Gay bishop says church can heal, to discuss issue at VU
Sewanee grad, now New Hampshire Episcopal leader, says furor stuns him
By ANITA WADHWANI
4/13/07

The man at the center of a controversy that threatens to shatter the worldwide Anglican church remains hopeful that his church can heal.

Bishop Gene Robinson, a graduate of the University of the South, is the first openly gay bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church. More than 20 churches have split from the Episcopal Church in protest over his consecration in New Hampshire, and worldwide leaders of the Anglican church have issued a stern call to the U.S. church to fall back to a more conservative stand on homosexuality and gay marriage.

Robinson, who is in Nashville today to speak at Vanderbilt University, remains quietly astonished over the controversy.

"It would be hard in retrospect to look back and imagine that would be the case," he said. "People in the diocese were just looking for the next bishop. I had been in New Hampshire 30 years. They felt they knew me, my skills, my gifts. While we knew this would be somewhat controversial, none of us expected it to have such breadth and depth." the rest