Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson Joined in Homosexual ‘civil union’

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – From July 16, 2008 through August 3, 2008, the Bishops of the Anglican Communion and its related Churches, including the Episcopal Church in the United States, will gather with Archbishop Rowan Williams.

The conference occurs every ten years.

This year the theme is “Equipping Bishops to Fulfill Their Leadership Role in God’s Mission.

In the promotional literature the conference promises to help all of the delegates, “be restored and refreshed spiritually, gain deeper knowledge of each other, become more aware of the spiritual and physical resources God has given them to meet missionary challenges in different parts of the world, develop greater understanding and appreciation of life together in the Anglican Communion, address conflict, discover a new level of trust in common service to God and gain greater understanding of the contribution Anglicanism can make to the worldwide church and the world.”

This is a tall order, particularly given the continuing struggles facing this Church and the continuing splintering within its ranks.

The agenda for the meetings promise topics of interest such as “Hermeneutics, Ecumenical Management, Anglican identity, the role of bishops, Issues of Covenant , Listening Process (within the Communion), Engagement with other faiths, Evangelism and Mission, Gender and Sexuality, Relationships, Social and family relationships, HIV/Aids and Millennium Development Goals.”

However, front and center now, and threatening to become the focal point of Press attention at the Conference, are the continuing activities of Bishop Gene Robinson. Bishop Robinson is an openly homosexual Bishop who, though asked not to attend the meeting as a delegate, has promised to be there as “an observer”.

The Bishop threw the Church into its current state of upheaval when he was consecrated to the episcopacy in 2003 as a practicing homosexual. He did not pledge celibacy but continued to live with his homosexual paramour.

He went on National television and announced his plans to enter a Civil Union with his male partner to Matt Lauer of NBC months ago. He had signaled the action in 2007 at Nova Southeastern University’s Shephard Law Center, where he announced with pride, "I always wanted to be a June bride."

This Bishop seems to relish his position at the cutting edge of the ongoing schism within the global Anglican Communion. He clearly wants to be a controversialist. He is a leader in a cultural revolution being led by activist, practicing homosexuals who not only want to live their lifestyle but force the State and the Church to give them equal status to marriage.

He painted himself as some new kind of “martyr” with Matt Lauer. With condescension he presented orthodox Christians who oppose his active homosexual relationship and his calls for the State and the Church to give legal and moral equivalency between homosexual partners and married couples as unenlightened and discriminatory.

The Bishop preaches what St. Paul warned of in his letter to the Galatians as “another Gospel” (Galatians 1:6). He is quite open and brazen about it all.

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.

Robinson had been asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury to not attend the Lambeth conference. The reason was obvious, the controversy surrounding his lifestyle and his vocal dissent from Christian teaching and tradition.

So, he announced he would attend anyway, saying with defiance: “I think the Archbishop of Canterbury has gotten this wrong by not inviting everyone. I’m going to go and offer myself and talk with anyone who wants to talk to someone who is unashamedly gay and unashamedly Christian.”

Now, the controversialist crusader for homosexual equivalency with marriage has entered into a “Civil Union” union with his male paramour, Mark Andrew, in a private ceremony conducted by a Justice of the Peace on Saturday June 7, 2008.

Such Civil Unions for homosexual partners were authorized in New Hampshire as of January 1.New Hampshire is the 4th State to legalize such unions.

Robinson had been a vocal proponent and has called on legislatures to go further and call them a “marriage”. He is a leader of the equivalency movement among homosexual activists. Robinson was previously ...
divorced from his wife and has two children.

The Civil Ceremony was followed by a “Church Blessing” of the partnership at St. Paul's Church in Concord, New Hampshire. It occurred exactly five years to the day after Bishop Robinson was consecrated as a Bishop.

A spokesman for the crusading Bishop, Mike Barwell told the Press in a phone interview that the event was "absolutely joyful" and that it was attended by "A lot of his supporters and friends, including many members of the gay and lesbian community."

Barwell also said that the Bishop wanted it “kept private” out of respect for the upcoming Lambeth conference.

That last claim belies belief.

The choice of the date and the very fact that there was a spokesman giving such statements, clearly comports with the Bishop’s intentional use of the media in his self appointed crusade to not only personally veer from Christian Orthodoxy but force the Church to do the same.

He has been on a promotional tour for his book, "In the Eye of the Storm". In it he defends the proposition that homosexuality, a practice which involves chosen sexual conduct between members of the same sex, should be given protected legal status under anti-discrimination and civil rights laws in the same manner as race or gender.

The Bishop is also a proponent of the so called “abortion right” and has spoken at Planned Parenthood events where he has argued for a religious defense of this intentional killing of children in the womb.

What is called the “Anglican Communion” claims to have 77 million members worldwide. However, it is a loose confederation of national churches.

It has been experiencing continual declines in its membership and divisions in its member churches. Most observers look to the Lambeth conference as time of great significance for the future direction of the community.