CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Friends and supporters of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson reacted with joy and relief at the news that their bishop-elect made it through a contentious confirmation in Minneapolis Tuesday.

“Today has been a nail-biting day,” said Susan Milliken, a parishioner at St. Paul’s Church in Concord. She had watched the debate unfold on television, including the last-minute allegations against Robinson. “I was worried for him and worried for the church at large,” she said.

The final vote came as a relief to her and many others.

“I’m elated. It is one of those moments when something wonderful happens to a good person. He’s one of the best,” said Martha Yager, who has worked with Robinson on numerous social justice projects.

“I see this as a very holy moment,” said the Rev. David Jones, rector of St. Paul’s. “We know Gene. He’s one of us. What’s happening is not an issue – it’s happening to a person.”

Not everyone greeted the news of Robinson’s confirmation with joy. Some see his lifestyle as a violation of scripture.

To accept Robinson as a bishop is to accept a “salad bar religion,” where church leaders ignore what they don’t like in the Bible, said Susan Cloutman, who left the Episcopal Church after Robinson was chosen as bishop.

“It’s a cancer. It shows the sickness of the entire Episcopal Church,” she said.

The Rev. David Moyer, an Anglican priest from Pennsylvania who leads a conservative group called Forward in Faith, called the vote a “finger in the eye” of orthodoxy. He predicted many church members would leave and that Anglican leaders internationally would refuse to remain in communion with the New Hampshire diocese.

The Rev. R. Cassius L. Webb, of St. Luke’s in Charlestown and Union in Claremont, said he watched similar dire predictions after the first woman was confirmed as a bishop.

“Everyone was convinced it was going to split the church and it didn’t happen then. I don’t think it’ll happen now,” he said.

But some church members are likely to leave, others say. “If you’re a living church, there’s always going to be people who can’t grow along with that. They will leave, but we end up gaining more. And I think that will be very true here,” Milliken said.

AP-ES-08-05-03 2232EDT

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