The Gay Bishop at the Center of the Anglican Storm

New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop.

Should the American Episcopal Church's continued inclusion in the Anglican Communion be achieved at the price of excluding gay and lesbian clergy, denying church blessings for same-sex unions, or even condemning homosexuality as incompatible with Scripture?
No, and the Episcopal Church is simply not going to go there. We are in the fortunate position of having countless numbers of gay and lesbian Episcopalians sitting in our pews, and we have a huge number of gay and lesbian clergy that are known to be faithfully serving their churches, and the Episcopal Church is not going to turn its back on them.

What do you make of the proposed Pastoral Forum, which will supposedly enforce on the worldwide communion a moratorium on appointments of gay or lesbian clergy, the blessing of same-sex unions, and (as conservatives are now threatening) the creation of new or alternatives provinces within already existing ones?
I think, although it claims to be a way toward reconciliation, there is little about reconciliation in it. It appears to be about nothing but punishing those who color outside the lines, if you will, and I don't believe that many churches in the communion are going to be in favor of participating in such a group or such a way forward because it is unnecessarily punitive.

You wouldn't even want the communion to bring an end to conservatives' efforts to create new jurisdictions or allow conservative jurisdictions (such as the Church of Nigeria) to bring breakaway congregations in other provinces under their authority?
I would certainly like to see those boundary-crossings end, but not at the price of creating a centralized bureaucracy that has never been part of the Anglican tradition. For 500 years, this very loose confederation, under which widely divergent views can exist not only peacefully but productively, frankly I think is not broken, and there is no need to fix it with either a covenant or a Pastoral Forum or anything of the sort. I do think it's going to be messy for a while, and I think that's probably just exactly right. Efforts to tie this up into a neat and tidy package will ultimately be frustrated and are not even the right way forward.

As you understand it, what real authority or power would the Pastoral Forum have? For example, could it expel a province if it violates the moratorium on any of those three points?
It really will have no authority. It's very unclear how any member of the Anglican Communion could be excluded. It would seem that the Anglican Consultative Council would not have the power to propose such a thing. And even so, by its own constitution, it would not be able to do so without a two-thirds vote of all the provinces in the communion, and I think that's highly unlikely.

If the moratoria are "retrospective," as some people are saying they are intended to be, is there any possibility the Episcopal Church will force you to resign?
The Episcopal Church cannot compel me to resign. If I were guilty of some immorality or illegality, then I could be brought up on presentment charges. But shy of that, there is no authority in the Episcopal Church that could compel my resignation. And there is no desire in the Episcopal Church to do so. Even the bishops who voted "no" on my consent I work very well with in our House of Bishops, and our relationship with them is a good and strong one.

Does it appear to you that the initiatives of the conservatives' Global Anglican Future Conference [held a few weeks before the Lambeth Conference] are forcing the Anglican Communion to move toward a more conservative, unyielding stance on the hot-button issues?
Yes. I think they have taken the issue of homosexuality and elevated it to a position above all things that we believe in common, and I think that's a mistake and certainly not in the Anglican tradition. Again, when bullies make demands and say they are going to take their toys and go home if they don't get their way, the only way you can respond to that kind of demand is to stop giving in to them. If they want to affect things in the communion, they need to be here at this table talking with the three quarters of the bishops who are here about how best to move forward.