PETERBOROUGH, N.H. (AP) – The Rev. V. Gene Robinson began his ministry as the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop on Sunday by saying he wants to bring the message of God’s love to “those on the margins.”

He also said the church should speak out on issues of social justice, including the lack of access to health care for many Americans and the inequality of funding for public education among rich and poor school districts in New Hampshire.

“How dare we in this country spend $87 billion on war when 44 million people have no health insurance?” he said in his sermon. “It’s up to the church to lead on some of these moral issues.”

After the service at All Saints Church, where he was married to his former wife, Robinson said he hopes that people who disagree with his confirmation will remain within the Episcopal Church, instead of breaking away.

“A church founded on unhappiness and anger is not going to go very far,” he said.

New Hampshire’s Episcopalians elected Robinson as bishop in June, and his selection was approved at the convention of the Episcopal Church USA in August. But his consecration a week ago has threatened to divide the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

On Nov. 3, overseas bishops who said they represented 50 million of the world’s 77 million Anglicans jointly announced they were in a “state of impaired communion” with the Episcopal Church – a step short of declaring a full schism. In addition, conservatives within the U.S. church have asked the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, to authorize a separate Anglican province for them in North America.

At a reception for the bishop following the service, churchgoer Jack Jones said he was “all for” Robinson.

“He’s a real brave man, and intelligent, and if people don’t want to come to church for him, let them go somewhere else,” said Jones, 64.

AP-ES-11-09-03 1630EST