So, it has come to this. A good bishop has sadly said "basta"!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

The news came the other day from Concord, New Hampshire
where a good and decent man announced his early departure
as Anglican bishop of this picturesque New England
diocese.

What he said in his usual low-key, quiet way was moving:
he would step down as bishop in January, 2013 after nearly
a decade in that post, 7 years before he had to by Anglican
rules.

Then the reason: "The fact is," he said, "the last seven
years have taken their toll on me, my family, and you."

"Death threats and the now worldwide controversy
surrounding your election of me as bishop," he told the
annual convention of his diocese " have been a
constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved
husband, Mark, who has faithfully stood by me
every minute of the last seven years."

So what was Gene Robinson's' crime? He
wished to serve and had the skills. He wished to give.
He wanted to take on a job many would eschew as too
much work for too little pay. He wanted to help
and tend his flock... he wanted to uplift the lonely
and the suffering. He wanted to praise God and
His works.

And, not least, he wanted to love one man body and soul,
to find fulfillment and happiness in his personal life.

The good people of New Hampshire, wise and
pleased to have such a pastor at their service,
elected him in convocation.  Robinson, with the
full support of his congregation, became bishop.
But because his conception of man embraced
eros, not just agape... great schism threatened.

Ironically, the church Robinson served was
created by schism. Both schisms came about
because of marriage. King Henry VIII's break from
Rome happened because he wished to thrust
aside his barren wife for the winsome Anne Boleyn.
Robinson opened a great divide because he wanted
to stand by his man and be an excellent bishop. The king
wanted divorce; Robinson wanted marriage. They
both got schism.

Meanwhile, the man took up his crozier and
his mission, doing the job he did so well. The
people of New Hampshire, the people who knew
him best and who had chosen him were happy.  He had
been honest with them; they would be true in turn
to him.

The story should have ended there, with Bishop
Robinson fulfilling his duties and at last, when he
had served his term, retiring full of years and honors.

But the story did not end there. It began.

Because the bishop loved a man and honestly said
so, hard upon his election followed  the death threats,
the fulminations, the moral superiorities and posturings,
the taunts and comments ranging from the mean spirited to
the criminal. All because a good man, with great gifts and the
desire to use them for the general good, chose to love a different
way.

Bishop Robinson wore a bulletproof vest to his
consecration.

In such a situation, where the people of New Hampshire
had chosen and were happy with their selection, Bishop
Robinson, now clearly a man of history, might have
expected the support and assistance of the leader
of the worldwide Anglican congregation, Rowan
Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.

However, his grace the Archbishop, caught between
the unyielding who demanded Robinson's episcopal cross as the
price of staying part of the Anglican church and
Robinson, who simply wanted to marry and get on with his job of
service, the Archbishop, I say, caved.

Instead of welcoming Bishop Robinson to the once-in-
a-decade Lambeth Palace Conference, along with all
his episcopal brethren, the Archbishop told Robinson
to stay away. Thus, the Archbishop chose political
expediency over truth and right, thereby erasing in an
instant in this act of moral cowardice his own
legitimacy. 

Gene Robinson had thanks to the continuing
support of the good people who elected him,
the right to a different response, a better support from
the archbishop. However, Rowan chose the ostrich way
to solve the problem... pulling the covers over his head
and wishing the good bishop of New Hampshire and
his inconvenient dilemma would simply go away.

Not from this archbishop support for a man of God
and of the people, a man duly elected and consecrated.
Pontius Pilot like, he washed his hands of his brother-in-
Christ and got on with his ignoble work of pacifying Anglican
bigots worldwide.

Bishop Gene, spurned at the highest reaches of his
church, by leaders who would not lead, carried on.
However, this fight, now terribly important and symbolic
to each side, took its sad toll on the man. One
day he rose in church and admitted the unceasing
pressures had caused him to escape into
alcoholism. The people of New Hampshire understood
and welcomed him again after he had taken the cure
and solved the problem. All the while the invective against
this man of God and goodness rose and became a
cyclone of bitterness.

At last it became just too much. The man who had
brought peace to so many asked for peace for himself
and the man he loves.

Thus in Concord, New Hampshire, Bishop Gene
Robinson, looking tired and worn, told his congregation
that he would end his tumultuous career early... and so
deprive them all of years of service, of giving, and the quiet
dignity and effectiveness that marked his tenure.

Members of the congregation, as they listened
to the unadorned words that people of the Granite
State could so well understand, felt the tears rise. They were
thinking of the bishop and his fight; they were thinking of
what they had wrought by elevating him as their pastor;
they were thinking of the Church, of their Saviour and of
God. And so they wept...

.... and remembered.

The Rev. Rodney Hudgen, associate rector at Trinity
Church, Copley Square, Boston, recalled a sermon he
had heard Robinson deliver in Ohio in 2006. It was in
response to a question of how to respond to those
persecuting gay clergy. Robinson's message was
clear and forthright: "Love them anyway!"

Hudgen was bowled over, "It was like the Holy
Spirit had crashed into the room, and I was changed
forever."  Just as so many have been transformed by
Bishop Gene and his empowering message of love and life.

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter
into the joy of your master.’ (Matthew 25:12) For Bishop
Robinson, Pastor Gene, you have truly done your Master's work,
and it is good. Rejoice, for few have done as much as you
to help so many.

About The Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of
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