As if my heart needed warming about Bishop Gene!
From the Guardian:
Gene Robinson and I were sitting in a pub just behind St Paul's Cathedral a few months ago. He drank lime and soda. I had something stronger. "You drink the first drink, then the next drink drinks you," he warned me. Ever the evangelical of his past, Robinson's concern for my drinking was rooted in bitter experience.
For him the booze had been just one of the temptations in dealing with the bucketloads of hate that have been poured over him since he became bishop of New Hampshire in 2004. Being the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion has, as he put it, "taken its toll". His announcement this weekend that he is retiring as the bishop of New Hampshire in a few years' time can come as little surprise.
....
There is no doubt in my mind that Robinson has been a prophet in the Anglican communion, recalling the church to its best instincts of inclusion and commitment to those who are excluded and marginalised. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, rich nor poor, black nor white, gay nor straight. Some day this will be as obvious to the church as the fact that slavery is evil. But the forces of reaction remain strong and are getting stronger.
A prophet in the Anglican Communion. Yes, indeed. At the time when Bishop Gene was in England but barred from the meetings at the Lambeth Conference by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Giles Fraser, as vicar of St Mary's in Putney, invited Bishop Gene to preach. During the sermon, a heckler stood and began shouting at Bishop Gene. Here's the response of the rector and the congregation in the account from the BBC:
As a protester stood up to barrack the Right Reverend Gene Robinson, the world's first openly gay Anglican Bishop, the congregation did not abuse or strong-arm him.
Instead, people opened their Orders of Service and began to sing.
Hymn number four: Thine Be The Glory, Risen, Conquering Son.
But for all the Englishness of the churchgoers' response, this was an electrifying moment.
Watch the video at the BBC.
Dr Fraser is proud of his church's progressive past and he said Bishop Robinson's ideas were just as far-sighted as those of the English Civil War radicals who made it famous.
He told the BBC: "Some of us are struggling for the dream of an inclusive Church.
"The Lambeth Conference have excluded the one person they should really be listening to. I'm proud that Bishop Robinson is speaking here."
Note: Giles Fraser is now Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Dr Fraser is proud of his church's progressive past and he said Bishop Robinson's ideas were just as far-sighted as those of the English Civil War radicals who made it famous.
ReplyDeleteYes C'MON GILES FRASER!!!!!
... I'll shut up now.
Cathy, I those words would warm your heart.
ReplyDeleteI wonder which Civil War radicals he was thinking of? I will note that one of the actions of the Civil War was the execution of the then Archbishop of Canterbury.
ReplyDeleteErp, perhaps Giles referred to the Putney Debates, which took place at St Mary's.
ReplyDeleteI generally avoid joining in discussions amongst English people of the English Civil War.