Archbishop Tutu on Gene Robinson's book:
In The Eye of the Storm

From the Preface
by Desmond Tutu

I have been puzzled by a strange fact – that a largely conservative, rural small-town diocese such as New Hampshire should have elected a man in an open, monogamous relationship with another man. It just did not make sense that they would want to run the gauntlet of controversy, opprobrium and turmoil for the sheer heck of it. Having read Bishop Gene Robinson’s manuscript of this book I now know why. They had as one of the candidates at the Diocesan Convention to elect their bishop, a man many had come to know quite well and they had been impressed with what they had seen and experienced of him.

He was, he still is, a man with an all consuming passion and that is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, to assure as many as will hear him of their infinite worth in the sight of God who loved them and still loves them with a love that is unconditional and that will not let them go. Gene Robinson has the heart of a pastor, compassionate and deeply caring for each person whatever their condition. He tells so movingly of the Christmas present he gives himself every year since becoming bishop. On Christmas Eve he goes to the State Women’s Prison and he has endeared himself so much to these inmates that they embroidered a set of vestments on the inside of which they stitched their names. This Advent vestment set is his favourite among his ecclesiastical garb. He has given the women prisoners hope (Advent is the liturgical season of hope, of expectancy, of longing for the coming of the Christ as Judge as he came as an infant, a coming we commemorate each Christmas). Poignantly for these women it is a time of expectancy, of hope – hope of parole, of release, of a visit from a loved one. Their Bishop, who came dressed to the ecclesiastical nines in all his consecration regalia when he first visited them – to affirm their significance for him and hopefully for themselves, reflects the character of Christ the Good Shepherd who gave up, who gives up on no one. the rest