After causing a crisis of faith within the Anglican Church and, especially, the American Episcopal Church, the Bishop Rev. Gene Robinson has announced that he will be divorcing his husband.

On 2003, the Reverend Gene Robinson was elected as New Hampshire's new Episcopal bishop. The decision caused a great controversy within the global Anglican faith since Robinson was openly gay and in a relationship with a man. However, Robinson was anointed a bishop despite death threats and a smear campaign, recounts The Guardian. Wearing bulletproof vests, Robinson and his partner Mark Andrew were both present at the ceremony.

However, more than a decade after his consecration and four years after his retirement, Robinson announced that he is divorcing his husband of 25 years. He and Andrew married in 2010, when New Hampshire legalized same-sex marriage, but the couple had been together for far longer, according to The Guardian.

Robinson, who since his retirement has been a columnist at the Daily Beast and a fellow at the Center for American Progress, announced his divorce in an article on the Daily Beast published on May 4. In it, he explains the couple's decision to separate but provides no personal details, opting to maintain their privacy. He does explain how straight and gay couples share similar marital experiences and hardships.

"It is at least a small comfort to me, as a gay rights and marriage equality advocate, to know that like any marriage, gay and lesbian couples are subject to the same complications and hardships that afflict marriages between heterosexual couples." Robinson writes. "All of us sincerely intend, when we take our wedding vows, to live up to the ideal of 'til death do us part.' But not all of us are able to see this through until death indeed parts us."

Jim Naughton, an advocate for gay rights and co-founder of Canticle Communications, said to the AP, "Anyone who is using this moment to pass judgment on what kinds of Christians LGBT people are needs to reflect more deeply on their own Christianity."