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Heckler led away from lambasting Bishop Gene Robinson
Gene Robinson
Gay bishop called "heretic" during keynote speech in London church
"Robinson had earlier described the Archbishop of Canterbury's position as almost untenable"
Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Anglican bishop, was heckled as he addressed a congregation at a church in Putney, south-west London last night. Robinson, who is in the UK to coincide with the Lambeth Conference from which he has been banned was speaking on the subject of how sad he was that the Anglican Communion was tearing itself apart over the subject of his ordination, when a long-haired man with a rock T-shirt started shouting that he was a heretic, before jabbing his finger and repeating the word "repent" over and over as he was slow hand-clapped by the rest of the congregation. He was eventually ejected, with Robinson asking the congregation to "pray for that man".
Robinson had earlier described the Archbishop of Canterbury's position - officially somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea - as "almost untenable" and that sexuality was "important but not essential... while young men are knifing each other on the streets of London and there are a billion people living on less than a dollar a day..." He said that next to that the fixation on the idea of two men who want to make a family together made the Church look "irrelevant".
Tonight Robinson will appear with Sir Ian McKellen at a South Bank event where they will be discussing homosexuality in the Bible.
