The Episcopal bishop at the heart of the deep division within the Anglican Communion has announced plans to enter into a same-sex civil union next summer.
Taking advantage of a newly signed law that offers civil unions for same-sex couples in New Hampshire, openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson unveiled an unofficial date for the civil union in an interview with BBC journalist Michael Buerk.
"We were looking for a three-day weekend which would allow people to travel more easily, and that happened to be the fifth anniversary of my election as the Bishop of New Hampshire and thought that would be an appropriate date," said Robinson, according to the Church of England Newspaper.
Robinson was elected Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire on June 7, 2003, and was the first openly gay bishop to be consecrated that year in November, which widened rifts in the worldwide Anglican body, now at the brink of schism.
The Anglican Communion rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture and opposes the blessing of same-sex unions or ordaining those involved in same gender unions.
Robinson's tentative June civil union would occur just weeks before Lambeth 2008, the decennial worldwide gathering of Anglican leaders in July 2008. Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, the Anglican Communion's spiritual leader, has withheld inviting Robinson to the conference, indicating that his appointment as bishop has caused serious division within the communion, but has extended invitations to U.S. Episcopal leaders who supported Robinson's consecration.
The Lambeth Conference is considered one of the Instruments of Communion or Unity but conservative Anglican bishops are threatening to boycott the gathering over the invitation of those who backed the consecration of the openly gay bishop and have not repented for it.
The archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Rev. Peter Akinola, considered the most powerful leader in the Anglican Communion, said the absence of even one province from the meeting would indicate that the Lambeth Conference "effectively ceases to be an Instrument of Unity."
