Gay bishop attacks Diocese of Sydney

From Religious Intelligence:

Thursday, 14th August 2008. 7:00am

By Ben Terranova.

Sydney: Gene Robinson, the first openly-gay Bishop in the Anglican Communion, has slammed the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.


Speaking about the diocese with Sydney's weekly gay magazine "SX News", he said: "It is ironic that the Sydney Diocese, taking in one of the great gay cities of the world, is also among the most bigoted."

Robinson claimed that the Anglican Church had "abused" gay people and said, "God and the church aren't the same thing. The church has gotten this and many other things wrong. God hasn't gotten it wrong."

Robinson also predicted that he would be the first of many gay bishops, discussed his ban from the once-in-a-decade Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, and revealed that he has had three one-on-one meetings with US Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

On his own diocese of New Hampshire, he said: "I tell people that if you want to see what the church is going to be like when we finish obsessing about sex, come to New Hampshire."

The magazine quoted the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, who said: “The consecration of an actively homosexual bishop was a presenting issue, but the reasons for the current crisis go much deeper … The fabric of the communion has been torn by the actions of the North American church.”

But the magazine pointed out that Archbishop Jensen refused to declare whether he believed that gay and lesbian people have any place in the Anglican Church.