The Anglican Catholic Church has revoked the Rev. Calvin Robinson’s license to officiate after he briefly imitated a gesture by Elon Musk. Robinson made the gesture, which Musk’s critics equated with a Nazi salute, at the National Pro-Life Summit. Robinson has served as a priest at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, since September.
The summit, which describes itself as “a one-day training event for grassroots pro-life activists of all ages,” is sponsored by several conservative groups, including Focus on the Family and the Heritage Foundation. It met in Washington, D.C., on January 25, the day after tens of thousands gathered for the annual March for Life.
Robinson was one of two ministers invited to speak, alongside Bishop Garland Hunt of the Douglass Leadership Institute. Other presenters included former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, TurningPoint USA founder Charlie Kirk, and Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh.
“America — as far as I can see — is the only country fighting for life,” Robinson said. “That’s down to you guys. So, God bless all of you.” Robinson touched his chest and extended his right arm. Some in the audience laughed and applauded in response.
The Anglican Catholic Church’s bishops responded four days later. “While we cannot say what was in Mr. Robinson’s heart when he did this, his action appears to have been an attempt to curry favor with certain elements of the American political right by provoking its opposition,” the bishops wrote.
“Mr. Robinson had been warned that online trolling and other such actions (whether in service of the left or right) are incompatible with a priestly vocation and was told to desist. Clearly, he has not, and as such, his license in this Church has been revoked. He is no longer serving as a priest in the ACC.”
The bishops added: “Furthermore, we understand that this is not just an administrative matter. The Holocaust was an episode of unspeakable horror, enacted by a regime of evil men. We condemn Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism in all its forms. And we believe that those who mimic the Nazi salute, even as a joke or an attempt to troll their opponents, trivialize the horror of the Holocaust and diminish the sacrifice of those who fought against its perpetrators. Such actions are harmful, divisive, and contrary to the tenets of Christian charity.”
Robinson responded online that the “cheeky gesture at the end is what we Britons call dry wit.” He also said he has been canceled by the ACC.
Robinson is known for his provocative remarks, both online and in person. On January 21, he said the Episcopal Church was apostate and anti-Christ, in response to Bishop Mariann Budde’s appeal to President Trump at the National Prayer Service. He also recently said President Biden should be excommunicated and Anthony Fauci should be in jail. He regularly engages in arguments on X.com. At last year’s Mere Anglicanism conference, he was criticized for forcefully opposing the ordination of women.
Robinson was denied ordination in the Church of England in 2022, both by the Diocese of London and by the Bishop of Fulham, who oversees parishes in the diocese that do not accept women’s ordination.
He referred to the Church of England as “institutionally woke” in The Telegraph, for which he wrote numerous articles criticizing critical race theory. On January 27, he said on X that “there will be no more twisting of the Scriptures to promote open borders. Nations and tribes are God-ordained.” Robinson is biracial, and his paternal grandparents immigrated to the U.K. from Jamaica.
Robinson was ordained as a deacon in 2022 by the Free Church of England, an evangelical denomination that split from the Church of England in the 19th century. In 2023, he left the Free Church to be ordained as a priest by the Nordic Catholic Church, which was created in the late 20th century by former Swedish Lutherans. The Nordic Catholic Church is part of the Union of Scranton, a communion of theologically conservative Old Catholic churches formed by the Polish National Catholic Church in 2008.
He was released from the Nordic Catholic Church to become a priest in the Anglican Catholic Church in 2024. Robinson may have violated immigration law when he moved to the United States, as it requires people on religious-worker visas to belong to a church for two years before immigrating.
On January 23, he was at the U.S. Capitol with Taylor Marshall, a former Episcopal priest who is now a Catholic internet personality, and Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed as Bishop of Tyler, Texas, by Pope Francis in 2023 for leadership failures and his criticism of the pope’s changes.
In November 2024, Robinson appeared on Praying for America, a podcast hosted by Frank Pavone, former head of Priests for Life, who was laicized because of his disobedience, inflammatory internet comments, and placing aborted remains on an altar.
Robinson is a spokesman for the United Kingdom Independence Party. He ran for council member in two different London locations as a candidate for the Conservative Party but did not win. He previously hosted a show on Britain’s GB News called Calvin’s Common Sense Crusade, on which he once claimed that the President of Ukraine was using the war as a front for cryptocurrency-based money laundering.
Before beginning his church career, Robinson was a high-school computer teacher. He founded God Is a Geek, a website that reviews video games. All its staff quit amid this latest incident.
Greta Gaffin is a freelance writer based in Boston. She has a master of theological studies degree from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.