Bishop Robinson: Anglican Church Would Shut Down Without Gays

Bishop V.Gene Robinson, the openly gay and partnered Episcopalian bishop whose ordination has pushed the global Anglican church toward a schism over gay clergy and other GLBT issues, said in a London interview that if the Church actually kicked out all its gay clergy, there wouldn't be enough clergy left to keep the church going.

According to the Times, which posted a story on Robinson's comments at www.timesonline.co.uk, Bishop Robinson also claimed to be mystified at how the Anglican faith can continue to ignore the crucial role that gay pastors play.

The Times story said that according to Robinson, many Anglican clergy in England live openly gay and partnered lives even while serving their congregations--although Robinson also said that these same pastors live under threat from the church to keep their domestic arrangements quiet.

Said Robinson during an interview in London, "I have met so many gay-partnered clergy here and it is so troubling to hear them tell me that their bishop comes to their house for dinner, knows fully about their relationship, is wonderfully supportive but has also said, 'If this ever becomes public then I'm your worst enemy."

Continued Bishop Robinson, "It's a terrible way to live your life, and I think it's a terrible way to be a Church."

Robinson added, "I think integrity is so important. What does it mean for a clergy-person to be in a pulpit calling the parishioners to a life of integrity when they can't even live a life of integrity with their own bishop and their own Church? So I would feel better about the Church of England's stance, its reluctance to support the Episcopal Church in what it has done, if it would at least admit that this not just an American challenge."

Noted the Bishop, "If all the gay people stayed away from church on a given Sunday the Church of England would be close to shutdown, between its organists, its clergy, its wardens... it just seems less than humble not to admit that."

Robinson said that not all Anglican bishops will ordain priests, although for his part, "I will and have. Many make a requirement that the person be celibate, but many do not make such a requirement." Saying that the church has ordained gay priests "for many, many years," Robinson added, "It's interesting that the wider Anglican Communion has either not known that or has not chosen to make an issue of it before now."

Recently, the Episcopal Church--the American branch of the Anglican church--has been threatened with sanctions by Anglican authorities for ordination of gay clergy.

The issue came to a head with Robinson's 2003 election to the position of Bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson said that he found it surprising that his ordination as Bishop had ignited the controversy, but said that if the church were to hold to the position that gay bishops should not be ordained, then that same principle should apply to all clergy.

Robinson spoke about a meeting between himself and Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who recently provided a new wrinkle in the controversy when he left Robinson uninvited from a once-per-decade convocation of Anglican bishops.

"[Our meeting] was very private, and I was eager and willing to accommodate him and when he asked me not to function liturgically or to preach," said Robinson. "I was saddened by that, but I want to help him as much as I can. I'm limited in what I can do and I won't step down, but other than that I am eager to try and help him any way that I can."

Added Robinson, "I certainly would not do so [celebrate or preach] without his permission."

Though he would not name names, Robinson said that he had his supporters among bishops in the Church of England.

"I have received huge support from the Church of England, both from the clergy and from the pews," said Robinson. "Hardly a day goes by, never mind a week, that I don't receive encouraging words of support."

Added the Bishop, "I think the thing that is the most mystifying to me and the most troubling about the Church of England is its refusal to be honest about just how many gay clergy it has--many of them partnered, and many of them living in rectories."

Robinson denounced the threat from Anglicans to "discipline" the American arm of the church over his consecration. "The whole notion of punishment being meted out to provinces of the Anglican Communion that are somehow noncompliant is somehow antithetical to the whole Anglican tradition; positing some sort of centralized Curia that has the ability and the authority to do such a thing is about as un-Anglican as you can imagine," Robinson declared. "After all, our Church was founded in resistance to a centralized authority in Rome. And so to pose the possibility of such a centralized Curia with those kinds of authorities seems to me to be as untraditional as it could be."

Robinson characterized himself as an evangelical. "As a matter of fact, I'm more evangelical than almost anyone you would run into in the Episcopal Church," the Bishop said.

"When I speak to gay and lesbian groups I don't talk to them about gay rights, I talk to them about their souls. My goal is to get them to church and bring them to Jesus."