When openly gay New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson heard that Rev. Rick Warren would deliver the invocation prayer at President-elect Obama's inauguration ceremony he called it a “slap in the face.” That was Obama's slap; now comes Warren's turn.

“I'm all for Rick Warren being at the table,” Robinson told the New York Times, “but we're not talking about a discussion, we're talking about putting someone up front and center at what will be the most watched inauguration in history, and asking his blessing on the nation. And the God that he's praying to is not the God that I know.”

Robinson's fury stems from Warren's anti-gay remarks. Warren likened gay marriage to an incestuous relationship and polygamy, and supported passage of a controversial California gay marriage ban.

Warren is the best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life and heads the prominent evangelical Saddleback church in Southern California. A rising leader in the evangelical movement, Warren supports the outlawing of abortion in all cases and is a staunch gay rights opponent. But his moderate tone on AIDS, poverty and climate change have made him controversial among social conservatives.

On Monday, it was announced that Robinson will give an opening prayer at a Sunday inaugural event attended by Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Obama is scheduled to speak at the event which will be broadcast on HBO.

Warren applauded the decision to include Robinson. According to a note published online at Christianity Today Warren said: “President-elect Obama has again demonstrated his genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground. I applaud his desire to be the president of every citizen.”

Gay rights groups, accordingly, also praised the decision to include Robinson.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights advocate, said the decision to include Robinson shows that “ultimately, Barack Obama is a friend to the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community. I believe his administration is going to inspire us and advance our agenda more often than not.”

Despite Warren's lukewarm endorsement, the Robinson pick has resurrected the controversy surrounding the choice of Rev. Rick Warren to give the invocation prayer at the January 20 inaugural ceremony, a prologue to Obama's historic inaugural address.

Adding to the fodder is another Warren remark certain to flame the fire of the controversy.

Warren has extended an open invitation to Episcopal churches wishing to break away from the Anglican Church over Robinson's 2003 consecration.

In a letter posted on Christianity Today, Warren writes: “We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who needs a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.”

The elevation of Bishop Robinson, who lives an openly gay life with his partner of 20 years, has splintered the Anglican Church. In July, Robinson was excluded from the Anglican Church's Lambeth Conference of church leaders after a group of anti-gay leaders pressured the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to act.

Robinson called the decision a mistake, but was not derailed. He flew to the United Kingdom and held his own events. Appearing on the BBC1 program the Andrew Marr Show, Robinson discussed why he was in the UK when he was not invited to the conference.

“I want the light of Christ to shine forth from me... God loves me as a gay man. And I want to share that joy with whomever wants to sit and talk with me.”

“I think miracles happen when people who are divided by something sit and talk with each other, get to know one another as human beings, and as brothers and sisters in Christ. And that's why I'm going, to offer myself in that way.”

“...I think a mistake was made in not including me in those conversations. I was the only openly gay voice that might have been at the table. But I will do what I can from the fringe,” Robinson said on the program.

But at a Sunday church service Bishop Robinson was forced to halt a sermon he was delivering at a London church when a heckler called him a “heretic” and said he should “repent” from a pew.

It now appears that during that conference, perhaps due to the events surrounding it, many parishes, mostly in Africa, decided they could not abide by the decision of the New Hampshire diocese to elevate an openly gay man to Bishop.

In the United States, four diocese and dozens of parishes broke away. And this week, a New York Supreme Court told a breakaway church that they cannot keep its church building. Courts in California have come to the same conclusion.

Rick Warren's invitation offers refuge to Episcopal churches who have walked away from the Anglican Church over the inclusion of gay clergy. For the gay bishop at the center of that controversy, Bishop Robinson, that must feel like a slap.