priest in 1989 at St. George’s Church in Griffin, GA. He continued his parish ministry at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Atlanta and St. Thomas’ Church in Savannah, GA prior to his election as Bishop of Lexington.
Bishop Sauls has extensive media experience as a result both of having served as international spokesman for The Episcopal Church and having authored numerous articles, op-eds, pamphlets and presentations. He has received numerous Polly Bond Awards for his column in the Advocate, the newspaper of the Diocese of Lexington, and is the author of the 2019 book The Women of Advent: Reflections on the Coming of Life and the Priority of the Poor.
Bishop Sauls is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the District of Columbia Bar, and the Ecclesiastical Law Society (United Kingdom). He has been a trustee of the General Theological Seminary and the University of the South, both of which have presented him with a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa. He earned a masters degree in Canon Law from Cardiff University in 2009, and served for nearly five years on the Board of Directors of Episcopal Relief and Development.
Bishop Sauls and his wife Ginger, a retired teacher, are the parents of two adult sons and the extremely proud grandparents of Sophie. They live in Lexington, KY.
ANDREW WOOTSON JOYCE
Vice President and Director of Operations
A cradle Episcopalian, Andrew Joyce has strong ties to the Anglican Church, both domestically and abroad. Before joining Love Must Act, he worked in international development programs for The Episcopal Church while being based in the Philippines. As a lifelong member of Christ Church, Bowling Green, KY, he has experience in the local, regional, and national life of The Episcopal Church and its programs. He brings not only international development experience but also the invaluable perspective of the millennial generation to his work.
Upon completing his studies, at the University of Kentucky in 2012, Joyce served for a year as a missionary in the Philippines for The Episcopal Church’s Young Adult Service Corps. During this time, Joyce oversaw the re-visioning, structuring, implementation, and operation of the Episcopal Care Foundation’s Demonstration Farm and Learning Center. As the director of the Learning Center, he was responsible for the budgeting and enhancement of the center’s financial sustainability, the development of the course curriculum, and the nurturing of international partnerships. Specifically, he was responsible for the initial partnership document preparation, which included, but was not limited to, the partnership terms of reference, goals, objectives, outputs, outcomes, timeline, and the corresponding monitoring and evaluation plan.
From 2013-2017, Joyce worked as a consultant for Episcopal Relief & Development, with his primary scope of work revolving around Asset Based Community Development training and project implementation, livelihood program inception, planning and implementation, partnership development, and monitoring and evaluation. In this role, he was based in Manila, Philippines, which allowed him to spend quality time on the ground with the programmatic partners and beneficiaries. He also worked extensively on Episcopal Relief & Development projects throughout Asia. He is well-versed in and well-known among The Episcopal Church’s Pacific and South East Asia partners in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Myanmar, Hong Kong, and Korea. Together with Bishop Sauls, he has also developed extensive networks in Japan, including through the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Japanese Anglican Church.