Bishop V. Gene Robinson, elected in June as the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, was named the Religion Newsmaker of the Year by members of the Religion Newswriters Association

Christian Century, Jan 13, 2004

* Bishop V. Gene Robinson, elected in June as the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, was named the Religion Newsmaker of the Year by members of the Religion Newswriters Association. His approval and consecration, and the ensuing threats of schism in the U.S. church and the wider Anglican Communion, also were cited as the top religion news story of 2003--a ranking shared with criticism of the Anglican bishop of Vancouver, British Columbia, who approved same-sex unions.

About a third of the 240 RNA members took part in the annual survey. The second-rated religion news story was opposition to the war in Iraq by many religious communities and its support by many evangelicals. Third in the RNA's top ten for 2003 was the controversial definitions of marriage coining from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court--which ruled that gay couples have a fight to civil marriage--and the U.S. Supreme Courts striking down a bail against homosexual sodomy.