Bay Windows - January 1, 2004
Laura Kiritsy, lkiritsy@baywindows.com.

But the gay wave began on June 6, when the people of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire elected a mild-mannered 56-year-old, the Rt. Rev V. Gene Robinson, to be its new bishop. An openly gay man in a long-term committed relationship, Robinson immediately became a lightning rod for controversy within his church - indeed, within all of Christianity - and an object of intense worldwide media attention. By his steadfast refusal to succumb to conservative factions within his church and the Worldwide Anglican Communion of which it is a part, Robinson has also become a beacon of hope for untold numbers of gay people struggling to find a place within churches that often condemn them for who they are.

The timing of Robinson's election during a period of rapid advancement on the mainstream gay rights front has made him a cultural reference point, a status Robinson said "feels very odd of course, and some days it feels like I'm in a movie, rather than being like my life.

"But I think I always knew that if this were to ever happen it would certainly be newsworthy," he adds. "I don't think anyone expected it to be a part of this wider movement. I've been saying to people in the church that, you know, I think God is doing a new thing in the world. And God is doing that thing in Canada, and [in] our own Supreme Court and [in] Massachusetts and also in New Hampshire. So I really do believe that we're moving toward full citizenship in this nation and full citizenship or membership in the church."

But before conservative Episcopalians and Anglicans were whipped into a frenzy over a gay bishop, before the media descended and before the FBI began investigating threats on his life prior to his Nov. 2 consecration, Robinson's election was merely a case of New Hampshire Episcopalians entrusting the leadership of their diocese to the most qualified candidate for the job.

"We didn't elect a gay bishop," the Rev. Hays Junkin, president of the committee that selected the candidates, told Bay Windows in June. "We elected a good bishop who happens to be gay."

"It's an astounding thing to be called to such an office by people who have known you for 20 years and I think of all that's happened to me that has been the most gratifying and just astounding," Robinson recalls of the day of his election. "For the people of New Hampshire my being gay was but a footnote because they have known me in so many roles and so many ways, working in their congregations and so on, they don't think of me first in terms of being gay, they think of me as being me."

The disappointing thing, said Robinson, was that, "the moment after the election, when it became suddenly a national and international issue, then no one cared, or seemed to care, whether or not I was skilled or faithful or pastoral or whatever. The only thing that seemed to matter at that point was my orientation. And that feels demeaning. And not because I'm in any way ashamed of my orientation, but because we are all so much more than our orientations."

What's gotten lost in all the controversy over Robinson's sexual orientation is his ministry within the Episcopal Church. Robinson has served as Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Province of New England since 1983. In 1988 he was appointed the chief administrator for outgoing Bishop Douglas E. Theuner. Among other achievements, Robinson developed and implemented clergy support groups in roughly 20 dioceses and initiated "Fresh Start," a mentoring program for all clergy in new positions. His ministry has also focused on mediating congregational and clergy conflict. He is the co-author of three AIDS education curricula for youth and adults and has done AIDS work in Africa.

Robinson has weathered the controversy and the personal attacks - even from members of his own church - by turning the other cheek, but he admits some of the rancor has been disturbing. "It really is amazing to me that the people who feel free to criticize, condemn, disparage [and] discard me know virtually nothing about me," he says. "But I think that's the nature of the issue. That is to say, people argue about the issue and I think what really changes people's minds and hearts is knowing a person, so they're not talking about an issue but about a person. And I've had such fun here in New Hampshire and beyond winning hearts one by one as they get to know me as a person, as opposed to an issue."

What changes people's hearts and minds, says Robinson, is focusing on commonalities rather than differences. "I think gay and lesbian people share with people of color and lots of other discriminated- against minorities the status of being other," he asserts. "And when someone meets a gay or lesbian person and finally realizes that we have so much more in common than that which separates us, all of those walls and all of those distinctions between us and them tend to dissolve. I think that's true for other minorities as well, and the fact of the matter is as human beings we just have far more in common than that which separates us."

While he acknowledges that the personal attacks have been hurtful, he draws strength from an obvious source. "I guess God has helped me know who I am; and to know that I am loved beyond my wildest imaginings by this God of ours, and in comparison to that, what anybody might say doesn't really hold much water," says Robinson. "And I know who I am and I know myself to be a child of God and that's pretty unshakable in my way of being in the world."

From the time of his election to its ratification at the Church's General Convention in August and beyond his Nov. 2 consecration before an audience of more than 2,500 people, there has been talk of schism within the Episcopal Church and the Worldwide Anglican Communion from conservative factions that believe Robinson is unfit to be a bishop because he is gay. Most recently, a handful of Episcopal dioceses from around the country formed a network to protest his consecration; the group wants the Episcopal Church to reverse its decision. Despite the enormous pressure, Robinson did not waver in his belief that he was doing the right thing.

"I always tell people to be very cautious of anyone who claims to know the mind of God," he explained. "And so I don't think anyone can know beyond any shadow of a doubt what God wants them to do, but as best I could determine I knew that God meant for me to be doing this. And at the same time when you receive a letter from the archbishop of some province in the Anglican Communion begging you to stand down and so on, you have to take that seriously. But every time I took that to God in prayer my resolve to stay in this process and to accept this calling to be the bishop by the people of New Hampshire, I just emerged from that ever stronger. I can honestly say that I don't think I ever seriously came close to standing down. It has always felt like the right thing to be doing.

"And while I regret whatever pain and difficulty it's caused some people, this has always been what God has called me to do," Robinson adds. "I think the Church nor any organization nor any human being really, has ever grown without some measure of pain. If the story of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and Easter means anything, it means that the only way to any kind of an Easter is through some kind of a Good Friday experience. And I don't know why that should come as news to Christians. It seems kind of obvious to me. And it doesn't mean you go looking for a Good Friday. It means that if you're actually trying to live out the will of God you're going to get in trouble for it. And the chances are pretty good you'll pay a price. The good news is that we follow this guy Jesus, who knows all about that."

While some would hope to turn back the clock on his consecration, Robinson is looking to the future. He's spent the past couple months meeting with New Hampshire congregations and engaging them in his 10-month plan of "re-imagining the diocese."

"That is to say we have called together this committee of people who is going to ask the question, 'If we were to be doing God's will as the Church in New Hampshire, what would our priorities be and how would we organize ourselves for that ministry, not being bound by any way we've ever done anything in the past?" Robinson explains. "And we're really going to build the diocese from the ground up. And I have no idea where that will lead us, but I have no question if we allow ourselves to be led, we'll be where God wants us to go."

Needless to say, Robinson and his partner of 15 years, Mark Andrew, are still adjusting to his new job. "I would say for the last couple of months I've hardly seen my partner," he laughs. "No, that's not quite true. But yeah, it is very demanding and I must say ... everybody wants to see the new bishop and I've already gotten around to over half our congregations since the election. And I know this, first there'll be a lot of adjustments for me in my job but also for me and Mark. One of the realities is I'm busy every weekend," says Robinson, who recently spent a weekend visiting St. James Church in Keene, where Andrew was warmly received by the congregation. "I mean people just went way out of their way to greet him and make him feel welcomed. It's just astounding really. You know it wasn't very long ago that it was hard to find a self-affirming openly gay or lesbian couple being welcomed anywhere, never mind in a church. And you know, to see him just so warmly embraced is just really amazing."

Robinson has some advice for other gay and lesbian people looking to be embraced by their churches as he and his partner have: "I think that gay and lesbian people, Christians in particular I think, have to make sure that we don't let the church distort what God has to say. And we can't just disregard those seven troublesome verses of scripture," he says, referring to the biblical condemnations of homosexual sex often wielded by fundamentalists.

"I think if we really are serious about looking into what they mean, what they meant when they were written, what they meant to people who heard them back then, we'll discover that they actually don't apply to what we're talking about today, which are faithful, monogamous, lifelong committed relationships between people of the same sex. ... And so I think we can't disregard scripture, I think we have to go right straight through it. In fact we've let the fundamentalists hijack that book. You know that's our Bible, too, and we don't need to be afraid of it because it doesn't say anything about us that would hurt us."

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