Obama Invites Robinson to Lead Prayer

From Episcopal News Service

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, January 12, 2009

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson will give the invocation January 18 at the first event in a week of celebrations marking President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

Robinson told Episcopal News Service that his participation in the "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. is "a wonderful opportunity for the Episcopal Church and certainly the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New Hampshire to be represented at this historic event and I am honored and not a little overwhelmed at the responsibility."

"I just hope I can live up to it," he added.

Robinson said he was invited by the inaugural committee to participate in the event about two-and-a-half weeks ago and that he had cooperated with the team's request that an announcement be held until some details were worked out.

His participation in the event stands in contrast to the December 17 announcement that Obama had asked the Rev. Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church and a leading conservative evangelical, to deliver the invocation at the January 20 swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Robinson, who is openly gay and in June entered into a legal civil union with his long-time partner Mark Andrews, was prominent among those who criticized the president-elect's choice of Warren, who has equated gay relationships to incest and child abuse.

When Warren's invitation was announced, Robinson told the New York Times that "it was like a slap in the face," adding that "the God that he's praying to is not the God that I know."

Robinson told ENS that "the [Obama] transition team was in touch with me about that and I with them and I was very forthcoming in my feeling that this was a very troublesome choice not because Rick Warren's voice shouldn't be at the table but that this particular venue where he was being invited was not a roundtable discussion of a lot of different opinions" but that instead Warren would be "the prayer voice at the most-watched inaugural in history."

He praised parts of Warren's ministry. "I feel very positively about Rick Warren in some ways. He has broken from his evangelical brothers and sisters around his compassion of AIDS victims and his working on alleviating global poverty," Robinson said. "It's just that the views he holds about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are pretty awful and he even confirmed the statements that he has made comparing our relationships to incest and child abuse. That is extraordinarily troublesome."

However, Robinson told ENS January 12 that he did not think the invitation to participate in the Lincoln Memorial event was meant to balance out Warren's participation. Instead, Robinson suggested, the invitation was based on his early support of Obama, with whom he met several times during the New Hampshire primary.

"I became very convinced that his message against polarizing the nation but in fact drawing it together was one that everyone needed to hear so I became quite supportive of him and his campaign," Robinson said, adding that he advised the campaign and Obama "behind the scenes" particularly around gay and lesbian issues.

"It's certainly the case that the LGBT community will notice [Robinson's invitation] and it will matter a lot but I don't think that was the primary impetus for this," the bishop said.

Clark Stevens, a spokesman for the inaugural committee, confirmed to the Concord, New Hampshire, Monitor newspaper January 12 that Robinson was invited because he had offered his advice to Obama during the campaign and because of his church work.

When asked whether Robinson was included to calm the complaints about Warren, Stevens told the newspaper that said Robinson is "an important figure in the religious community. We are excited that he will be involved." He called Robinson "one of our nation's most prominent religious leaders."

Robinson, whom ENS reached in Seattle where he was delivering a series of sermons and lectures, called the invitation "an awesome and humbling responsibility" and said that "I've hardly been thinking about anything else" other than just how to pray on the 18th.

"I want it to be a prayer for everyone so it will not be overtly Christian so as to be a prayer for all people of faith," he said. "Certainly there will be prayers for the new president but also prayers for the nation. I think we have laid so much on the shoulders of this man and we need to be reminded that we have an enormous role to play in what happens in these next four years as well."

Robinson predicted that he would use some of the prayers he wrote to be run in the February issue of GQ magazine. A draft version of those prayers had been posted on the front page of the diocesan website but was no longer available there after his invitation was announced. A copy of those prayers can be found here.

The time of the event, which will be open to the public, has not yet been announced. In announcing that the event would be broadcast later that evening on HBO, the inauguration committee said that Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will attend the free event that will "feature some of the biggest acts in the world of entertainment to celebrate our common heritage and our new direction." Calling the event "a declaration of common purpose and new beginnings" the committee said it will "be grounded in history and brought to life with entertainment that relates to the themes that shaped Barack Obama's campaign and which will be the hallmarks of his administration."

Robinson said that the inauguration committee had invited him and Andrews to attend a number of inaugural events during the week, including the swearing-in ceremony, the national prayer service to be held January 21 at Washington National Cathedral "and some private events with the president."

The Rev. Sharon E. Watkins, president and general minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), will deliver the sermon.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.