The first openly gay US Episcopal bishop was barred from a once-a-decade Anglican meeting so he would not become a focus of the global event.
Anglicans on all sides of the issue agree: the strategy has backfired.
New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson has been embraced by sympathetic Anglicans in England and Scotland who view his exclusion as an affront to their Christian beliefs.
Robinson plans several appearances on the outskirts of the Lambeth Conference to be what he called a “constant and friendly” reminder of gays in the church.
“I’m just not willing to let the bishops meet and pretend that we don’t exist,” Robinson said in an interview on Sunday before preaching at St Mary’s Church Putney.
“They’ve taken vows to serve all the people in dioceses, not just certain ones,” he said.
The Anglican spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, did not include Robinson and a few other bishops in the conference as he tried to prevent a split in the world Anglican Communion. The 77 million-member fellowship — the third-largest in the world behind Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians — has been on the brink of schism since Robinson was consecrated in 2003.
The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the US.
Robinson and Episcopal leaders had tried for years to negotiate a role for the New Hampshire bishop at Lambeth, but were unsuccessful.
He resolved to come to England anyway.
“I’m not storming the pulpit to wrestle the microphone from the archbishop,” Robinson said. “My agenda is this: What does the church’s treatment of gay and lesbian people say about God? You’ve got all these people talking about gays and lesbians being an abomination before God. Does that make you want to run out and go to an Anglican church and sing God’s praises?”
Robinson preached on Sunday at the 16th-century parish on the Thames River, despite a request from Williams that he not do so. A protester briefly interrupted the sermon, waving a motorcycle helmet and yelling “Repent!” and “Heretic!” before he was escorted out.
An emotional Robinson resumed preaching, asking parishioners to “pray for that man” and urging them repeatedly not to fear change in the church.
Last night, Robinson was to join Sir Ian McKellan at a London literary festival for the British premiere of For the Bible Tells Me So, a documentary about gay Christians that features Robinson.
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