Source: New York Times, Episcopal Life
Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal prelate whose consecration led conservatives to split from the church, said in an interview on Thursday that he and his partner of 20 years were planning a civil union ceremony to be held in his home church in the diocese of New Hampshire in June.

Bishop Robinson told the New York Times that by scheduling the ceremony for June, he did not intend to further inflame conservatives just before the Anglican Communion gathers in August in Cambridge, England, for the Lambeth Conference, which happens only once every 10 years.

He planned his civil union for June, he said, because he wanted to provide some legal protection to his partner and his children before he left for England for the conference. Bishop Robinson has received death threats, and he wore a bulletproof vest under his vestments at his consecration in 2003.

“We could have, I suppose, just gone to the town clerk and had that signed,” he said, “but, you know, I’m a religious person, and every major event in my life has been marked with some kind of liturgy and giving thanks to God.”

With interviews and book signings, Robinson has also been busy promoting a recently published book.

A sabbatical last fall was the impetus for him to pen "In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God," published by Seabury Books. The foreword was written by Anglican Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu.

"The title of course comes from the storm that I have found myself in for the past five years," said Robinson at a New York book signing. "But it's more about the eye of the storm. The tiny calm place I feel God has brought me to in the middle of that storm."

"It's about the fuller gospel that is part of my life," he said. "The press has sort of painted me as a one issue person, but actually what I'm passionate about is the whole Gospel. Lesbian and gay issues are just one of them."

Bishop Robinson will not be attending the Lambeth Conference’s official sessions with his more than 800 fellow bishops. He was excluded from participating by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who, as leader of the Church of England, is responsible for issuing the invitations.

Robinson described his feelings after learning of his exclusion from the Lambeth Conference set for Canterbury, England, July 16-August 4, as "pretty awful." He credited a conversation shortly thereafter with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as helping him find comfort.

Since that time Robinson said he now "looks forward" to Lambeth from the perspective that if Jesus were around for this conference and had to chose between being on the inside with the higher ups or on the fringes with whoever else was going to be there, "I'm not sure that he wouldn't chose to be on the fringes."

"So I'm looking forward to meeting and talking with anybody that is willing to talk and let whatever light of Christ that is in me shine and whoever has the eyes to see it and ears to hear it will do so," he stated.

In the last five years, conservatives in the Anglican Communion have threatened schism ever since the American church’s General Convention, its highest governing body, consented to the election of Bishop Robinson, and refused to issue a blanket prohibition of same-sex blessings.

It is up to the bishop of each diocese to decide whether to permit such blessings. Bishop Robinson, after consulting with a council in his diocese, has approved his own ceremony.

Full article: Gay Bishop Plans His Civil Union Rite | New York Times
New Hampshire bishop pens new book | Episcopal Life