HBO will include omitted invocation in re-broadcasts of 'We Are One' concert

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, January 20, 2009 [Episcopal News Service] Future Home Box Office rebroadcasts of the star-studded "We Are One" concert that kicked off four days of inaugural events in and around Washington, D.C. will include Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson's invocation.

HBO, a premium cable channel, had been criticized for not including Robinson's prayer during the live broadcast from the Lincoln Memorial on January 18 or in subsequent repeats. HBO's online on-demand version also did not include the invocation. The text of Robinson's nearly four-minute prayer is available here and Christianity Today's politics blogger Sarah Pulliam filmed the prayer and posted it here.

The New York Times reported on January 19 that the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Committee took responsibility for the omission. The committee issued a statement, the Times reported, saying it had always intended Robinson's prayer to be part of the broadcast. The committee organized the event and set the schedule. HBO had exclusive broadcast rights. Robinson began his prayer at about 2:25 EST, according to the Times, just before the HBO broadcast went live at 2:30.

"We regret the error in executing this plan, but are gratified that hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on the mall heard his eloquent prayer for our nation that was a fitting start to our event," Josh Earnest, a spokesman for the inaugural committee, was quoted as saying.

Robinson told National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program on January 19 that he knew very little about what went into the broadcast decisions.

In his blog, Robinson wrote on January 19 that he learned after he arrived at the Lincoln Memorial (where he shared a dressing room with golfing legend Tiger Woods) that the broadcast would begin just after he concluded the invocation.

"A decision made by HBO? Who knows?" Robinson wrote. "But I couldn't help but wonder if the HBO-powers-that-be could not imagine that the nation would be interested in a religious prayer. For whatever reason, it was not to be broadcast. I learned a long time ago not to worry about those things over which I have no control! I was honored to be invited to give the invocation, and that's what I intended to do."

He described the day as "filled with the nearness of God, the joy of hope and expectation, and the most remarkable sense of community I've ever experienced on such a large scale."

Not all of the people attending the concert heard the beginning of Robinson's prayer because of problems with the sound system. "We can't hear. We can't hear," the crowd chanted, according to the New York Times.

The committee's invitation to Robinson came a few weeks after Barack Obama endured severe criticism after asking the Rev. Rick Warren, the pastor of southern California-based Saddleback Church and a leading conservative evangelical, to deliver the invocation at the January 20 swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Robinson, who is openly gay and in June entered into a legal civil union with his long-time partner Mark Andrews, was prominent among those who criticized the president-elect's choice of Warren, who has equated gay relationships to incest and child abuse.

The two men have since both issued statements welcoming the other's participation, and there is a chance that they will meet at some point during the January 20 swearing-in ceremony or during an early-morning invitation-only worship service privately at St. John's Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square across from the White House, where many of his predecessors have occasionally or regularly attended services. Robinson and Andrews have also been invited to attend the swearing-in ceremony, watch the inaugural parade from the presidential viewing stand and worship at the invitation-only National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral January 21.

Meanwhile, Integrity USA, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Episcopalians and their supporters, issued a statement January 19 saying that "any disappointment that Bishop Robinson's powerful opening prayer was not part of the HBO broadcast pales in comparison to the power of his iconic presence at the Lincoln Memorial on this historic occasion."

Integrity President Susan Russell said "There are miles to go before we rest in this journey toward being truly a nation of liberty and justice for 'all,' but when Bishop Gene Robinson took his place at the podium at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday we all moved closer toward realizing that goal."

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.

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