THE way was cleared for the election of the Anglican communion’s first openly homosexual bishop when the witness who at the last minute had accused Canon V. Gene Robinson of molesting him declined to press his case.
The House of Bishops was about to vote on whether to confirm the election of Bishop-elect Robinson, which passed the House of Deputies, containing clergy and lay members on Sunday night, when allegations were made that the canon had pressed his unwanted sexual attentions on a church member four years ago.
A second allegation, that an organisation that Canon Robinson had co-founded to inform young people about homosexuality was directing readers towards a pornographic website, was also made.
Gordon P. Scruton, the Bishop of Western Massachusetts, who was commissioned to investigate the allegations, told the House of Bishops yesterday that he had spoken to the accuser, David Lewis, 50, an actor and fundraiser.
Mr Lewis’s complaint concerned two alleged incidents of “inappropriate touching” at a church convention in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in November 1999. In the first, Mr Lewis told Bishop Scruton that when he had asked Canon Robinson a question, he “put his left hand on the individual’s arm and on the individual’s upper back. This was in public view and was brief.”
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Later, Mr Lewis encountered the canon “during a light moment” and asked him a question. “He touched his forearm and back while responding with his own comment. He said that in his opinion the placement of his hands seemed inappropriate to him . . . It made him feel uncomfortable,” Bishop Scruton said. “He acknowledged that other people could have seen the exchange as natural and normal.”
When Mr Lewis heard that the House of Deputies had approved the election of Canon Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, “he was feeling upset” and so sent the e-mail in order to derail the canon’s progress. When Mr Lewis was asked whether he wished to proceed with the complaint — “He said quite clearly ‘No’. He regretted having used the word ‘harassment’ in his e-mail,” Bishop Scruton said.
Bishop Scruton’s investigators also dismissed the suggestion that Canon Robinson was responsible for the running of Outright, based in Portland, Maine, whose website indirectly linked to another site, which contained a further link to a site selling homosexual and bisexual pornography.
“Canon Robinson ended his involvement in Outright in 1998 and has not been associated with Outright since that time,” Bishop Scruton said. “The website was established in 2002. Canon Robinson was not aware that the organisation had a website until this convention.”
The New Hampshire diocese can begin preparations for the consecration of its new bishop later this year. A long ecclesiastical trial had threatened to spell the end of Canon Robinson’s hopes to become the first openly homosexual Anglican bishop. By church rules, his election needed to be confirmed by October 12, after which he would need to restart the process.
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The elevation of Bishop-elect Robinson is a great triumph for the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church in America, but it flies in the face of President Bush’s announcement last week that he was opposed to all forms of gay marriage and that he intended to change the Constitution to ensure that such arrangements were made illegal. The President is a Methodist.