Source: The Guardian
It is fitting that Bishop Gene Robinson spent much of his Easter enduring the wintry conditions of the Great North Woods of New Hampshire, performing his ministry to small but loyal congregations. For although he is one of the few bishops who could claim to be a household name across the world's Anglican communion, he has been all but frozen out by the head of his church, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

As the first bishop to speak openly about having a homosexual relationship, he has heard fellow Anglicans describe gays as "lower than beasts".

London's The Guardian newspaper spent the Easter weekend with Robinson as he battled the winds and blizzards on a 400-mile road trip around his New England diocese.

The paper offers an extended profile of the bishop who has been officially excluded from the Lambeth conference, an important gathering of the world's Anglican bishops.

Robinson received official word two weeks ago that he would be the only one of the world's 880 bishops to be barred from the conference, which takes place in Canterbury, Kent, from July 16 to August 3.

"It was the hardest time I've had since my consecration," Robinson told The Guardian's Riazat Butt while driving along interstate 93. He suggested it was not his consecration or homosexuality that was tearing apart the Anglican communion, but a failure of the leadership.

"I don't know if it was Rowan's intention to divide the US house of bishops but he's done the very thing he was trying to avoid through his action or lack of action. It mystifies me that he has never commented on statements Akinola [the Archbishop of Nigeria] has made about homosexuality," he said

Robinson told The Guardian that he will still go to Canterbury even though he will have only the same access as a member of the public. He would not go into detail, but told the paper that he has his own events planned, including one with award-winning actor and gay rights campaigner Sir Ian McKellen, who will perform a reading.

The Guardian's reporter followed Robinson through several towns in New Hampshire as he preached, discussed issues in an ecumenical meeting, and mostly talked to the people in his diocese.

The small state of New Hampshire remains largely untouched by international disputes. His parishioners are unfazed about receiving communion from one of the most controversial clerics in the world, with some admitting that they paid scant attention to what was happening in the Anglican communion, The Guardian reports.

He preaches, Robinson said, between four and seven times a week, often rising as early as 4am to pray, write sermons and check emails on his BlackBerry. It is the quietest time in his house, which he shares with his partner, Mark Andrews, who is more private than the beaming and chatty cleric.

"He's adorable. He's my anchor, he's very steady," Robinson said. "Being in the public eye is his worst nightmare. But he's wholly supportive. He comes with me when I visit parishes on a Sunday. I didn't think he would. But parishioners love him. He found a ministry in all of this too."

But the bishop also shared an amusing anecdote with the reporter as they ate a dessert at a Colebrook cafe. Robinson recalled that, during a visit to New Orleans mardi gras, he was missing the finishing touches for a Carmen Maranda outfit he planned to wear. 

He had the outsized fruit and the hat, all he lacked were hooped earrings. When he was in the bathroom, he noticed the rings on the shower curtain and decided to use those instead of jewelry. It is an unconventional image, but Robinson delights in non-conformism. He carries his bishop's staff in a rifle case, has a police-radar detector attached to his dashboard, which also responds to microwave ovens, and holidays on the glamorous island of St Bart's in the Caribbean.

"I love this diocese, it's been my home since 1975. It will be 33 years on June 1. Here I can be the kind of bishop I want to be. It's small in size and in terms of population. In a huge diocese you can't be involved or intimate."

Full article: Gay bishop's mission to unite | World news | The Guardian