Gay Bishop Plans His Civil Union Rite By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: April 25, 2008Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal prelate whose consecration led conservatives to split from the church, said in an interview on Thursday that he and his partner of 20 years were planning a civil union ceremony to be held in his home church in the diocese of New Hampshire in June.
Bishop 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 only once every 10 years.
He planned his civil union for June, he said, because he wanted to provide some legal protection to his partner and his children before he left for England for the conference. Bishop Robinson has received death threats, and he wore a bulletproof vest under his vestments at his consecration in 2003.
“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.”
Bishop Robinson will not be attending the Lambeth Conference’s official sessions with his more than 800 fellow bishops. He was excluded from participating by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who, as leader of the Church of England, is responsible for issuing the invitations.
The archbishop came under pressure from conservative bishops who warned that they would boycott the conference if Bishop Robinson attended. And recent efforts by three American bishops to negotiate a compromise that would have allowed him to attend in a “diminished capacity” failed.
Bishop Robinson initially rejected, but has now accepted, the idea that he will spend the conference days in the Marketplace, an adjunct bazaar where church advocacy groups and purveyors of Christian merchandise promote their causes and wares. He said he would position himself in the Marketplace and at several evening events to make his case about how gay relationships are compatible with Christianity.
“My hope,” he said, “is that even some of the more negative bishops will be encouraged by the American participants to come with them and to see that I don’t have horns, or I don’t wear a dress or I don’t fit any of the stereotypes that are often held by people who don’t really know gay people, and in fact will see how normal I am, and to hear about the incredibly normal life I have as a bishop in my diocese.”
In the last five years, conservatives in the Anglican Communion have threatened schism ever since the American church’s General Convention, its highest governing body, consented to the election of Bishop Robinson, and refused to issue a blanket prohibition of same-sex blessings.
It is up to the bishop of each diocese to decide whether to permit such blessings. Bishop Robinson, after consulting with a council in his diocese, has approved his own ceremony.
Bishop Robinson said he was surprised at another controversy that arose last year when he endorsed Senator Barack Obama before the New Hampshire primary. Some voters in the state said religious leaders should stay out of politics. Bishop Robinson said he had talked three times with Mr. Obama, of Illinois, and advised him on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.
Bishop Robinson spoke in an interview at The New York Times, and is promoting his new book, “In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God” (Seabury Books). The publicity tour will take him to a few unexpected places: a conference of black church leaders and the Hay Festival, a literary gathering in England.
In England, the Anglican church has plenty of gay clergymen, he said, but the difference with the church in the United States is that they are in the closet.
“I myself have probably met 300 partnered gay clergy there,” Bishop Robinson said. “I have met bishops who will go and have a lovely dinner with a priest and his gay partner, and then warn the priest that if the dinner becomes public, the bishop will be your worst enemy.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/us/25bishop.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1209212238-6CBHtKuXWWGfJLDdkw+r2QWatch Video: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/gay-bishop-plans-to-marry/2645441866
UPDATE: Bishop Robinson expects death threats to himself and his partner due to his wish to marry religiously.
Discussion:--> Should same-sex marriage be allowed to have a religious ceremony?
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