{"id":5195,"date":"2010-11-07T14:30:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-07T14:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/11\/the-episcopal-churchs-first-gay-bishop-announces-retirement.html"},"modified":"2010-11-07T14:30:01","modified_gmt":"2010-11-07T14:30:01","slug":"the-episcopal-churchs-first-gay-bishop-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/11\/the-episcopal-churchs-first-gay-bishop-announces-retirement.html","title":{"rendered":"The Episcopal Church&#8217;s first gay bishop announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And it&#8217;s much earlier than expected.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/11\/07\/us\/07bishop.html?hp\">Details: <\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/BISHOP-popup.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"BISHOP-popup.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/212\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/11\/BISHOP-popup-thumb-250x179-19066.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt\" height=\"179\" width=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/span>Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose consecration as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church set off a historic rift in the global Anglican Communion, announced to his New Hampshire diocese on Saturday that he intended to step down.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop V. Gene Robinson said pressure had taken a toll.<\/p>\n<p>He plans to retire in January 2013 after nine years as bishop, to give the diocese enough time to elect a new bishop and get the approval of the national church, a process that can take two years.<\/p>\n<p>The news took some by surprise because Bishop Robinson is an energetic 63-year-old, and mandatory retirement age for Episcopal bishops is 72. He has led a relatively stable and healthy diocese, despite predictions by some that his election would undermine the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n<p>The reason to depart, he said in a speech delivered at the close of the annual convention of his diocese, is that being at the center of an international uproar has taken a toll on him and on the diocese.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Death threats, and the now worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as bishop, have been a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark&#8221; and on Episcopalians in the state, he said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/11\/07\/us\/07bishop.html?hp\">Read more. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And it&#8217;s much earlier than expected. Details: Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose consecration as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church set off a historic rift in the global Anglican Communion, announced to his New Hampshire diocese on Saturday that he intended to step down. Bishop V. Gene Robinson said pressure had taken&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Episcopal Church&#039;s first gay bishop announces retirement - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/11\/the-episcopal-churchs-first-gay-bishop-announces-retirement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Episcopal Church&#039;s first gay bishop announces retirement - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"And it&#8217;s much earlier than expected. Details: Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose consecration as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church set off a historic rift in the global Anglican Communion, announced to his New Hampshire diocese on Saturday that he intended to step down. Bishop V. Gene Robinson said pressure had taken&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/11\/the-episcopal-churchs-first-gay-bishop-announces-retirement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-07T14:30:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/11\/BISHOP-popup-thumb-250x179-19066.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Episcopal Church's first gay bishop announces retirement - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/11\/the-episcopal-churchs-first-gay-bishop-announces-retirement.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Episcopal Church's first gay bishop announces retirement - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"And it&#8217;s much earlier than expected. Details: Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose consecration as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church set off a historic rift in the global Anglican Communion, announced to his New Hampshire diocese on Saturday that he intended to step down. Bishop V. 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