Openly Gay Bishop Tapped for Inauguration

Robinson will speak Sunday, has been critical of Warren

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 12, 2009 12:36 PM CST

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Openly Gay Bishop Tapped for Inauguration — Gene Robinson, the openly gay Anglican Bishop from Concord New Hampshire, , speaks to the Associated Press at St. Mary's Church in Putney, London, Sunday July 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Barack Obama has asked Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the only openly gay Episcopal bishop, to deliver the invocation at the opening event of Inauguration Week, the Boston Globe reports. Robinson had been among those who criticized Obama for asking same-sex marriage opponent Rick Warren to deliver the main inaugural invocation.

“It will be an enormous honor to offer prayers for the country and the new president,” Robinson wrote in an email. “It is also an indication of the new president’s commitment to being the president of ALL the people.” In that spirit, Robinson intends to offer “a prayer for the whole nation,” which means it won’t be “especially Christian.”
(More Gene Robinson stories.)

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