Ten years later, in his Bishop's Address to the 2013 Diocesan Council, Bishop Lillibridge described Bishop Robinson's affirmation by General Convention as a 'tremulous event.' In fact, he is seated only one chair away from Bishop Robinson in the Episcopal House of Bishops only Bishop Dean Wolfe (IX Kansas) separates them at the HOB table's assigned seating arrangement. The homosexual issue has always been on the forefront of church discussion during Bishop Lillibridge's entire episcopate. This was the backdrop that Gary Lillibridge, then Archdeacon for the Diocese of West Texas, was elected bishop against. Then New Hampshire's Canon to the Ordinary Robinson was the first publically open gay-partnered clergyman to be elected an Episcopal bishop.
Lillibridge was elected the Ninth Bishop of the Diocese of West Texas in October 2003, on the heels of the 2003 General Convention's approving of Vicky Gene Robinson's election as the Ninth Bishop of New Hampshire.
