CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, is undergoing treatment for his “increasing dependence on alcohol,” Robinson said in a letter to the 49 churches in his diocese.
Robinson, 58, checked himself into an undisclosed facility Feb. 1 for a four-week stay. Robinson said in the letter dated Feb. 13 that he had the support of his partner, Mark Andrew, and his two daughters. “Over the 28 days I will be here, I will be dealing with the disease of alcoholism — which, for years, I have thought of 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,” Robinson wrote. Robinson was elected as the church’s first openly gay bishop in 2003, a move that has threatened to split the U.S. Episcopal Church and permanently alienate it from sister churches in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
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