Church set to consecrate its first openly gay bishop

The Episcopal Church was set to consecrate its first openly gay bishop yesterday in a ceremony that will reverberate throughout the 70 million-member Anglican faith, possibly tearing it apart.

The Reverend Canon Gene Robinson, a New Hampshire priest, is scheduled to formally become a bishop at a ceremony that will be marked by pomp, circumstance and even a formal chance for his opponents to object.

Robinson has pleaded for unity and says he has no intention of backing down, but conservative members of the worldwide Anglican Communion are warning that his consecration could have dire effects on the 450-year-old Christian faith.

The Anglican Church in Tanzania, whose 3 million members outnumber the 2.3 million Episcopalians (Anglicans) in the US, warned the US church not to appoint an openly gay bishop, saying it would violate the word of God.

"If they proceed with the consecration of Reverend Canon Gene Robinson, the homosexual, to the episcopate, they will be acting against the faith and order of the Church and ... separating themselves from the majority in the Anglican Church worldwide," the Tanzanian church said in a statement on Saturday.

Robinson, a 56-year-old father of two who has lived with his male partner for 13 years, says the world church will not split over the issue and noted that many Anglicans disagree with the ordination of women.

"We've not come apart over that and there's no reason for us to come apart over this," he said in an interview with CNN on Saturday.

"Surely these people don't believe that if I were to step aside that all of this would die," he said. "There are many extraordinarily gifted gay and lesbian people in positions of leadership throughout our church. My stepping aside would not stop this one bit."

The ceremony, due to begin at 4pm in the college town of Durham, New Hampshire, was to unfold amid tight security.

Protesters, including the Reverend Fred Phelps, an outspoken homophobic Baptist minister from Kansas, are expected to gather outside while other opponents are due to hold a separate service a few kilometers away.

The Reverend Richard Kirker, general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, will attend the service as a guest of Robinson. As with many who know Robinson, even some of his critics, Kirker describes the bishop-elect as a person of deep compassion and religious conviction.

"What strikes me as I speak to people here is the admiration and love felt by all who know Gene Robinson," Kirker said.