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It all began on a hot southern summer day on Indigo Creek Trail much like an episode of one of those to catch a predator shows that are so popular these days and leave honest folk with their mouths slack from incredulity and disgust with the only difference being that instead of a perp coming to a decoy house stocked with fresh made lemonade or sweet tea, cameras, and an moralizing media finger wagger the authorities were instead coming to the house of one Frank Lombard and his male house mate. Frank was a successful gay man so much so...

President-elect Barack Obama promised to make his inaugural events the most inclusive ever -- and he is making good on his promise. Just over two weeks after gay rights activists condemned his choice of Saddleback pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the ceremony itself, the President-elect and his inaugural committee announced the choice of Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly-homosexual Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, to open the mass event at the Lincoln Memorial with prayer. Predictably, the committee insisted that the invitation has nothing to do with the furor over naming Warren, who angered homosexual activists and their...

Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the only openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, has been asked to give the invocation at the first official inaugural activity, a welcome event with the president-elect on Sunday afternoon on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Robinson had been critical of president-elect Barack Obama for asking Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor who encouraged voters to overturn same-sex marriage in California, to deliver the invocation at the inauguration. Episcopal Cafe has an e-mail from Robinson: "I am writing to tell you that President-Elect Obama and the Inaugural Committee have invited me to...

A conservative Christian activist says it's a sad omen for the Obama administration and the United States that Barack Obama has been seeking guidance from the Episcopal Church's first openly homosexual bishop. The Times of London reports that the president-elect sought out New Hampshire homosexual bishop Vicki Gene Robinson for advice three times during his presidential campaign. Robinson, whose ordination in the Episcopal Church has caused a deep rift within the Anglican Communion, was reportedly sought out by Obama to discuss what it feels like to be "first." Robinson notes in their three private conversations, Obama voiced his support for...

Now Bishop Robinson intends to make the Catholic Church his new mission field for his crusade.In a report first confirmed by the Associated Press and confirmed in numerous Press and Media venues, Bishop Robinson has acknowledged that he led a “confidential retreat” of 75 Roman Catholic Priests in 2005 at which he encouraged their open dissent from the teaching of the Church and their overt disobedience to their vowed celibacy. His intention now seems to be to take his self styled libertine revolution into the Catholic Church.

CANTERBURY, UK, August 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Gene Robinson has castigated a fellow Anglican bishop for publicly disapproving of his crusade to inculcate "gay" values into the Anglican Communion. In an interview with SXNews, an Australian homosexual news website festooned with explicit sexual advertising, Robinson complained that the Sydney archdiocese is "bigoted" because its archbishop, Dr. Peter Jensen, boycotted the Lambeth conference, held this month in Canterbury, England. Gene Robinson is the active homosexual whose consecration as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire caused a crisis in the global Anglican Communion. He called the Sydney archbishop's defence of Christianity "ironic" given...

CANTERBURY, England -- Gene Robinson's bodyguard didn't have to worry this time. The 40-year-old man who rushed over to Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the worldwide Anglican church, just wanted to shake his hand. "Thank you for bringing the church into the 21st century, for moving things forward," said Martin MacCiarrain, a government employee. The bodyguard, a retired policeman who trails the American bishop because of death threats, eased back. On Sunday during a sermon Robinson delivered in London, a long-haired man had suddenly leapt up screaming at the American bishop: "Repent! Repent!" Since Robinson, 61, was consecrated...

History's humongous wheel turns and turns and turns again. Over time, mud and sludge accumulate on even the sprucest institutions. Take the 500-year-old Anglican family of churches, Christianity's third-largest, after Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy. With Anglicanism's biggest family event under way - the every-10-years gathering of bishops and archbishops in England - what the world sees, accurately or not, is a family in moral and spiritual disarray. --snip--For all that, Anglicanism's public troubles proceed from the takeover of Western Anglicanism by theological activists whose purpose is the remolding of Christianity into something less like the old-time religion than like the...

The gay bishop of New Hampshire should resign in order to save the Anglican Communion, a senior African archbishop said today. The call came from the Rt Rev Dr Daniel Deng, the archbishop of Sudan, and followed a strongly worded statement that accused the US Episcopal church of exposing Anglicans to ridicule and damaging their credibility in a multi-religious environment. African bishops who signed the statement rejecting homosexual practice said they could not accept it as part of their church. They reiterated their opposition to developments in the US and Canada, where gay clergy are ordained and where same-sex relationships...

He maintains he is following the Holy Spirit in calling for this radical revision of Christian orthodoxy. Yet, he argues against the clear teaching of the Scriptures and unbroken teaching of the Christian tradition that reserve sexual activity to the loving, lifelong marriage bond between a married man and woman. Clearly, Bishop Gene Robinson views himself as a liberator, and he is doing more to foster the splintering of the Anglican Communion worldwide singlehandedly than anyone else. He seems to take delight in both his celebrity and his self appointed task. Now, the controversialist crusader for homosexual equivalency with marriage...

Hardline Church leaders have formally declared the end of the worldwide Anglican Communion, saying they can no longer be associated with liberals who tolerate homosexual clergy. The traditionalists dealt a serious blow to Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, by claiming that he can no longer hold the Church together. They warned that the Church was gripped by its most serious crisis since the Reformation. It could only be saved by the repentance of the Americans who triggered the row by ordaining a homosexual bishop, the Rt Rev Gene Robinson, five years ago. The formal pronouncement of the schism...

BOSTON (Reuters) - The openly gay U.S. Episcopal bishop at the center of the Anglican church's global battle over homosexuality, has entered into a civil union with his longtime partner at a private ceremony. About 120 guests gathered at St. Paul's Church in New Hampshire for Saturday's ceremony for Bishop Gene Robinson and his partner of more than 19 years, Mark Andrew. The event was kept private out of respect for next month's worldwide Anglican conference, Robinson's spokesman, Mike Barwell, said on Sunday.

LONDON, May 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Anglican Church is the perfect vehicle for creating a new “gay” Christianity by virtue of the fact that it is the only church that accepts the logical contradiction of asserting both the sanctity of human life and the existence of a right to abortion. Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, whose ordination to the episcopate has precipitated the ongoing schism between traditionally Christian Anglicans and its ultra-liberal, secularized branches, is in London to talk about his vision for the homosexual future of the Anglican Church. He was visiting and promoting his cause in preparation...

In a new book the Anglican clergyman explains why he wanted to formalise his 20 year relationship. “I always wanted to be a June bride.� As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew there'd be trouble. I'd just delivered an hour-long lecture on the relationship between religion and public discourse, and why religious fervour over homosexuality plays such a large and negative role in the securing of full civil rights for gay people. During the question-and-answer period, someone asked me about the forthcoming civil union between me and Mark, my partner of 20 years. The audience...

Citing fears of creating a controversy, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has refused to grant Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the right to preach or preside at the eucharist in England. Robinson received the news in an email yesterday morning. Sources familiar with the email say Williams cites the Windsor Report and recent statements from the Primates Meeting in refusing to grant Robinson permission to exercise his priestly functions during his current trip to England, or during the trip he plans during the Lambeth Conference in July and August. The Windsor Report does not discuss the ordination of...

I can't decide if Gene Robinson should be made an honorary member of Herman's Hermits (second verse same as the first) or just be named Crybaby of the Decade. Sure does a lot of book tours for someone who wants to just be a simple country bishop. Can't you just hear the heavy sigh? Robinson is in London to promote his new book, In The Eye of the Storm. It is a spiritual memoir aimed, he says, at showing that he is more than "a one issue guy". The last of its five sections, however, sets a course for the...

From the time Anglican pilgrims arrived in Jamestown, it's as if America and the Episcopal Church have been soul mates – for better or for worse. Now come the country's culture wars over sexuality, conservative versus liberal, change versus tradition. And the 2.4-million-member denomination that has given us more U.S. presidents than any other, along with its first-ever woman leader, is not being spared. Nearly five years after a gay priest was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, the fallout continues. One diocese has seceded from the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Dozens of congregations,...

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop announced he will have no official role in a meeting this summer of world Anglican leaders, saying restrictions that organizers wanted to place on his involvement had caused him "considerable pain." New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson had been told last year that he could not fully participate in the once-a-decade gathering in England, called the Lambeth Conference, as the world Anglican Communion sat on the brink of schism over his 2003 election. Still, Episcopal leaders had been negotiating with the Anglican Communion Office to allow him to join the event in some capacity....

LONDON - Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says her church has been unfairly singled out for criticism because it is honest about consecrating gay bishops. Jefferts Schori told BBC Radio 4's "PM" program that the New York-based church, which is the Anglican body in the U.S., is far from the only Anglican province that has a bishop with a same-sex partner. In 2003, Episcopalians elected the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, causing an uproar that has pushed the Anglican family toward a split. "He is certainly not alone in being a gay bishop; he's...

It was the last Sunday service at Christ Church. Unable to go "further in a church that continued in a false gospel," the entire congregation, including the rector and church leaders, will sever ties with the national Episcopal Church and reform under a new name: New Hope Anglican Church. One of the "Connecticut six," the half-dozen churches in the state diocese that disagree with national leadership on departure of scripture, including the appointment of a gay bishop, the congregation will trade its historic building on the town green for a free community room at the Thomaston Savings Bank around the...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Episcopal Church faces major tumult this week when an entire California diocese with more than 9,000 members decides whether to secede in an unprecedented protest over gay issues. The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno and consisting of nearly 50 churches in 14 counties, would be the first diocese to bolt from the U.S. branch of the 77-million-member global Anglican Communion if Saturday's final vote passes. The U.S. church and Anglicanism generally have been in upheaval since 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first bishop known...

In the lefty U.K. Guardian, columnist Andrew Brown laments the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury has failed in his attempt to keep the language of controversy cloudy enough to avert schism. He hankers after those bygone days when liberal ecclesiocrats were not subject to interrogation by importunate evangelicals, when doctrinal disagreements could be assigned to study groups and buried in endless committee work, and when (as he claims) people were obliged to "pretend to accept each others' viewpoint." No more. The Church of England consists almost entirely of people who think that many of their fellow Anglicans aren't real...

On the issue of same sex unions, I argued that our statement be reflective of what is true right now in the Episcopal Church: that while same sex blessings are not officially permitted in most dioceses, they are going on and will continue to go on as an appropriate pastoral response to our gay and lesbian members and their relationships. Earlier versions of our response contained both sides of this truth. I argued to keep both sides of that truth in the final version, providing the clarity asked for by the Primates. Others made the argument that to state that...

The mere fact that the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson is the Episcopal Church's first openly homosexual bishop ensures that he will be a media celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic. To a great extent, he has become a symbol to both conservatives and liberals in contemporary Christianity. To conservatives, Bishop Robinson represents a near-total theological meltdown. An entire universe of the theological principles and doctrines of orthodox Christianity must be jettisoned or redefined before an openly homosexual bishop becomes imaginable. In order for this to happen, the tradition of the church must be sidelined and the authority of Scripture...

I n a move that may be unprecedented for a New Hampshire religious leader, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson yesterday endorsed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop and among the best-known religious figures in the state, said he was endorsing as a private citizen and would not bring politics to the pulpit. "I'm looking for a healer, and I believe that Sen. Obama can be that," said Robinson, of Weare. A registered independent, Robinson said he had never before waded into politics publicly, but he said that in recent years, he's become convinced...

Robinson proposes marriage of Church and State? Gay Episcopal bishop endorses Obama Washington DC, Aug 3, 2007 / 10:31 am (CNA).- Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the nation's first openly gay Episcopal bishop, has given his endorsement to presidential hopeful Barack Obama, citing the Illinois Democrat's experience with racism and discrimination. Obama's campaign put out a news release announcing Robinson’s support. It identified Robinson as "a civil rights leader and a leading voice in the faith community." The bishop says he hopes to persuade Obama to embrace same-sex marriage. Obama supports civil unions and rights for gay couples, but...

The openly homosexual bishop whose ordination sparked the split in the Anglican Communion has claimed that the Church of England would come close to shutting down if it was forced to manage without gay clergy. The Bishop of New Hampshire in the US, the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, who is divorced and lives openly in partnership with a gay man, said that he found it mystifying that the mother Church of the Anglican Communion was unable to be honest about the number of gay clergy in its ranks. He said that many of the English Church’s clergy lived openly in...

At the law’s signing Governor Lynch said he believes that the civil unions will not "threaten" marriage – something that Bishop Robinson must also mistakenly believe. Perhaps Gov. Lynch and Bishop Robinson would do well to look across the ocean at Spain, where following the Socialist government's platform - that includes fast-track divorces and same-sex marriages - that country now has the distinguished award of leading Europe in divorces coupled with one of the world's lowest birthrates (ex-immigrants).

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) -- The openly gay Episcopal bishop at the center of the Anglican Church's global battle over homosexuality said Thursday he hopes to enter into a civil union with his partner next year. But New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson added that he wants to hold separate religious and legal ceremonies to set a precedent for how marriages and civil unions are performed in the United States. Next week, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch is expected to sign a bill that allows civil unions for same-sex couples, making his state the fourth in the nation to do so....

Gay Bishop Will Make Union with Partner Official http://www.beliefnet.com/story/217/story_21727_1.html Associated Press Concord, New Hampshire - The Rev. V. Gene Robinson became the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop. Now, he and his partner want to be among the first gay couples in New Hampshire to officially unite under a soon-to-be-signed civil unions law. New Hampshire is set to become the nation's fourth state to offer civil unions for gay couples after legislation approved by the state Senate on Thursday was sent to Gov. John Lynch, who has said he would sign it. "I think this moves us one step closer...

A split within the Episcopal Church has begun and is on its way to court -- something akin to "divorce court," it seems. More than 100 Episcopal parishes -- and some dioceses -- have either left the denomination or requested alternative oversight within the worldwide Anglican Communion. One of them is St. Stephen's Church in Heathsville, Va. "We left the Episcopal Church because we could no longer be under the leadership of people who have the attitude that they did about the authority of Scripture," said the Rev. Jeffrey Cerar, rector of St. Stephen's. "Starting several years ago, the Episcopal...

Yet church members slog on through the gay clergy debate because leaders can't seem to devise a solution that satisfies both sides.Ron Miller is a member of Druid Hills Presbyterian Church in Atlanta who says he would have "no problem at all" accepting a gay pastor. But the genial church elder says he'd rather focus on something else — and so should other churches. "A lot of time and energy is being spent by governing bodies and individual churches over this issue," Miller says. "That time could be devoted to the real mission of the church: helping the poor, the...

What does the Bible really say about homosexuality?" many Christians ask their clergy on the controversial issue. It's the main question addressed in a new feature documentary "The Bible Tells Me So," which was featured at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, last week. The feature documentary centers on the national conversation around Scripture and homosexuality and how Scripture has been used in both good and bad ways, Daniel Karslake, director of the film, explained on the Sundance Channel. Mainly, the film relays how the religious right has used the Bible to support the "stigmatizing" of the homosexual...

V. Gene Robinson, the homoerotic Bishop of New Hampshire believes, like the Blues Brothers, that he is on a mission from God - in his case, to unite the Anglican world over homosexual behavior. At the center of the divide, Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first ordained homosexual bishop says he sees a higher purpose to the debate, and said so at a gathering of clergy in Hartford, Connecticut en route to Colorado and the Sundance Film Festival there to view a documentary film, featuring his story and those of four other gay families, that had been nominated for a grand...

Click through to read. The article talks about concerns by New Hampshire Episcopal priests that legislation banning same sex marriages may limit their ability to conduct same-sex ceremonies.

FRESNO, CA--An Episcopal diocese in California overwhelmingly passed a series of resolutions yesterday that position it to secede from the Episcopal Church and affiliate with conservatives in the global Anglican Communion. If the Diocese of San Joaquin affirms the move in a second vote next year, the small diocese, with 48 parishes and 7,000 members, would be the first to try to break from the Episcopal Church, which has been torn by conflict since the consecration of a gay bishop in 2003. Until now, only individual parishes have severed ties. The vote by the diocese is one more step in...

Nobody is buying V. Gene Robinson's homosexual call to arms, even though every sermon he preaches starts and ends with himself. The Episcopal Church is not being flooded with homosexuals looking for a "sacred space" for their very unsacred behavior. As large orthodox cardinal parishes like Christ Church, Plano along with a host of large parishes in Florida and California leave with their money and parishioners, increasingly what are left are medium-sized parishes, small missions and parishes run by retired clergy. Across the country churches are slowly but surely emptying. The more so in liberal ones, death catches up with...

EPISCOPAL CHURCH DECLINE QUICKENS IN WAKE OF GC2006 Commentary By David W. Virtue www.virtueonline.org9/20/2006 Nobody is buying any more what the Episcopal Church is selling. The Episcopal Church is imploding; it is running out of ecclesiastical gas. Like a reverse Ponzi scheme, those who got in first are losing more than Johnny-come-latelys. In fact there are very few coming into The Episcopal Church. Nobody is buying V. Gene Robinson's homosexual call to arms, even though every sermon he preaches starts and ends with himself. The Episcopal Church is not being flooded with homosexuals looking for a "sacred space" for their...

Warning: Link leads to site with racy ads not depicting loving, committed relationships MONTREAL - The openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson created quite a buzz at of Outgames' first International Conference on LGBT Human Rights as he called for all those who have left their houses of worship to go back and reclaim what is rightfully theirs. "The Radical Right has taken our sacred texts hostage," Robinson told the morning plenary crowd. "The story of God's relationship with humankind includes all of us. LGBT people should be involved in their communities of faith and be a witness." Robinson spoke...

Division looms for Episcopal Churchhttp://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=2216 http://tinyurl.com/kr9gt July 25, 2006 Signs of a full-blown split between the Episcopal Church and most of the worldwide Anglican Communion appeared only days after the U.S. church's General Convention refused to renounce the election of gay bishops. The 2.2-million-member Episcopal Church would be reduced to nonvoting "associate" status in a proposed two-tiered membership policy for the 77-million-member communion that was announced June 27 in London. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said those national churches that sign a covenant affirming Anglicanism's traditional stance on homosexuality could be full members of the communion, while other churches would...

A Schismatic Canterbury Talehttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/14/opinion/main1805855.shtml http://tinyurl.com/r9z5a (The American Prospect) This column was written by Adele M. Stan July 16, 2006 It was with great joy that religious members of the progressive movement received, late last month, news of the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to the top leadership position in the U.S. Episcopal Church. For one, the fact of the bishop’s gender heralded an important first for Episcopalians, whose rites and rituals cling closely to those of the Roman Catholic Church. Furthermore, the inclusive position taken by Jefferts Schori with regard to the full participation of gays and lesbians in...

Archbishop - 'Challenge and hope' for the Anglican Communion 27th June 2006 The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has set out his thinking on the future of the Anglican Communion in the wake of the deliberations in the United States on the Windsor Report and the Anglican Communion at the 75th General Convention of The Episcopal Church (USA). ‘The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today, A Reflection for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican Communion’, has been sent to Primates with a covering letter, published more widely and made available as audio on the internet....

COLUMBUS, OH: Gay Eucharist attracts 1,000+ By Hans Zeiger VirtueOnline Correspondent COLUMBUS, OHIO (6/16/06)-Over 1,000 homosexual and pro-homosexual clergy, bishops, and laymen of the Episcopal Church celebrated Eucharist Friday evening at Trinity Episcopal Church, just blocks from the site of the 75th Episcopal General Convention. "This is a small taste of what heaven must be like," said the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, as he began his sermon to the prolonged cheers of the adoring congregation. Then Robinson was brought to tears as he thanked his homosexual partner Mark, three years after the Episcopal Convention at...

To Gene Robinson, Susan Russell, Louie Crew, and the rest of ECUSA's Homosexual Party, there is one measure of morality and only one.  Case in point: Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire this morning declared that ‘Jesus is the homosexual agenda in the Episcopal Church, I believe that with my whole heart’. Addressing a press conference organized by the Human Rights Campaign and Integrity (the LGBT witness in the Episcopal Church), Robinson, the first openly gay bishop, said ‘I am a beloved child of God because of the action of God in my own life… My agenda is to speak...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The first openly gay Episcopal bishop said at a packed church hearing Wednesday that he is "not an abomination," as he pleaded with the denomination not to bar gays from the office of bishop, even temporarily, for the sake of Anglican unity. If Episcopalians "see Christ in the faithful lives of our gay and lesbian members," they should have the courage to say so, no matter the potential consequences, said Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. "I am not an abomination before God," he told the Episcopal General Convention. "Please, I beg you, let's say our...

Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has delivered a damning critique of the Anglican communion, claiming that it has fallen apart since he was succeeded by Rowan Williams. His remarks are set to send the relationship to a new low and give encouragement to critics of the current archbishop who are ever more vocal in expressing their dismay at his leadership. Lord Carey has a strained relationship with Dr Williams In a speech that will be seen as a direct attack on Dr Williams's ability to maintain unity in the Church, Lord Carey accused liberals of devastating the communion...

Episcopal Church Debate Grows More Heated http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/14611673.htm http://tinyurl.com/rrwgw Thursday May 18, 2006 7:46 PM By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer Kendall Harmon has to monitor his blog these days, so he can delete insults and offensive language from the comments section. His topic: the Episcopal Church. As a critical church meeting on homosexuality nears, the debate online and in public comments has grown so intense that one publication has dubbed it ``blood sport.'' ``I think people are dreading possible outcomes and when you're dealing with the unknown, fear kicks in in a big way,'' said Harmon, a minister and conservative...

Concord, N.H. -- Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson is back on the job after spending a month receiving treatment for an alcohol problem. "He is going to kind of ease back in to things," . . .

A gay man and a lesbian are on the short list to be the Bay Area's next Episcopal bishop, but many Episcopalians said the 77 million Anglicans worldwide might split permanently if a gay person is selected. The California Diocese's nomination of the two, along with three other candidates, defies the worldwide Anglican Communion's 2004 recommendation that the Episcopal Church in the United States put a moratorium on ordination of gay and lesbian bishops who are in active same-sex relationships. That order came after the Rev. Gene Robinson was appointed bishop in New Hampshire in 2003, the first Anglican bishop...

At the urging of his family, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson has checked himself into a 28-day alcohol treatment center. In a letter to the state's clergy and the country's bishops, Robinson said he has struggled for years with alcoholism and had considered his inability to beat it a personal failure. The Episcopal diocese declined to say where Robinson, 58 of Weare, is being treated. He checked himself into a center Feb. 1 and sent his letter to the clergy and bishops Monday. Yesterday, the diocese posted Robinson's letter on its website, along with one of support from the church's standing...