Gay bishop says divisiveness in Episcopal church is exaggerated
Associated Press
Published January 23 2007

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The openly gay bishop, whose election spurred a schism in the Episcopal church that has played out in Connecticut and elsewhere, said the scope of the rift has been exaggerated in the media.Gene Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire, said there are a small minority of parishes at odds with the national church's liberal stance on homosexuality.

The parishes are "seeking to get themselves recognized as the true expression of Anglicanism in this country and not inconsequentially get the Episcopal Church - I don't know what the word is - unrecognized as that legitimate expression. And I think they are using more conservative churches around the globe to support that claim," he said.

Robinson, leader of a 15,000-member diocese, was in Hartford Monday to speak at a luncheon attended local church leaders.

"In a world facing 40 million people dying of AIDS and an increasing gap between rich and poor, this seems like a waste of our time and energy, debating the rightness and wrongness of gay and lesbian people and their relationships," he said. the rest