Gay Bishop About to Be Consecrated
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In New Hampshire today, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopalian church is to be consecrated. Let's go live to Susan Candiotti in New Hampshire who just had an exclusive interview with the Reverend Gene Robinson. Good morning, Susan.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Hours away now from his consecration, Bishop-elect Gene Robinson describes having a sense of calm after months of fury over his election as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. Yet the opposition has not died down. His supporters -- for Gene Robinson and his supporters, he is not letting this get to him.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice over): Bishop-elect Gene Robinson says he's not the devil some make him out to be, nor a saint.</s>BISHOP-ELECT GENE ROBINSON, EPISCOPAL CHURCH: I'm just a human being trying to follow my call from God as best I can.</s>CANDIOTTI: In the hours before his consecration as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, Robinson cannot shake critics who predict a mass exodus from the faith. He compares it to the flap of the ordination of Episcopal women as bishops in the '70s.</s>ROBINSON: We have not come apart over that, and I believe there is no reason to come apart over this.</s>CANDIOTTI: Robinson was first elected by his own New Hampshire diocese, then confirmed by a nationwide vote of bishops. Yet conservatives call his elevation an abomination of scripture. At Christ Church in Plano, Texas, for example, most of the faithful call Robinson's election tragic, tearing the church apart.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Somehow if Robinson he would step back from this, that would be the first step of a sign of repentance.</s>CANDIOTTI: Stinging words, says Robinson, but not helpful.</s>ROBINSON: Surely these people don't believe if I were to step aside that all of this would stop. That we would go back to being the nice pretty picture some have supposed us to be in the past.</s>CANDIOTTI: The flap resulted in a meeting last month of worldwide Anglican leaders with the Archbishop of Canterbury. A statement by Anglican bishops predicted, "The future of the communion itself will be put in jeopardy."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN: God can redeem the pain. The question is whether a deaf church will learn to listen again.</s>CANDIOTTI: Supporters say this controversy will create a stronger church in the long-term.</s>REVEREND KENDALL HARMON, EPISCOPAL CHURCH: We're going to be talking about human sexuality, homosexuality in particular, at a level that we have never been talking about before. That's the upside.</s>CANDIOTTI: Robinson acknowledges he is a symbol. But can he be accepted by a majority outside the U.S. who now reject him?</s>ROBINSON: What I want to symbolize is God's all-encompassing love for all of God's creation.</s>CANDIOTTI: And so later today, the formal consecration to be attended by about 4,000 supporters of Bishop-elect Gene Robinson. And there is time built in for critics who will be allowed to speak, including critics belonging to the conservative American Anglican Council. They will then leave the ceremony and have one of their own. But the opposition will not stop the consecration or this historic event. Carol?</s>COSTELLO: And I know you'll be there and you'll tell us about it later. Susan Candiotti reporting live from New Hampshire this morning.