The Anglican Church's first openly homosexual bishop is under 24-hour protection from the FBI after receiving death threats from Christian fundamentalists.
Bishop-elect Gene Robinson, who will be consecrated bishop of New Hampshire next Sunday, told a conference for homosexual priests in Manchester this weekend that there were grave concerns for his safety.
The threats are being taken seriously in America because of the growing militancy of religious extremists.
Nine years ago Paul Hill, a former preacher and an anti-abortionist, shot dead a doctor and his bodyguard outside a clinic in Florida. Hill was executed for the crime last month.
Conference organisers said that the FBI advised the bishop-elect to cancel his plans to speak in person at the event because his safety could not be guaranteed.
Addressing the delegates via a satellite link from Concord, New Hampshire, Bishop-elect Robinson said that the extra precautions were costing "unbelievable amounts of money - money we don't have".
He was applauded when he said that the diocese "wants a bishop, not a martyr".
He said: "The standing committee of the diocese is taking this very seriously, as is the bishop. We are doing what we need to do to keep me safe so that I can try to keep making the witness that I am trying to make."
Bishop-elect Robinson, who lives with his lover, said he had received hate mail, including a postcard from England describing him as a "fornicating lecherous pig". But such messages had been easily outweighed by letters and e-mails of support.
"There have been all kinds of wonderful messages from around the world about what this means to people, especially from those not in cities or churches where it is safe to be who they are.
"The fact of the matter is that I am neither the devil one side would take me to be, nor the saint that others would have me to be.
"I am trying to hold on to who I am, as a human being and as a Christian on his own journey toward God."
Bishop-elect Robinson said he was determined that his consecration should proceed and said he understood the dilemma faced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
"I have told him in a letter that I am praying for him and that I am so very aware of the difficulties that he is in.
"He is only doing what he said he would do, which was to sacrifice his personal views and seek to hold the Church together while upholding the official policy of the Church."
Bishop-elect Robinson said that, despite his disagreements with many Church leaders over homosexuality, it should not mean that they had to split over the issue.
Bishop Michael Ingham, the liberal Canadian bishop of New Westminster who has authorised homosexual "marriages" in his diocese, said in a sermon yesterday that homosexuals often felt they were in the wilderness.
Preaching at the conference service, he urged them to believe they would eventually find "the promised land".
The service took place in the parish church of St John Chrysostom after the conference was told that, because of its controversial nature, it could not be held in Manchester Cathedral.
Downing Street refused to comment on reports that Canon Jeffrey John, the homosexual who was forced to withdraw as bishop of Reading in the summer, might be nominated as the next dean of Norwich.