President-elect Barack Obama has asked V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, to deliver the invocation at an inaugural event on Sunday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Bishop V. Gene Robinson will deliver an invocation on Sunday on the Lincoln Memorial steps.

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Gay rights advocates saw the move as a way to compensate for Mr. Obama’s decision to give the Rev. Rick Warren, a prominent megachurch pastor from California who opposes same-sex marriage, the high-profile role of delivering the invocation at the inauguration next week.

Bishop Robinson advised Mr. Obama on gay rights issues during the campaign. He is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, and his consecration in 2003 set off a growing rift in that church’s parent body, the Anglican Communion. Since then, Bishop Robinson has become an internationally known spokesman for gay rights — a hero to some and an object of scorn to others.

In a telephone interview on Monday, Bishop Robinson said that he believed his inclusion in inaugural events had been under consideration before the controversy erupted over Mr. Warren but that Mr. Obama and his team were also seeking to heal the pain that Mr. Warren’s selection had caused among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates.

“They called up and said this has actually been in the works for a long time,” Bishop Robinson said, “and at the same time, we understand that people in the L.G.B.T. community have been somewhat wounded by this choice, and it’s our hope that your selection will go a long way to heal those divides.”

“In many ways,” he added, “it just proves that Barack Obama is exactly who he says he was and would be as president, which is someone who is casting a wide net that will include all Americans.”

Bishop Robinson said that he had learned of the invitation about two and a half weeks ago but that he and the transition team had agreed to break the news on Monday in The Concord Monitor, his local newspaper in New Hampshire.

The event Bishop Robinson will participate in is on the first day of formal inaugural festivities in Washington. It will feature a lineup that includes the musicians Beyoncé, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder.

The pay cable network HBO will broadcast the event and provide a free signal so that nonsubscribers can also watch, said Linda Douglass, the chief spokeswoman for the inaugural committee.

Bishop Robinson said he had been reading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”

“I am very clear,” he said, “that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”

Bishop Robinson said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings,” language that he said he learned from the 12-step program he attended for his alcohol addiction.

Bishop Robinson said that his partner of more than 20 years, Mark Andrew, would accept the Obama team’s invitation to join him in attending several inaugural events. The two had a civil union ceremony last summer in a New Hampshire church.

Evan Wolfson, executive director of the gay rights group Freedom to Marry, said the choice of Bishop Robinson to deliver the invocation at an inaugural event was “a very powerful statement.” But, Mr. Wolfson added, “at the end of the day, policy is more important than who stands at the inauguration.”

source: New York Times

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