St. Paul's Anglican Church, Prescott, AZ
Above: The Right Rev. Peter Robinson, Rector of St. Paul's Anglican Church, Prescott.
The Right 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 1999.
After moving to the USA in November 1999, Mr. Robinson had to wait over a year for a work permit and then spent a year as Interim Rector of St. Andrew Independent Anglican Church, Los Alamitos, CA, leading it through the discernment process that eventually led to its become a parish of the Anglican Catholic Church. 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. Since Bishop Peter's appointment the parish's attendance has grown by 30%, and it has outgrown its former building on Lincoln Avenue. Faced with the need to move to a larger, more suitable building, 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 steep rise in building costs post-Katrina, initial plans to build on acreage that it owns southeast of downtown were abandoned when it was realized that the parish would not be able to finance an adequate replacement for the Lincoln Avenue facility. The search then moved on to examine suitable 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 A.C.A. 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).
Bishop Robinson 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" because of its retention of the 1928 Prayer Book and old Episcopal Church Constitution. However, in 2001 circumstances did not allow him to join the UECNA. Eventually, in 2007, both Fr. Peter and St Paul's Anglican Church were able to join 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 on 29th October 2008, and 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.
Bishop Peter's hobbies include reading detective novels, model railroading, British and American history, classical music, traditional Scottish and Irish music, playing the Scottish smallpipes, 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 "Central Churchman, a middle of the road Anglican." He is a member of the Prayer Book Society and the Protestant Reformation Society. He is also the present Chieftain of the Scots of Prescott, a Scottish cultural organisation.
Bishop Peter 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. Both the Right Rev. and Mrs. Robinson are on the Board of the Prescott Area Celtic Society which organises the city's Highland Games. They play with Southwest Skye Pipes and Drums, with whom Denise is Pipe Sargeant.
Last Updated: 14th June 2009
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