Gene Robinson Gay Churhman to give inaugural kickoff invocation

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Gay Churhman to give inaugural kickoff invocation

Gay Churhman to give inaugural kickoff invocation
1/12/09 Labels: Breaking News, Politics, Religion, Written by Paula Brooks 0 comments

Washington DC.... LGR has learned that The Presidential Inaugural Committee said this weekend The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who was elected the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop in 2003, will deliver the invocation for Sunday’s kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

President-elect Obama is scheduled to attend the afternoon event, which is free and open to the public.

An inaugural official said …

The president-elect has respect for the Rt. Rev. Robinson, who offered his advice and counsel over the past couple of years…. It also has the benefit of further reinforcing our commitment to an open and inclusive inaugural.”




A furor over Obama’s choice of Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor and best-selling author, to deliver the invocation at the swearing-in ceremony has so far been the principal clash with his party’s left wing since he was elected and many of Obama’s LGBT supporters were furious at the President-Elect for asking Warren to be part of the inaugural ceremonies.

Robinson is best-known for being the first openly gay, non-celibate priest to be ordained a bishop in a major Christian denomination, became Canon to the Ordinary in 1988, the executive assistant to the then bishop of New Hampshire, Douglas Theuner. Robinson remained in this job for the next seventeen years until he was elected bishop in 2003. He assumed his post on March 7, 2004.

Robinson was one of the earliest churchman to endorse the election of President-Elect.