thank you Gene.

But in the body of your text… I feel it might be fairer (and more accurate) to say that he was/is the 1st openly gay bishop in TEC.

The Anglican Communion has a substantial number of gay clergy… the dotty vicar and the gay vicar (though not openly so) are staples of a number of mid-late 20th century English novels. (Anglo-Catholics tend to be the most satirized.)

Lovely post, great observations. Thanks.

Because the Church stuck to its guns, so to speak, and Bp. Robinson was willing to endure those seven years of constant stress, remarkable things have been happening. Grace Cathedral in San Francisco installed its new Dean, Jane Shaw, last night; she is both the first woman and the first openly gay person to hold this position. But the most heartening thing about this is that her being gay doesn’t seem to have been an issue one way or the other. People have been talking about her qualifications, and how happy they are to have found an outstanding replacement for Alan Jones, who was admired and loved by many.

The service was well-attended; I also noticed quite a few young people in the crowd. Most parishes in the diocese seemed to be represented by at least one member of the clergy. The clergy present were almost evenly divided between men and women, and fairly diverse in age and ethnicity. The choir was in good voice, the sermon contained a couple of good jokes, and there was a long round of applause for the new Dean at the end.

I had some time to kill beforehand, so I took a long walk down Sacramento Street. Tucked away near Divisadero, (just after that gay bar with the banana trees out front), there’s one of those little schismatic 1928 Prayer Book chapels. I’d noticed it before, but had forgotten about it.

These are the people who split off in the seventies over the ordination of women; nowadays, they advertise themselves more as the No Gay Priests brand. They build aesthetically pleasing but tiny churches. This one was, I noticed, not just small, but also an exceptionally narrow building. I like pointy gothic architecture as much as the next person, but this seemed emblematic, somehow. The place also looked strangely lifeless. Not just not in use at the moment, and therefore locked, but absolutely and completely sterile. I’m biased, of course, but it really was striking.

Back at the cathedral, the Church continued to go about its business.

I had no idea of the extent of the strain on Bp. Robinson. Bulletproof vests? Bodyguards? I sputter.

I can watch and discuss religion, but I want nothing to do with it.