Bishop Gene received a standing ovation before and after his address. He spoke of how he had faced prejudice in his role. "I'm here to encourage you to talk about God. I am not here to talk about a social agenda. I am not here to grind any axes, I am here to do the thing that Christians do, that is to witness to the good of God."

His home state in the US is "the one place in the world where I am not the gay bishop - I'm just the bishop... it is a wonderful feeling". He said homosexuals would eventually be fully welcomed in the church but warned that it may take some time. "This is going to end with our full inclusion; we won't live to see it, but it's going to happen."

He described much of what he has surmounted on his journey, the death threats and body armour told with a humour ('My security guards were gorgeous') and ascribed everything to his trust in God's calling and his acceptance of it which, he said, made him like the still eye of a hurricane.

He ended with advice.

1. While you work your inclusion in the Church, and that of other LGTB people, remember that you are already part of the body of Christ by virtue of your baptism. No one can exclude you.

2. Act normal; not 'straight' but as the normal you; as you continue to do so others will recognise your normality.

3. Work on your own stuff - coming out is only the beginning. Like the Hebrews coming out of Egypt who thought they would instantly enter the Promised Land, but instead found 40 years of wilderness. Work your way through your wilderness and try not to think back to the comforts and good food of Egypt. That was slavery - wilderness is freedom.

4. Keep growing - God is with us as we offer our gifts to the Church.

5. Have other issues besides sexuality in your life. The fall of Sodom was caused by the peoples' neglect of the poor and needy. Care about the issues of the world; work to ease them; gently, quietly and firmly teach others to disregard your sexuality and concentrate, as you will be doing, on God's priorities.

6. Gene wittily ridiculed the clichéd and overused phrase 'practising homosexual or lesbian'.

7. He spoke firmly about the humiliation of Canon (now Dean) Jeffrey John, a just criticism which so many of us share. From this sorry tale Gene exhorted us to remember we are not something we do but something we are.

8. Re '-isms' he urged us to make connections with them. Listen and talk.

9. Until now, the church (and the world) has been controlled by straight white men. That time is now over as ethnic peoples, lesbian and other women and gay and other men are claiming their rightful places. The once exclusive and excluding 'table' to which only Christians and others - a chosen few - were welcome is now growing larger and larger. Some day, beyond our time, all this injustice will end and everyone will be equal. Meanwhile, take up your Cross and follow.

10. Talk about God. Spread the good news. Do your own spiritual work - prayer work - worship work, in ways you know. Keep focussed on the mission. It's not about sexuality. Bring people to Jesus Christ. We who have been marginalized know about God's love. Others long to. Gene described speaking to an audience at the Oxford Union where he got the impression that while many of the young people didn't care about the Church they were hungry for God's love.

He ended by exhorting us to read the Bible. He reminded us of the story of the lame man lying at the entrance to the Temple begging for alms. Peter and John came along. Looking fixedly at the beggar, Peter explained that he had no money only the name of Jesus. Taking the beggar by the hand, Peter told him to get up. The beggar did so. Leaping and dancing and praising God, he followed Peter and John into the temple. Gene explained that We are like the beggar. We have been sat at the door, but in the name of Jesus Christ we can too can walk and leap and dance. And go into the Temple, where we belong. Joyfully, we can tell our story. Jesus is alive for us.

In the Question Time that followed, Bishop Gene commented that New Hampshire is the only State in the Union where sexuality is not an issue!