Gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson said Monday that Barack Obama has asked him to give an inauguration prayer, an apparent attempt to quell anger over the president-elect's plans to have a controversial megachurch pastor as the highlighted clergyman.

Robinson, an outspoken gay-rights advocate whose leadership has divided the church, told the Concord Monitor in his home state of New Hampshire he will deliver his prayer at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday — two days before Pastor Rick Warren gives the invocation on Inauguration Day.

"I am humbled and overjoyed at this invitation, and it will be my great honor to be there representing the Episcopal Church, the people of New Hampshire, and all of us in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community," Robinson said in an e-mail to church members.

In Santa Fe, reactions to Robinson's invitation ranged from satisfaction to "too little, too late."

"That's great, but it still doesn't have the same impact as it would on Inauguration Day, now does it?" said Doña Hatch, president of the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance. "It's not on the day when who knows how many millions and millions of people will be watching. ... It's like being thrown a bone or something."

Hatch said she's upset with Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., who asserts that being gay or lesbian is a lifestyle choice and supported last fall's passage of Proposition 8, California's anti-gay-marriage measure.

The Rev. Richard Murphy, pastor at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Santa Fe, said Robinson serves as "a counterbalance" to Rick Warren.

"I'd rather see him standing in the place of Rick Warren," Murphy added. "It's not the best of all worlds, but it puts him as part of a great change in America, our history."

Murphy has a mixed take on Warren. "I regret that he's homophobic and he doesn't seem to want to give in on that," he said. "On the other hand, he's a hunger activist ... and another thing is people have been touched by his teachings."

Efforts to reach the rector at the Church of the Holy Faith, another Episcopal church in Santa Fe, were unsuccessful.

Murphy said Robinson had been scheduled to speak at his church in late March, after an appearance at the College of Santa Fe, but the trip was canceled when the college event fell through. CSF spokeswoman Marcia Sullivan said Robinson's speech and that of others in the school's Rebels, Reformers and Revolutionaries series were canceled. "It's a cost-cutting measure," she said.

In interviews, Robinson has praised Warren for his humanitarian deeds while criticizing his stance on gay concerns. Robinson told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Warren has "perpetrated lies about the gay, lesbian and bisexual community."

Contact Doug Mattson at 986-3087 or dmattson@sfnewmexican.com.