Posted on 05/04/2014 4:50:35 AM PDT by Gamecock
Bishop Gene Robinson, whose 2003 election as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop rocked Anglican Communion, has announced his divorce from his longtime partner and husband.
Robinson, who retired in 2013 as the Bishop of New Hampshire, and his partner of 25 years, Mark Andrew, were married in a private civil union in 2008. The announcement was made public Saturday (May 3) in a statement to the Diocese of New Hampshire.
“As you can imagine, this is a difficult time for us — not a decision entered into lightly or without much counseling,” Robinson wrote in a letter. “We ask for your prayers, that the love and care for each other that has characterized our relationship for a quarter century will continue in the difficult days ahead.”
He explained his views on marriage and divorce further in a column for the Daily Beast.
“It is at least a small comfort to me, as a gay rights and marriage equality advocate, to know that like any marriage, gay and lesbian couples are subject to the same complications and hardships that afflict marriages between heterosexual couples,” Robinson wrote.
Hundreds of parishes left the Episcopal Church in protest of his controversial consecration.
“Whenever you choose to or are called into living a public life, one of the prices you pay for that is public scrutiny, so it’s not surprising that people will pay attention to this,” said Susan Russell, an Episcopal priest at All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., and past-president of the LGBT advocacy group Integrity USA.
Robinson, 66, is now a fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.
“My belief in marriage is undiminished by the reality of divorcing someone I have loved for a very long time, and will continue to love even as we separate,” Robinson wrote in his column. “Love can endure, even if a marriage cannot.”
Due to changes in New Hampshire laws on same-sex marriage, Robinson became legally married to his partner when they didn’t opt out of the change in state law, according to Russell.
In 2012, the Episcopal Church voted to allow bishops to permit priests to bless same-sex marriages. Russell said further discussion about the church’s canon law and prayer book in relation to LBGT concerns will be held at the denomination’s convention next year.
Robinson went public with his sexual identity and divorce from his wife in 1986. He has since been open about the heavy toll he has faced under public scrutiny. Four years ago, he underwent treatment for alcoholism.
Robinson declined to speak further in an interview.
Critics say Robinson’s actions defied scriptural authority and thousands of years of Christian tradition. His divorce could fuel the fire, said Douglas LeBlanc, an Episcopalian who reported on Robinson’s consecration when he was an editor at Christianity Today.
“I’m sure there might be some conservatives who might say, ‘We told you so all along, if you depart from church teachings on homosexuality, you’re opening the door to all kinds of chaos,’” LeBlanc said. “In many ways, I think you are. But I think it’s imperative to say, the House of Bishops is not lacking on heterosexual sin.”
The Episcopal Church’s deliberations on same-sex marriage will likely continue regardless of Robinson’s divorce, LeBlanc said. Some, though, might seize on the news of his divorce.
“People will perhaps rub his nose in this for the rest of his life when he’s debating folks on the sexuality wars,” LeBlanc said. “It probably won’t shock a lot of people and will sadden a lot of people, too.”
Robinson is no longer the only openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Mary D. Glasspool was consecrated in Los Angeles in 2010.
In the past decade, the Episcopal Church followed the decline in other mainline Protestant denominations and lost about 10 percent of its members. It had about 1.8 million members in 2012, the last year for which statistics are available.
I have a hard time calling this a divorce when I don’t believe it to be a marriage.
Surprise, surprise surprise.
/Naught
“Husband”? i think not.
How about “accomplice “?
There was no marriage, hence no divorce. You can’t undo something that couldn’t possibly be done in the first place.
LOL
First Johnny and now this. Say, did you see Johnny announcing his pick on NBC yesterday at Churchill Downs? Fabulous hat! Seriously, this “bishop” and his “church” need prayer, and lots of it.
Yep. There was no marriage so there can be no divorce, no matter how hard the leftists try to spin it.
He abandoned his wife and children and now he is playing divorce with his gay lover.
How about “accomplice “?
Or "co-pervert"?
The ECUSA started the decent into Hell some time before I left. I was the senior warden of the oldest Episcopal church in west Tennessee, established in 1832.
The gays decided that it was the piece de resistance for them.
It, along with the ECUSA, and the national cahedral, fell into God only knows what.
I now affiliate with the Roman Catholic church.
I first attended in Slovakia, but now in the Philippines.
Johnny who?
So Vickie Gene is now ensconced in the D.C. “Center for American Progress”. That tribe of lefty are worth a Google tour. Sample:
“On average, 33,000 Americans are killed with guns each year, and the burden of this violence falls disproportionately on young people.”
“young people”? Take a guess...
IIRC, his ex wife and children attended their “marriage”.
Asking for our prayers??? For what exactly? Forgiveness for their sins? Only reason that comes to mind
This is nothing that couldn’t be solved by boiling both of these degenerate evil communist faggots in oil couldn’t solve.
We were church hunting and I had never been saved. We heard about this travesty and moved on to try a non-denominational church. I heard the Word during the first service and was saved that day.
Pretty sorry that someone gets saved for leaving a church....great for me though.
Johnny Weir, the former “men’s” figure-skating champion and current transvestite that NBC felt compelled to put on the air in yesterday’ Kentucky Derby brodcast.
Little Johnny Weir was all decked out in a lovely white dress and a sensational Derby-appropriate hat, as he giggled along with the rest of the girls. The reporter pretended that there was nothing at all unusual.
I fast-forwarded through the rest of the broadcast, picking it up again right at post time, and turning it off three minutes later.
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