Huffington Magazine Issue 17 | Page 23

ERIC MILLER/GETTY IMAGES (ROBERTS AND FAMILY) Exit Q&A HUFFINGTON 10.07.12 was consecrated, and here we are nine years later and we’re still the Anglican Communion. No, I don’t think it is going to splinter. At the Lambeth Conference [the main gathering of Anglican Bishops], the African Bishops said to the American Bishops: “Look, we don’t get this whole thing. You say we have gay people in our churches, we don’t know about that, but this comes way down on our list of priorities. We have people dying of malaria and AIDS, we’ve got abject poverty, civil war, women and children being abused—so, why don’t we work together on getting water to that village over there. And somewhere along the line we’ll get to this. And we might even discover that some of the people who are helping us get water are gay. And eventually we can learn about that.” What advice do you have for young LGBT people who are seeking spiritually grounded lives? The journey of coming out is an inherently spiritual one which asks the religious questions: Who Am I?, Where am I going? Am I worthwhile? Am I loved, Am I loveable? So, LGBT people should recognize that they are on a spiritual journey and that even if the church has treated them poorly and they have gotten as far away from church as they can get, they still have a spiritual life with spiritual needs. And even if the church often answers the question of “are you loved or lovable” wrong, God never does. Top and bottom: the Bishop advocates gay marriage in D.C. earlier this week. Middle: With his daughter Ella and husband, Mark Andrew, in 2003.