[Ed. Note: Gene Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire, will be in the news a great deal in the next several weeks. Today he is beginning a book tour and in June, he and his partner are having a civil union. Shortly after this, he will go to the Lambeth Conference, where although not invited to attend the meeting, he will "hold court" in venues around the conference. He is the object of much curiosity. Cheryl M. Wetzel]
April 25, 2008
Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the gay Episcopal prelate whose consecration in 2003 led conservatives to split from the church, told The New York Times on Thursday that he and his partner of 20 years were planning a civil union ceremony to be held in his home church in New Hampshire in June.
Robinson said that by scheduling the ceremony for June, he did not intend to further inflame conservatives just before the Anglican Communion gathers in August in Cambridge, England, for the Lambeth Conference, which happens once every 10 years.
"We could have, I suppose, just gone to the town clerk and had that signed," he said, "but, you know, I'm a religious person, and every major event in my life has been marked with some kind of liturgy and giving thanks to God."
Robinson will not be attending the conference's official sessions with his more than 800 fellow bishops.
RE: Book Tour
Episcopal News Service April 25, 2008
A sabbatical last fall was the impetus for the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson's book "In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God," by Seabury Books. The foreword was written by Anglican Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu.
"The title of course comes from the storm that I have found myself in for the past five years," said Robinson, the Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. "But it's more about the eye of the storm. The tiny calm place I feel God has brought me to in the middle of that storm."
Robinson, the first openly gay priest to be elected bishop in the Anglican Communion, spoke about his book at an April 23 book signing at the Catalyst Café and Books in New York City. He described it as a "kind of spiritual memoir about what makes me tick."
"It's about the fuller gospel that is part of my life," he said. "The press has sort of painted me as a one issue person, but actually what I'm passionate about is the whole Gospel. Lesbian and gay issues are just one of them."
Robinson described his feelings after learning of his exclusion from the Lambeth Conference set for Canterbury, England, July 16-August 4, as "pretty awful." He credited a conversation shortly thereafter with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as helping him find comfort.
Since that time Robinson said he now "looks forward" to Lambeth from the perspective that if Jesus were around for this conference and had to chose between being on the inside with the higher ups or on the fringes with whoever else was going to be there, "I'm not sure that he wouldn't chose to be on the fringes."
"So I'm looking forward to meeting and talking with anybody that is willing to talk and let whatever light of Christ that is in me shine and whoever has the eyes to see it and ears to hear it will do so," he stated.
