Gay Alcohol Treatment
Gay bishop is treated for alcoholism
Anne Saunders, Associated Press
published Tuesday, February 14, 2006
CONCORD, N.H. — The Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, has started treatment for alcoholism.
“I am writing to you from an alcohol treatment center where on Feb. 1, with the encouragement and support of my partner, daughters and colleagues, I checked myself in to deal with my increasing dependence on alcohol,” Robinson wrote in an e-mail to clergy on Monday that was released Tuesday by the Diocese of New Hampshire.
Robinson’s assistant, the Rev. Tim Rich, said Tuesday there was no crisis that led to Robinson’s decision to seek treatment but rather a growing awareness of his problem.
In his letter, Robinson said he had been dealing with alcoholism for years and had considered it “as a failure of will or discipline on my part, rather than a disease over which my particular body simply has no control, except to stop drinking altogether.”
Rich said the news surprised him and many other clergy.
“We did not see it in any way impact his ministry in the diocese,” Rich said.
The Rev. David Jones, rector of Robinson’s home church, St. Paul’s in Concord, said he had never seen any sign that Robinson had a problem with alcohol.
Robinson was elected bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 and confirmed by the national church, causing an upheaval not only in the Episcopal Church, but the worldwide Anglican Communion of which it is part.
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