Episcopal Press and News
Robinson Says Troubled Parish in God's Hands
Episcopal News Service. June 25, 2004 [062504-2]
Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire spoke to ENS's Matthew Davies about the decision of members from the Church of the Redeemer, Rochester, to break away from the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. The following is an edited transcript of the interview:
DAVIES: Could you give me some background about the Church of the Redeemer? Is this the first time that the parish has contested diocesan actions or decisions by the bishop?
ROBINSON: Interestingly, this congregation has been in conflict with the bishop for about the last 40 years ... over everything from the prayer book to the ordination of women, and now over this.
DAVIES: What have you tried to do to reach out to them and achieve reconciliation?
ROBINSON: I have been working with this congregation which, from the very beginning, has been somewhat opposed to my consecration. My reaching out to them goes back several months and I must say that the congregation was split about half and half and those people who favored my election and consecration were--according to them--made to feel unwelcome and most of them left to join other local Episcopal Churches. So that left about 30 people, some 25 of whom were opposed to my consecration.
I went to the congregation April 5 to hear from them what it was they wanted in terms of Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO). I waited until after the House of Bishops meeting so that we would have a process. They described to me what they wanted and I offered to send them 20 or more names of bishops that I could recommend to them whom I knew to have voted "no" on my consent at convention or to be conservative on this issue. One of the names that I had proposed to them was the Bishop of Northern Indiana, Ed Little, who was in my small group at the House of Bishops meeting. I asked him if he'd be willing to provide this kind of oversight because I knew that he was a person I could trust absolutely implicitly--and to my knowledge they never called him.
DAVIES: So the parish ultimately wanted to choose their own bishop without your recommendations?
ROBINSON: Correct. So they wrote back to me and said that they would only accept a "network" bishop and so, over the next several weeks, I prayed about this and prayed about how far I could go in giving them what they said they wanted while still being true to my ordination vows and in fulfillment of all the canons. I would not relinquish to anyone the responsibilities that are rightfully mine as a bishop, and I came to the place where I decided that I would go out on a limb and I would allow a network bishop to come into the diocese.
I called Bishop Dan Herzog of Albany to see if he would be willing to sit down with me and talk about this possibility. And I was honest with him and said that I only have two bottom lines. One is that I can't let anyone in here who is going to undermine my authority as the bishop of jurisdiction and I cannot let anyone in here who is going to assist Church of the Redeemer leaving the Episcopal Church. But if you can assure me of those two things then I think that we can work together. He graciously said that he would be willing to meet with me and he felt that he could work within those guidelines. He only wanted to know who the priest-in-charge was going to be.
So I then prayed some more and decided that I would explore the possibility of talking with Don Wilson, who is the priest that Bishop Theuner let go and revoked his license to officiate in the diocese some months ago. I knew the parish would love to have him back and I knew that he loved and cared for the people of that congregation. And so I met with him and asked him the same questions: could he go in without undermining my authority. And he said that he could do that.
Last night [June 23] I went to present this proposal to them to tell them that indeed I could meet their request for a network bishop to become their visiting bishop for pastoral oversight and that I was willing to reinstate Don Wilson's license in the Diocese of New Hampshire and as their priest-in-charge. The only thing I was asking in return was the smallest thread of a relationship because DEPO is founded on the notion that this is a temporary measure in order to restore reconciliation between the bishop and the congregation; and that kind of reconciliation can't happen if we never meet.
What became very clear over the course of the evening was that they were not even willing to settle for the tiniest thread of a relationship and so I pointed out to them that what they were saying to me is that they didn't want to be Episcopalian. We are called the Episcopal Church because we have bishops and we are an association of congregations through the bishop. Without a relationship with the diocesan bishop, it's not the Episcopal Church.
So I'd given them their own bishop--Bishop Herzog was one of the three bishops that they had asked me to appoint--so, I'd given them that. I'd given them the priest that they had wanted and virtually everything else except for this tiniest thread of relationship.
The two things that I was not prepared to compromise on: a visitation once every three years, and I promised that I would put that visitation in the last three months of this first three year period. So I was not even proposing to make a visitation until early in 2007. Secondly, they wanted, in the deployment process, to choose their own priest without any input or approval from the diocesan bishop. I pointed out to them that there is no church within the Episcopal Church that has that right because the national and diocesan canons state that the bishop must approve and I tried to point out to them that when a clergy comes into the diocese I have responsibilities to them and for them, and I have liabilities should something go wrong.
I also assured them that I would be happy for the visiting network bishop to be a part of that deployment process and to offer names and so on. So, I really feel that I was bending over backwards to give them everything I possibly could while holding onto the absolute minimum relationship between us and ultimately, they said that they would not accept that. And at a dramatic moment, all got up, threw their church keys on the table and left.
DAVIES: On a personal level, how does all this make you feel?
ROBINSON: I try to keep this separate from my own personal life. I know that this is not necessarily about Gene Robinson. It is about the larger issues of scriptural interpretation; about the whole issue of homosexuality, but we are believers in the incarnation and it's not always easy to separate the issues from the people who embody them.
DAVIES: You spoke about receiving support from the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop Robin Eames.
ROBINSON: I received those two letters of support with respect to the first offer I made, when I sent the names of 22 bishops. I copied the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop Eames of Ireland because I wanted them to know that what they had been told--that liberal dioceses were persecuting conservatives within their diocese--is simply not true. And I wanted them to know how I was trying to meet their needs. So I got these notes back thanking me for my generosity of spirit in this proposal. That was my first proposal! This one went so much further than even that one…
DAVIES: What are your hopes for the future of this parish?
ROBINSON: Well now that they have resigned and we are looking after the congregation, we will provide worship there every Sunday. We are looking forward to this coming Sunday for worship in the Episcopal tradition and we look forward to growing this congregation. The city of Rochester has people in great need. It is one of the places in the state that has terrible education problems and there are not many other Episcopal Churches around that area so we really want an Episcopal community there. We are looking forward to growing this community and preaching the good news to those who have not heard it.
We are actually very excited about the possibilities for the future in this place, and as I said to them last night: I don't worry for the future of Redeemer; this is God's church and God will take care of the future. All we have to do is follow him as closely as we can.
DAVIES: Is there anything else you would like to add?
ROBINSON: I just want to say that I am heartbroken over this and I think God is heartbroken over it.