At The Center Of The Divide
Hartford Courant
By JOEL LANG
January 23, 2007

Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop at the center of the rift over homosexuality that has led some Virginia parishes to align themselves with the Anglican Church of Nigeria, stopped in Hartford Monday to deliver a message of reconciliation for the church and some news about himself.

'I believe with my whole heart that the Archbishop of Nigeria [Peter Akinola] and I are going to be in heaven together. And we're going to get along together, because God won't have it any other way. So we better start practicing now,' Robinson said at a luncheon attended by a dozen local church leaders at Real Art Ways.

He was responding to a plea from The Very Rev. Mark Pendleton, dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford, who told Robinson, 'You've been demonized by so many. ... How do you help me to not demonize others?'

[Another excerpt] "'I think everybody is doing the best we can. We're all trying to figure life out,' Robinson said.

'The thing that has sustained me through all this is God has seemed so very close that prayer has seemed almost redundant. ... Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes God lets the storm rage, and calms the child.'

Personally, 'I couldn't be happier. I think that's the best revenge,' he said."

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