I first heard N.T. Wright in 1993, at a conference of Episcopalians called Shaping Our Future. (The Rev. J. Stephen Freeman, whose essay of the same title prompted the conference, edited a collection of essays from that conference before converting to Orthodoxy.)

What do liberal Episcopal bishops do when a local culture careens past their church in the debate about gay marriage? As the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe and The Washington Times have reported recently, some bishops choose a more cautious path than one would expect from their previous announcements and votes at their church’s triennial General Convention.

Since Gene Robinson was first elected at a diocesan convention in New Hampshire, hundreds of journalists — and I’m among them — have fallen back on the overly tidy shorthand that he is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has revised Bishop Jon Bruno’s PowerPoint presentation, “The Anglican Communion: A Roomy House,” to reflect the uncertain nature of a remark credited to Richard Hooker (original slide at left).

Lately it’s becoming popular among Episcopalians who support blessing gay unions to cite this remark attributed to the 16th-century theologian Richard Hooker: “Pray that none will be offended if I make the Christian religion an inn where all are received joyously, rather than a cottage where some few friends of the family are to be received.”