Robinson vows to press on

The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, saying he is increasingly resolved to go forward with his consecration as a bishop in New Hampshire, said yesterday that he expects as many as 50 Episcopal bishops to lay their hands on his head in a sign that they believe he is a rightful successor to the apostles even though he is an openly gay man.

"I'm feeling really at peace, and very calm about this decision and about moving forward," he said in an interview. "I must say the pressure is astounding, and from both sides. I've got countless individuals calling to ask me to stand down . . . and on the other side there are probably three times as many saying: `Please don't stand down. This is so important. Stand your ground and don't be pushed around.' "

Robinson, 56, is the first openly gay man to be named a bishop in a major Christian denomination. Robinson's election, combined with the decision earlier this year of an Episcopal diocese in Vancouver, British Columbia, to authorize a rite for blessing same-sex unions, has triggered a crisis in the global Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part.

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA, the Rev. Frank T. Griswold, is planning to preside at Robinson's Nov. 2 consecration; yesterday he sent a letter to his fellow Anglican primates around the world, informing them that the ceremony will go forward. In addition to the 50 bishops, the Diocese of New Hampshire is expecting 4,000 worshipers to pack an arena at the University of New Hampshire to watch Robinson become a bishop.

"I must tell you that at this point there is every reason to believe the consecration will take place on Nov. 2 as scheduled," Griswold wrote. Referring to a joint statement issued by the Anglican primates after a meeting in London last week, Griswold wrote, "I appreciate that when the consecration takes place, as we said in our statement: `We will have reached a crucial and critical point in the life of the Anglican Communion.' As much as this is true, the prediction made in the statement that the Communion's future `will be put in jeopardy' will not, I pray, come to pass."

But also yesterday, the American Anglican Council, an organization representing conservative Episcopalians, said it was taking steps to establish a network of parishes and dioceses that oppose Robinson's consecration.

"The American Anglican Council sees the scheduled consecration of a noncelibate homosexual as bishop to be the watershed moment in modern Anglicanism," said the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, president of the organization. "As a result, the AAC adds our voices to a vast number of Anglicans and other ecumenical leaders who have asked Canon Robinson to step down."

Three Anglican primates have asked Robinson not to go forward with his consecration. But Robinson, speaking from diocesan headquarters in Concord, N.H., said the controversy over his consecration is not grounds to derail it.

"Just because there's a crisis doesn't mean this is something we shouldn't be doing, or something we'll be done in by," he said. "The issue is not whether we're in crisis, but how we respond to it."

Robinson said that, even as conservatives threaten to leave the Episcopal Church, he believes the denomination is growing with families who want to join a church that embraces gays and lesbians. And, he said, he believes other mainline Protestant denominations are closely monitoring the events as they, too, grapple with the role of gays and lesbians in leadership.

"We are getting so many people coming, you cannot imagine," he said. "A lot of Roman Catholic families who have been discouraged by the scandals in the Roman church are arriving and saying, `This is the kind of church we want to raise our family in.' "

Robinson said he believes God wants him to go forward, and that the only way he would not is if God sowed real doubt in his mind.

"It's tough knowing what God wants, and I work with a spiritual director to determine whether it's God's voice I'm hearing or my own ego doing a fantastic interpretation of God's voice," he said. "But one thing that helps me to believe this is God's voice is I'm not sure anybody would choose this for the fun of it. It has been a fairly enormous burden to bear, and something that would have been easy to walk away from."

The Anglican Communion, which is made up of the global offspring of the Church of England, now claims 70 million followers in more than 160 countries. The global church is made up of 38 provinces, including the Episcopal Church USA, which has about 2 million members.

The Anglican Communion last spoke on the issue of homosexuality in 1998, when it declared that homosexuals are "loved by God" but that "homosexual practice [is] incompatible with Scripture."

Robinson, who has lived with his partner, Mark Andrew, for more than a decade, said he "absolutely" believes the primates were wrong in their declaration about homosexuality.

"Remember," he said, "unlike in the Roman Catholic Church, when the Anglican bishops get together, they don't speak for the church. They're just speaking for themselves."

Robinson said he is hoping that after Nov. 2, he will be able to focus on his duties as a New Hampshire bishop. He isn't scheduled to take over the diocese until March, but said he wants to visit as many parishes as possible and reach out to the parishes and New Hampshire Episcopalians who are uncomfortable with his sexuality.

"I am not the devil one side paints me to be, nor am I the savior the other side paints me to be," he said. "I'm just trying to hold on to who I am: Just a follower of Christ trying to discern the will of God for me. . . . While it's intense, and it's a little nerve-racking, inside I'm pretty calm."

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.