St. Paul's Anglican Church, Prescott, AZ
Above: The Most Rev. Peter Robinson, Fifth Presiding Bishop of the UECNA and Rector of St. Paul's Anglican Church, Prescott.
The Most Rev. Peter D. Robinson
The Rev. Peter Robinson came to St. Paul's, Prescott in November 2002. He was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, and grew up in the nearby town of Barton-upon-Humber. He was baptized into the Church of England as an infant but did not begin attending Church regularly until he was fifteen. He became active in his local Church of England parish singing in the church choir on Sundays and serving at the Eucharist on weekdays.
After leaving High School, the future Bishop Robinson read history and theology at the College of Ripon and York St. John, North Yorkshire, graduating Bachelor of Arts (Honours) of the University of Leeds in June 1991. He grew up in a moderately High Church parish that had had a long succesion of "Prayer Book Catholic" vicars. After graduating from College, he served as a lay pastoral assistant in a liberal Evangelical Church of England parish in London, which he describes as being "an interesting experience, in that it taught me just how deep seated theological liberalism had become in the Church of England." He also discovered that his conservative views on the Authority of Scripture, the Creeds and the Liturgy - a discovery that led to barriers being erected by "the powers that be" in his home diocese to his being ordained there.
Following the vote to ordain women in the General Synod (11/11/1992), Peter left the Church of England worried by the exclusively "liberal catholic" outlook of the leadership of his home diocese, and skeptical of theological validity of the "two integrities" theory being propounded to keep Traditionalists in the Church of England. He was received into the Anglican Catholic Church on Trinity Sunday 1993, and accepted as a postulant for Holy Orders.
Bishop Robinson studied for ordination at Holyrood Seminary, Liberty, NY, (now closed) and was ordained to the diaconate July 3rd 1994 by the Rt. Rev Leslie Hamlett, Bishop Ordinary of the Missionary Diocese of England and Wales, and served briefly as the bishop's assistant curate. He was ordained priest in December 1995 and established a small mission in his home town where he served as Vicar from 1995 to 1999. He also assisted at St. John's, Newtownards, Co. Down, and elsewhere in the Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite) from 1997 to 2002.
He was appointed Priest-in-Charge of St. Paul's Anglican Church in June 2002 and moved to Prescott in the following November. Mr Robinson was appointed Rector in March 2003, and inducted the following August, and shortly afterwards Dean of Arizona. By 2005, the parish's attendance had grown by 30%, and it was out-growing the old church on Lincoln Avenue. Faced with the need to move to a larger, more suitable building, Dean Robinson initiated and oversaw much of the resulting building project drawing up the specification for the new building, and initiating discussions with the architects. However, thanks to the steeply rising building costs, initial plans to build on acreage that it owns southeast of downtown had to be abandoned. Efforts then shifted to examining existing buildings, with the former Hillside Church of God building on Hillside Avenue being identified as the most suitable. The parish purchased the Hillside building and moved in November 2007.
The then Rev. Peter Robinson also took an active role in the administration of the ACA Diocese of the West prior to his transfer to the United Episcopal Church. He served as Area Dean of Arizona 2003 - 2007; President of the Diocesan Standing Committee (2003 - 2007); a member of the Board of Examining Chaplains (2001 - 2007), as Chairman of the Board of Examining Chaplains (2003 - 2005), and President of the Diocesan House of Clergy (2001 - 2006). Archbishop Robinson had first became interested in the United Episcopal Church in 2001 when leading his former parish in California. He rapidly concluded that the UECNA "was the old (Anglican or Episcopal) Church without the heresy and political correctness" because of its retention of the 1928 Prayer Book and old Episcopal Church Constitution, and should circumstances allow it, he would eventually align with UECNA. Eventually, in 2007, the Traditional Anglican Communion's moves towards reunion with the Papacy forced the issue and both Dean Robinson and St Paul's Anglican Church joined the United Episcopal Church in North America.
On 29th October 2008, the Rev. Peter Robinson was elected as a bishop-suffragan in the United Episcopal Church at their Ninth General Convention held at Coshocton, OH. He was consecrated 10th January 2009 by the Most Rev. Stephen Reber, Presiding Bishop of the UECNA, assisted by the Right Rev. D. Presley Hutchens of the ACC Diocese of New Orleans, and the Right Rev. William Wiygul of the APCK Diocese of the Southern States. The consecration was held at Trinity Lutheran Church, St Louis, MO, and he served as Bishop-suffragan from January to November 2009.
With the reorganisation of the United Episcopal Church following the 2009 National Council meeting, Bishop Robinson became the Bishop of the Missionary District of the West with responsibility for those states west of the Mississippi except for Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri. He was also placed in charge of liasion with the Anglican Province of Christ the King and the Anglican Catholic Church, the other two continuing Anglican Churches directly descended from the St Louis Congress of 1977. On April 24th 2010, the Most Rev, Stephen Reber announced that Bishop Robinson would be his successor as Presiding Bishop of the UECNA. He succeeded the Bishop Reber on 6th September 2010 as acting Presiding Bishop. He was elected as the fifth Presiding Bishop of the UECNA on May 11th 2011 at the 10th General Convention held in Heber Springs, Ark.. The previous Presiding Bishops of the UECNA were:
1. The Most Rev. C. David Dale Doren - 1981-86
2. The Most Rev. Albion W. Knight, Jr - 1986-91
3. The Most Rev. John C. Gramley - 1991-96
4. The Most Rev. Stephen C. Reber, Sr - 1996-2010
Bishop Peter's hobbies include reading detective novels, model railroading, British and American history, listening to classical music and traditional Scottish and Irish music, playing the Scottish smallpipes, studying church architecture and Church history - especially that of the English Reformation and the High Church, and Evangelical Movements in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Bishop Robinson describes himself as a "High Church Protestant" and acknowledges a particular debt to both the Caroline Divines and their Eighteenth Century successors, and to a lesser extent to Anglican Evangelicals such as Charles Simeon, Hugh McNeile, Hugh Stowell and Dean Wace. He is a member of the Prayer Book Society and was formerly a member of the Protestant Reformation Society. He is also the present Chieftain of the Scots of Prescott, a Scottish cultural organisation. He has been episcopal patron of the Anglican Bible and Book Society since July 2013.
Bishop Robinson is married to the former Denise Krogh, a retired California peace officer. Denise was born in San Jose, CA, and grew up in Idaho. She plays the Great Highland Bagpipes, and identifies strongly with the Scottish side of her ancestry.
Last Updated: 6th April 2016
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