Eruptions At The Foot Of The Volcano

JOHN SENTAMU FACE YOUR OWN MISDEEDS:¨Archbishop of York says church leaders who betray trust must take responsibility for actions.¨

2012-01-31T10:36:00.003-06:00

Dr. John Sentamu ought act on his own advise!

Archbishop of York, advising spiritual ¨morality¨ in LGBT bloodrenched Jamaica

Pro LGBT Equality ¨campaigner¨ Portia Simpson Miller (right), prime minister of Jamaica welcomes the
PUNATIVE ¨Anglican Covenant¨ promoter John Sentamu, Lord of York

¨THE INFLUENTIAL archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is of the view that one the challenges bedevilling the Church is the failure of leaders to accept responsibility for misdeeds...¨

Sir Patrick Allen (foreground), governor general of Jamaica, and his wife, Lady Allen (centre), greet and chat with the Rev Dr Howard Gregory (right), bishop of Montego Bay, and Archbishop of York John Sentamu (second right) during a courtesy call on the governor general at King's House on Friday. - Rudolph Brown/Photographer

IS DR. SENTAMU ¨EARNING FORGIVENESS¨ FROM THE LGBT ANGLICAN COMMUNITY IN JAMAICA, UGANDA, NIGERIA AND BEYOND? WE AWAIT YOUR APOLOGY FOR ATTEMPTING TO EXCLUDE US FROM ALL LEVELS OF CHURCHLIFE!

"I believe that anyone in leadership is in a position of trust and to betray that trust requires a greater acknowledgement than just saying I have messed up, and I am going to try to earn forgiveness from the community that I have wronged," asserted the high-ranking cleric in the Church of England.
HERE (emphasis added by Leonardo Ricardo)

· Thanks to Gary Spaulding
· Thanks to The Gleaner, Jamaica
· Thanks to Three Rivers Episcopal, sidebar

http://blog.noanglicancovenant.org/

A QUICKIE TRIP TO OLE´ MEXICO

2012-01-30T16:19:00.004-06:00

VIVA MEXICO!

Dear Friends,

Sorry I missed you these past days/daze. I´ve been frolicing, but mostly shopping and eating, in Olde Mexico...it was a flavorfilled blast (and otherwise) and the Tostadas, Chicken Mole and THE SHRIMP were delicious...just ask and I promise to tell. There was NO CRIME in the streets and everyone seemed orderly and happy as they went about the business of being the hospitable people that MEXICANS are.

Thanks to Mexico, the Mexicans and all of you for visiting while I was away.

Un abrazo fuerte,
Leonardo Ricardo/Len

HONORING IN MEMORY -- DAVID KATO: ¨Bishop Senyonjo spoke of David Kato as a selfless leader who served the gay community in Uganda to challenge discrimination and stigma for homosexuals.¨

2012-01-26T14:25:00.002-06:00

The ¨fear meant to be instilled in the Ungandan Homosexual community after the death of David Kato (pictured above) is broken by God¨

¨Gay rights activists in Uganda on Thursday paid tribute to murdered gay rights defender, David Kato, one year after his murder.More than 100 activists, human rights defenders and allies to Uganda’s gay community remembered David Kato as a distinguished campaign for equality at a memorial service in held in Kampala.

His killer, Nsubuga Sydney, was sentenced to 30 years in jail on his own plea of guilty when charged with killing Kato.

Retired Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, the head of the St. Paul Reconciliation and Equality Centre (SPREC) and US based pastor, Joseph Tolton said the mass.

Kato’s mother, sisters and family members attended the function.

Known to the Ugandan LGBTI community as Nnalongo (mother of twins) Kato’s mother said she was thankful for the love extended to her in the last one year since her son’s death.

She said often Kato’s friends had shown her “love, care and compassion” whenever she had been depressed thinking of her son, and that this generosity of spirit had kept her going.

Bishop Senyonjo spoke of David Kato as a selfless leader who served the gay community in Uganda to challenge discrimination and stigma for homosexuals. “I respect you all homosexuals. And my message is a message of love as God’s children,” Bishop Senyonjo said during the sermon.

Pastor Tolton said he stood by the US Episcopalian Church’s inclusion of gay ministers in the church. He said, “The fear that was meant to be instilled in the Ugandan homosexual community after Kato’s death had been broken by God.”

Bishop Senyonjo said that Kato lives on, and that although he had been killed to instil fear among the Ugandan gay community, homosexuals had prevailed.

One after the other, friends of David Kato spoke of him as a leader saying he had leadership qualities worth emulating, while others prayed for his soul to rest in peace...¨ please read it all, HERE

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the day David Kato, a gay activist in Uganda, was beaten to death in his neighborhood with a hammer after his photo appeared in a local paper under the headline "Hang Them."

¨sexual preferences are a private matter¨ President Thabo Mbeki

¨The former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, has risen to the defense of homosexuals in Uganda, saying the proposed Antihomosexuality Bill (now languishing in Uganda's Parliament) is irrelevant.¨

“I would say to the MP [David Bahati, mover of the bill]; sexual preferences are a private matter,” said Mbeki. “I don’t think it is a matter for the state to intervene.” Mbeki said he was certain that Bahati would disagree with his stand and argue that African culture does not permit same sex relations, a reason at the heart of the continent’s wide spread antipathy towards homosexuals.... HERE

· Thanks to Black Looks, HERE
· Thanks to LGBT Asylum News, sidebar
· Thanks to The Rt. Rev. Christopher Ssenyonjo, Anglican Bishop, Uganda
· Thanks to The Reverend Joseph Tolton
· Thanks to Thabo Mbeki, Former President of South Africa
· Thanks to Episcopal Cafe

THE GLORY OF ANGLICANISM: ¨...I am tired of people telling me that I am not as Christian as they are simply because I think differently than they do¨

2012-01-25T14:34:00.005-06:00

Dr. Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury and The Reverend ¨Canon Librarian¨ Doll of Norwich are kidding themselves/others if they do not recognize the Anglican Covenant as a punishing document

¨I am tired of the wrangle though. I am tired of people telling me that I am not as Christian as they are simply because I think differently than they do. I have always thought that Anglicanism was based on not ‘having a window into men’s souls.’ I will never deny anyone communion at the table I serve because it is not my table to guard. It is the Lord ’s Table I serve and from what I read in the Gospel, Jesus fed all who came with abundance left over.¨ Muthah+

¨A white paper has been written for the Bishop of Norwich by a C of E which is being recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury in support of the Anglican Covenant. Written by the Canon Librarian of the Norwich Cathedral, Peter Doll resurrects much of the froth and bother that began to be developed in the US some 10 years ago as the extreme conservatives in the US House of Bishops began to lose power. There were accusations of lack of collegiality, appeals to history, uncertain theologies, lack of catholicity, etc. by those bishops then and Doll seems to return to their arguments.

It begins with a nod to the academic delving into the history of Christianity in the US with all the appropriate footnotes, but it is a history of the American ‘popular church’ that is no more characteristic of the Church in which I have served for the past 30 years than a barrel of monkeys. And after his nod at scholarship he goes on a 5 page rant about how ‘un-Anglican’ and even ‘un-Christian’ TEC is because we have been so high-handed in what we have done by consecrating openly gay and lesbian clergy to the office of bishop. It is interesting that there is no reference to the Anglican Church of Canada who did many of the same things.

Doll was born in the US and a Yalie, and perhaps feels that he is an authority on all life in America. But it is clear from his writing that he has no experience of the church he is supposed to be writing about. He has spent most of his adult life ordained for the C of E, living in the culture of the UK. The C of E and TEC are not the same but we come from the same roots.

Doll’s statement : ”The American religious experience is like no other, and even if American Anglicans have historically identified themselves as standing apart from evangelical Protestantism, as being a cut above socially and intellectually, their actual experience is nevertheless deeply imbued with these same primordialist assumptions” is not only not true in the Episcopal Church since WWII, it is offensive to those of us who find their spiritual home in a church that straddles the catholic/protestant abyss today in ways never appreciated in other parts of the Communion. It is clear he has a singular prejudice against the concept of a faith rooted in experience with nips and digs at the evangelicals that are presently ascendant in American politics and the Methodists for their lack of orthodoxy (really?) and then paints the whole American religious canvas as gnostic.

The American Episcopal Church IS a unique church. That is part of the glory of Anglicanism. All our national churches are unique to the cultures we serve. We do provide an alternative to the Calvinistic and Roman Catholic strands of Christianity that make up the majority the Christian experience here. We are a small presence in the total mainline tree of Protestantism in the US. But we do like to think that we provide a place for a thinking person’s response to faith. We are a vital leaven in the whole Christian loaf that makes up the US.

Unlike the C of E, we are not an academic-bound church. We have good theological schools and have produced fine teachers, but we do not expect our bishops to be scholars. Like the Lutherans we put much more emphasis on the pastoral duties of our bishops, priests and deacons. We find ministry to those in the pew, the celebrations of the sacraments and service of the needy lively ways to live out what it means to be the Church of Christ in our area. We believe that these stem from our Baptismal covenant and are central to how we not only experience faith but also how we share it. In other words, the laity is the primary order in the church not priest or bishop.

We are aware that we are not only a church in a very powerful country but in 9 other nations of the world. TEC often stands in opposition to the actions of US national interests as a voice for the poor, disenfranchised and the voiceless. We too stood with South Africa in her fight against apartheid. And it was the dogged work of Bishops John Walker and Archbishop Tutu that brought the US sanctions that finally helped topple the moneyed interests in South Africa. TEC too has voiced our concerns against the misuse of power that often accompanies global industries which pollute or disorient local economies. We try to address the issues of our day in the light of the Gospel. We are not the church of the moneyed class any longer.

We are truly trying to encounter this new era of technology and post-modernism with the message that the Incarnation is present now as it was in times past. Granted this newness is not going to look like it always has, but it will continue to challenge a new era by inviting a whole new generation into the intimacy with their God. Now, if that is what is to be called ‘cultural imperialism,’ so be it. It seems to me that this is what mission is about. It is also what happens when there are great movements in history that change the way that people embrace the truth of their existence in relation to their surroundings. We need but see the movements in faith history over the past 4 millennia to see what is happening in our world today.

In the past almost 10 years, I have found it almost comical that TEC is blamed for GAFCON leaving the Communion. We have forced no other church to force people or churches or dioceses from the common Table. We have not demanded that others think or act the way we do. We have gone ahead and acted on 40 years of study and ministry to best serve the people we have in our Church. We find that honesty about sexual orientation is preferred to hiding behind celibacy or denial. We believe that both the scientific and spiritual communities have spoken to the issue of homosexuality clearly and it is important to address the injustices of furthering discrimination as we have done on issues such as slavery, racism, colonialism and sexism. We do not demand other parts of the communion to believe as we do. But we do expect that when we send our leaders to be in council with other parts of the Communion that they will be respected and welcomed as Christ just as we would welcome and respect the leaders of other churches....¨ please read it all, HERE

The Reverend Canon is kidding himself if he does not recognize the Anglican Covenant as a punishing document

· Thanks to Stone of Witness, sidebar
· Thanks to Muthah+ , Texas

“After ten years of outcry, the nation of Ecuador has entered into a commitment with civic organizations and society in general to deconstruct the belief that homosexuality is an illness...

2012-01-24T08:07:00.001-06:00

¨The appointment of a lesbian politician as Ecuador’s new health minister has caused a stir this week, as she announced a campaign to shut down religious ´lesbian cure´ clinics .

Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa, announced the appointment of Carina Vance Mafla, who is openly gay, as the newest member of his cabinet.

The American-born activist hit the ground running, with an announcement that the health ministry will be working closely with lesbian rights group Fundacion Causana, and other civil rights groups, to shut down the remaining religious clinics which promise to ‘cure’ lesbians.

HERE

¨This announcement has also meant further praise for the president Correa, who has been complimented for supporting a pro-LGBT constitution.¨

· Thanks to Pink News, sidebar
· Thanks to President Rafael Correa, Equador
· Thanks to Carina Vance Mafla, Health Minister, Equador

ACCOMPLICES TO MURDER? Phillip Parker is dead. ¨Pray the devil out him, so he can be straight¨ were the words of emotionally ill and spiritually unsound ¨Christians¨ ! Dangerous Fools!

2012-01-23T17:13:00.009-06:00

Phillip Parker, 14, died this week. His parents said he was constantly bullied for being gay. R.I.P., little brother Phillip

¨So sad. News has been circulating the past couple days of the suicide of eighth grader Phillip Parker from Gordonsville, Tennessee:

A Gordonsville boy’s parents say bullying caused their son to take his own life. Phillip Parker, 14, died this week. His parents said he was constantly bullied for being gay...¨ please read it all,
HERE

Parents fight back

¨We have backed away from bringing you stories about gay teens committing suicide. There is some risk that coverage of the stories can psychologically encourage a troubled teen to do the same.

However, the story of Phillip Parker in Gordonsville, TN, really pissed me off and really made me happy...¨ parents fighting back, HERE

Phillip Parker committed suicide after being relentlessly bullied for his sexual orientation at Gordonsville High School.¨

...This latest gay teen suicide takes place in a state riven with anti-gay controversy. Recent “Don’t Say Gay,” “License to Bully,” and anti-transgender “Bathroom” bills are making their way through the Tennessee State Legislature, all attempting to stigmatize and debase LGBTQ people. Correlations have been made between high profile anti-gay news stories and a heightened number of violent incidents involving LGBTQ people around the nation...¨ please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Truth Wins Out, sidebar
· Thanks to Evan Hurst
· Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar
· Thanks to Timothy Kincaid
· Thanks to Unfinished Lives, sidebar

NO MORE DUPLICITY: Attn ++Rowan Williams and ++John Sentamu -- ´Compulsory celibacy is wrong and damaging for all clergy -- Straight or Gay´

2012-01-22T14:01:00.000-06:00

¨Not everyone called to the priesthood is also called to celibacy

Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch

TIME TO BE GROWN UP AT CHURCH

¨...It's not rocket science - as my continually exasperated Latin teacher used reiterate. It's just common sense. All our understanding of humanity, spiritual guidance, pastoral care and psychology, our understanding of groups and politics says the same thing: a falsehood at its heart corrupts everything.

This particular falsehood - that there are no gay clergy in the Church of England and, if there should be any, then they're all celibate - is so blatantly untrue as to be obvious to anyone.

Perhaps the Church of England is so used to living with internal contradiction, wilful blindness and avoidance of what's right in front of its face that it can maintain this duplicity without batting an eyelid.

But I would much rather have a grown-up church. One that takes sin seriously in all its forms: sexual, relationship, financial, political and otherwise. One that recognises human frailty not only in our visible failings but also in our inordinate desires to be in the right and to bend other people to our conception of what they ought to believe and do. And I'd hope for a church too that looks for, even evokes, the maturity which comes from the continual process of understanding, forgiveness and acceptance of both self and others...¨ please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Not the Same Stream, sidebar
· Thanks to Diarmaid MacCulloch, St Cross College, Oxford
· Thanks to Paul Bagshaw
· Thanks to The Guardian, United Kingdom

A SONG OF RECOVERY: For those who struggle with addiction(s) -- ¨you have turned my wailing into dancing¨ The Daily Office, Josh Thomas

2012-01-21T11:30:00.002-06:00

A Song of Recovery/Psalm 30

I will exalt you, O LORD,
because you have lifted me up *
and have not let my enemies triumph over me.

O LORD my God, I cried out to you, *
and you restored me to health.

You brought me up, O LORD, from the dead; *
you restored my life as I was going down to the grave.

Sing to the LORD, you servants of his; *
give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness.

For his wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye, *
his favor for a lifetime.

Weeping may spend the night, *
but joy comes in the morning.

While I felt secure, I said,
“I shall never be disturbed. *

You, LORD, with your favor, made me as strong as the mountains.”
Then you hid your face, *
and I was filled with fear.

I cried to you, O LORD; *
I pleaded with the Lord, saying,
“What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the Pit? *
will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness?

Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me; *
O LORD, be my helper.”

You have turned my wailing into dancing; *
you have put off my sack-cloth and clothed me with joy.

Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing; *
O LORD my God, I will give you thanks for ever.

· Thanks be to God
· Thanks be to Josh Thomas, ¨For Addicts¨
· Thanks to the Daily Office, HERE

SCHISMATIC OPPORTUNISTS AVAILABLE -- ATTENTION ROWAN WILLIAMS, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: Ought not both the ACNA and ECO ¨excluders¨ be offered the ¨Anglican Covenant¨ Ordinariate?

2012-01-20T16:24:00.019-06:00

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archpusher of the punative/excluding Anglican Covenant HERE

¨As you may know, this past summer the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) decided to allow the ordination of gay clergy.¨

¨Yesterday, a new Presbyterian denomination was born: the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians — or, for short, ECO (as opposed to echo, which is a hollow, after-the-fact, ever-diminishing noise).

ECO was formed by pastors and laypeople in response to PCUSA’s decision to join the 21st century. They’re against gay people being ordained as ministers, and so started their own sub-denomination wherein such a thing would be prohibited.

And that’s fair enough. If they want to take their ball and go play with themselves in the corner, that’s certainly their right.

What is certainly most notable, however, is ECO’s refusal to anywhere, in any way whatsoever, just come out and say that they formed in response to PCUSA’s sanctioning the ordination of gay people. Everyone knows that’s why ECO formed. It’s hardly a mystery or secret...¨ HERE

RENEGADE ACNA CONFIRMS THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION COVENANT HERE and REWARDED by ARCHBISHOPS WILLIAMS of Canterbury and SENTAMU of York.

The Church of England and the Anglican Church in North America
HERE

PLEASE REMEMBER

Anglican Covenant ¨signer/supporter¨ TEC former Bishop of Pittsburgh (deposed), Robert Duncan, head of the ACNA ¨continuing¨ schismatic church in North America

¨Robert Duncan, the former/deposed TEC bishop of Pittsburgh recently had his ACNA ¨continuing church¨ group ¨endorse¨ the Anglican Covenant (the ACNA has absolutely no official affiliation or standing with The Anglican Communion).

Robert Duncans Gafcon associates amongst The Global South/Gafcon Primate crowd, of which he is in full communion and a full member, said they WILL NOT accept the very same Covenant, as written, nor attend the Primates Meetings...¨

Who is ¨off message¨ or is this simply another well-choreographed Global South Anglican Communion house-cleaning and schismatic caper to replace the TEC with the ACNA?

Will the Gafcon Primates compromise and attend Primates Meetings if Rowan Williams plays along by ¨removing¨ some of the ¨instrument of Communion¨ members via his ¨Anglican Covenant¨ Ordinariate
scheme?

Will Archbishop Rowan Williams and Archbishop John Sentamu continue to recognize the ACNA (quietly) by agreeing to ¨amend¨ (secretly) the Anglican Covenant Ordinariate to exclude the less-holy/inclusive ¨Episcopalians¨ and ¨Anglican Church of Canada¨ Christians (and other inclusive Anglican Provinces) at the Anglican Communion?

Archbishop Drexel Gomez, retired, remains ¨available if needed¨ to rework and strengthen the Anglican Communion Covenant Ordinariate for the Gafcon/Global South schismatics

PLEASE NOTE:

Archbishop Drexel Gomez, chairperson of the Anglican Covenant Design Group, and retired Archbishop of LGBT blood-drenched Jamaica/West Indies, remains ¨ready¨ to continue with his Anglican ¨Covenant¨ ordinariate/inquisition work. HERE

· Thanks to LGBTQ Nation, sidebar
· Thanks to Thinking Anglicans
· Thanks to Reuters, photo

VIOLATIONS ARE UGLY IN HONDURAS: "Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights?"

2012-01-19T17:14:00.002-06:00

Since the beginning of 2010, Honduras has tallied at least 62 homicides within the LGBT community, and some experts say the count may be far higher. Some victims have been mutilated and even burned.

¨From U.N. chambers to the halls of the State Department, global pressure on countries to protect the rights of homosexuals and transgender people is rising.

For Josue Hernandez, the new emphasis can't come fast enough.

The 33-year-old gay activist bears the scar of the bullet that grazed his skull in an attack a few years ago. He's moved the office of his advocacy group four times. Still, he feels hunted in what is arguably the most homophobic nation in the Americas.

"We are in a deplorable state," Hernandez said of homosexuals in Honduras. "When we walk the streets, people shout insults at us and throw rocks. Parents move their children away."

Three months ago, a U.N. report declared that discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — or LGBT — violates core international human rights law. It listed nations where violations are most severe...¨ HERE

· Thanks to LGBT Asylum News, sidebar
· Thanks to The Department of State, The United States of America
· Thanks to U.S. President Barack Obama
· Thanks to U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said
· Thanks to Tri-City Herald
· Thanks to Tim Johnson

CUBA´S NATIONAL SEX EDUCATION CENTER: ¨Surgery is not an aesthetic whim, but a scientific procedure agreed upon internationally, which benefits transsexual people.¨ BREAKING: Police murder Transwoman in Cuba!

2012-01-18T08:48:00.007-06:00

CUBA: Mariela Castro Espin invites ¨people going through conflict can come to us¨

Cuba Makes Progress in Sex Reassignment Surgery ... expects communist party to accept LGBT rights

¨Havana, Jan 17 (Prensa Latina) Cuban surgeons have performed 15 sex reassignment surgeries, and other transsexual people, who are assisted by a committee in compliance with international standards, are applying to that kind of procedure, an expert said on Monday.

The director of the National Sex Education Center (CENESEX), Mariela Castro Espin, explained that the first such surgery in Cuba was performed in 1988. However, it was not until 2007 that the Ministry of Public Health decided to perform sex reassignment surgeries again. As we spread this service in the media, more people going through the conflict and who do not know that they can get help will come to us, said the expert in an interview with the website Cubasi.

So far, transgender people must go through a follow-up period of two years, during which they are assisted by specialists, along with a personalized hormone therapy for the duration of the transition to the gender with which they are identified.

At the end of the process, the committee endorses those eligible for sex reassignment surgery (commonly known as sex change) and for a legal identity change, said Castro Espin...¨ HERE

Reported that Trans woman ¨Jessica¨ Leidel Luis killed by Cuban police

UPDATE -- Not so fast with the compliments for CUBA:

Florida-based news website Cubanet is reporting that a young transgender woman has been beaten to death in police custody in Cuba.

¨Eighteen-year-old Leidel Luis, who was known as Jessica, originally from the province of Santiago de Cuba and who lived with her partner named Yariel in Las Tunas, died after receiving a brutal beating in Guáimaro in Camaguey, southern Cuba.

It is alledged that she was picked up at a traffic stop 4 January by police calling her "faggot, nigger and disgusting."

The report is sourced to a prison inmate, Rolando Castro Sanchez who names those he alleges beat Luis to death as police officers Galindo Yarian Larena, Juan Ramon Lorenzo, their commanding officer Heriberto, and the sector chief Boris Luis Caballero. It is alleged that her body was removed after she was found dead in her cell in the middle of the night to an unknown location.

Cuba's Communist Party Congress, which opens 28 January, will reportedly adopt pro-gay provisions. Mariela Castro Espín, the daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro and the leading advocate for LGBT rights in Cuba, wrote on her blog this week that the revision of the Family Code in 2013 will include recognition of same-sex couples.

However, continuing police harassment in Cuba, including arrests, has been reported on a number gay Cuban blogs, such as that of the Reinaldo Arenas Memorial Foundation. Gay Cuban blogger Francisco Rodríguez Cruz has also condemned 'irregularities' committed by Cuban police, who, he says, have repeatedly fined visitors to a gay meeting spot in central Havana. In September a death in custody of a transgender man was reported in Havana...¨ read it all, ¨Muere Travesti Tras Golpiza Propinada Por Policias¨

· Thanks to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Jamaica, sidebar
· Thanks to Prensa Latina, Cuba
· Thanks to Mariela Castro Espin, CENESEX
· Thanks to LGBT Asylum News, sidebar
· Thanks to Francisco Rodriguez Cruz
· Thanks to Rolando Castro Sanchez
· Thanks to Cubanet, Dania Virgen Garcia

THE CONFLICTED DESIRE FOR SELF-TRANSFORMATION: Many are fascinated yet fearful of the facts and truth

2012-01-17T16:26:00.003-06:00

¨ a candle has been lit inside me, for which the sun is a moth.¨*
- Bahauddin Valad

¨Most of us are fascinated and yet fearful of the facts and truth. It flies in the face of our assumptions, opinions, and beliefs. Many are like moths drawn to a flame, paralyzed, conflicted, confused; unsure of what to think or do.¨ Ronald Wattonville-Ames

¨In sufi literature one of the most loved metaphor is moth and flame. The moth's annihilation into the flame has been drawn again and again as an analogy for the seeker in the sufi path who seeks annihilation into Divine Essence. The sufistic term for the annihilation or passing away into Divine is Fana.

In the poem quote at the beginning of this post, from The Drowned Book, Maarif, the genius of Bahauddin Valad (father of Rumi) uses moth in a surprisingly beautiful metaphor. Here the analogy emphasizes the brightness of one's inner light that makes the sun look like a moth, apparently a small insect.

Moth and Flame analogy is also used to symbolize self-transformation. In a sufi story by Fariduddin Attar (adopted from the book, Essential Sufism), its described in this following fashion:

One night, the moths gathered together, tormented by their longing to unite themselves with the candle. They all said, 'we must find someone to give us news of that for which we long so earnestly.' ...please read it all,
HERE

· Thanks to Ronald Wattonville-Ames, Friend
· Thanks to Mystic Saint
· Thanks to Faridudin Attar, Sufi

PRINCIPLES FOR EQUALITY: "Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us" -- Bayard Rustin

2012-01-17T08:11:00.002-06:00

Bayard Rustin (1912-1987; civil rights activist and gay man who advised MLK Jr and organized the 1963 March on Washington)

“The job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castigate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That’s our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment.”
HERE

· Thanks to End Bigotry in Venango County, sidebar
· Thanks to Bayard Rustin
· Thanks to Martin Luther King

THE NO ANGLICAN COVENANT BRIGADE SENDS IN THE DREADED FINAL OPTION: ¨The Dowager Countess of Grantham Invites the Primate to Tea¨ Lay Anglicana

2012-01-16T11:55:00.003-06:00

¨The No Anglican Covenant Brigade, in an attempt to halt the Covenant juggernaut, has tried reasoned analysis, expostulation, satire and mockery. This blog alone has invoked, inter alia, Cassandra, Elizabeth I, Trollope and inter-galactic law. Though some members have been tempted, the group has not yet resorted to sabotage or blackmail. Although the time may yet come for the dreadful final option of the Charge of the NAC Brigade, there remains another possibility.

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury ought ¨quake in his shoes¨

It is time to send in a Great British Battleaxe. Surely even Archbishop Rowan would quake in his shoes if faced with one of these in full sail? Margaret Thatcher in her prime perhaps? But no real woman can truly match the great battleaxes of fiction: Mrs Proudie, Lady Bracknell, Lady Catherine de Bourgh or, her latest triumphant incarnation, Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, the real star of Julian Fellowes’ latest entertainment, Downton Abbey

From this impressive list, let us choose the Dowager Countess for this important role. She is so clearly a woman of unshakeable self-confidence, at her prime in the Edwardian era when her class was at its most supremely confident. After many years of practice in bending the local clergy to her will, (as is apparent from this scene requiring her to persuade the vicar to perform what he regards a dubious marriage), she is surely as ready as anyone to take on the Archbishop...¨ please see, read, hear and enjoy it all, by Lay Anglicana, HERE

Elizabeth I has been ¨involked¨ by Lay Anglicana

· Thanks to Lay Anglicana, HERE
· Thanks to No Anglican Covenant Coalition (Brigade), HERE

THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY and YORK TO BE EXPOSED PUBLICLY/LEGALLY? The Very Reverend Jeffrey John victim of demeaning, prejudice and discrimination at The Church of England/Crown Nominations Commission?

2012-01-15T08:44:00.003-06:00

¨The Very Rev Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, has instructed an eminent employment lawyer to complain to Church officials after being rejected for the role of Bishop of Southwark.¨

¨...Dr John was at the centre of a storm in 2003 when forced to step down as Bishop of Reading by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams after it became known that he was in a gay, though celibate, relationship. The furore fuelled a bitter civil war within the Anglican Church that has dominated Dr Williams’s decade in office.

The dean was again a cause of infighting in 2010 when he was a candidate for Bishop of Southwark. A respected theologian and former canon at Southwark Cathedral, he had strong backing from senior Church liberals and it was said even David Cameron was supportive.

But the Crown Nominations Commission, whose members are responsible for selecting bishops and include Dr Williams, appointed another candidate. Dr John was said to be furious and his supporters’ anger was stoked by a memo by another member of the commission, the late Dean of Southwark Colin Slee, claiming Dr Williams was one of those who tried to ‘wreck’ Dr John’s chances...¨ please read it all,
HERE

· Thanks to Jonathan Petre
· Thanks to The Very Reverend Jeffrey John
· Thanks to The Daily Mail, United Kingdom

¨MANO DURA¨ PROMISES RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: New Guatemala President Otto Perez Molina takes office

2012-01-14T19:54:00.004-06:00

President Perez Molina said he wants to build a culture of peace and respect for human rights

¨The new president of Guatemala, Otto Perez Molina, has been sworn into office after his election victory in November.

Mr Perez Molina - a former army general - has promised tough action to combat soaring levels violent crime and drug trafficking.

He has also promised to reduce poverty and child malnutrition.

Mr Perez Molina, 61, is the first military figure to lead Guatemala since the return to democracy in 1986.

He took over from the Social Democrat Alvaro Colom, who was prohibited by the constitution from standing for a second term as president.

In a speech to thousands of cheering supporters in Guatemala City, President Perez Molina promised to bring "profound change" to Guatemala.

"We take over a country in crisis, a country close to moral bankruptcy, where respect for authority and the rule of law has been replaced by a culture of corruption and impunity," he said. please read it all, HERE

Guatemala president orders army to join drugs fight

UPDATE, GUATEMALA CITY, SUNDAY:
¨One day after his inauguration, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has ordered the army to join the fight against drug cartels.

Mr Perez Molina, who is a retired general, called on the military to "neutralise organised crime".
Officials say the police in some areas of Guatemala have been infiltrated by drug gangs...¨ HERE

·   Thanks to BBC News, International
·   Thanks to President Otto Perez Molina
·   Thanks to REUTERS, photo

Flag of Guatemala

UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND PRESIDENT: “Non-discrimination is at the heart of what UNCF has always stood for. Our policy prohibits discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status and disability.”

2012-01-14T11:14:00.001-06:00

Ugandan Ambassador to The United States of America, Perezi K. Kamunanwire, ¨abruptly withdrew¨ as Martin Luther King Day speaker

¨Uganda’s ambassador to the United States abruptly withdrew on Friday as the keynote speaker for a Jan. 16 Martin Luther King Day event sponsored by the United Negro College Fund in Greenbelt, Md.

The withdrawal by Ambassador Perezi K. Kamunanwire came one day after United Negro College Fund President and CEO Michael L. Lomax sent him a letter saying UNCF supporters had expressed concern over an anti-homosexuality bill recently introduced in the Uganda Parliament. The letter was triggered by an inquiry from the Blade.

“Yesterday I was asked for comment by the Washington Blade, the oldest and second-largest circulation LGBT newspaper in the country,” Lomax told Kamunanwire in his letter.

“UNCF’s history and mission make us especially alert to violations of human rights, wherever they occur,” Lomax said in his letter. “So while we recognize that these issues are matters of internal Ugandan policy, we are dismayed at present polices in Uganda (and in many other African countries) criminalizing sexual orientation, and we view with alarm the draconian penalties, including the death penalty that the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill would impose if passed....¨ please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to The Washington Blade, sidebar
· Thanks to Michael L. Lomax
· Thanks to The United Negro College Fund
· Thanks to By Lou Chibbaro Jr

PLEASE MEET THE REVEREND MARK KIYIMBA: A ¨consistent voice for LGBT equality in Uganda¨

2012-01-13T04:24:00.000-06:00

Ugandan Pastor, Mark Kiyimba

Ugandan Pro-Gay Pastor To Speak: Washington, D.C. Rev. Mark Kiyimba, pastor of the New Life Kampala Unitarian Universalist Church, has been a consistent voice for LGBT equality in Uganda in the face of proposed draconian legislation designed to criminalize gay people and their supporters out of existence. Rev. Kiyimba is currently in the U.S. for a speaking tour, and for the next several days, he will be speaking at several locations in the Washington, D.C. area...¨ HERE

· Thanks to Jim Burroway
· Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar
· Thanks to The Reverend Mark Kiyimba, Uganda

PLEASE MEET SUSAN ALLEN: Native American lesbian elected to Minnesota House

2012-01-12T17:06:00.000-06:00

State Legislator-elect, Susan Allen, Minnesota

¨Last night Victory Fund-endorsed candidate Susan Allen won a special election for a seat in the Minnesota State House, making her the first openly lesbian Native American to be elected to a state legislature.

Allen will represent District 61B in south central Minneapolis, where almost half the children live in poverty. ”It reminds me of a lot of the places I grew up. It’s 62 percent minority,” Allen told Minnesota Public Radio.

Allen’s opponent in the special election, Nathan Blumenshine, lauded her in conceding defeat. ”Her personal story is a powerful one, and I can’t think of a stronger leader to serve as the voice of this community,” Blumenshine said...¨ please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Gay Politics, sidebar
· Thanks to Nathan Blumenshine (a great sport)
· Thanks to The People of Minneapolis, 61B

REALITY JUST TAKES SOME GETTING USED TO: Still, gays need to get over 'being gay'. We need to just be ourselves, and we don't need a label for that.

2012-01-12T07:26:00.001-06:00

¨Playing darts at a local bar in South Florida, I overheard a common lamentation from a self-hating homosexual, and I hate self-hating homosexuals.¨

¨Do you think I would ever choose this lifestyle - exposing myself to ridicule, exclusion and hurt all these years? I would much rather be a happily married heterosexual with children," he said, moments before consuming his fifth glass of Heineken in less than an hour. HERE

· Thanks to Squalls & Sunsets: Have the Strength of a Penguin
· Thanks to The Bilerico Project, sidebar
· Thanks to Norm Kent

MEET MARK GLAZE: Gay man heads mayors group on curbing gun crimes

2012-01-11T03:59:00.008-06:00

Mark Glaze, The Raben Group

¨When Raben client Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns began the search for a new director, Glaze was a natural choice, having worked extensively on the group’s issues as a strategist. With a young son in D.C. and a just-purchased townhouse under renovation, Glaze agreed to take on the New York-based position but split his time between New York and Raben’s Washington offices...¨

¨Out leaders aren’t just working on LGBT issues. They’re involved at every level of government and in numerous advocacy organizations dedicated to important public policy challenges of all stripes. Today marks the first in a new series of posts highlighting the contributions and careers of these openly LGBT leaders – out men and women who are leading policy initiatives that touch the lives of nearly all Americans...¨

Mark Glaze is a Colorado native who came to Washington, D.C., in the mid-1990s. After working as a staffer on Capitol Hill, Glaze attended law school at George Washington University on a prestigious Truman Scholarship, and then set sail for New York after graduating. But a love of policy and politics eventually pulled him back to D.C. and public interest work. Glaze ran his own communications consultancy before joining the plugged-in Democratic strategy firm The Raben Group and HERE

· Thanks to Gay Politics, sidebar
· Thanks to Denis Dison
· Thanks to Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns

BISHOPS JOHN SAXBEE AND PETER SELBY: ¨ We believe that the Covenant [the Anglican Covenant] is to be resisted.¨

2012-01-09T07:37:00.001-06:00

Lack of diocesean [Church of England] debate on the Anglican Covenant are grounds for real concern

A SNIPPET From the Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee and the Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby letter to Church Times:

¨Sir, — Whichever side of the argument you are on there are grounds for real concern about the way the debate about it is progressing. It cannot be good to learn, as we do, that many bishops who are against the Anglican Covenant don’t want to say for fear of seeming disloyal, that diocesan synods are “debating” the issue without hearing both sides of the argument equally presented, and that there is so much boredom and weariness about the whole issue.

This is a major proposal with potentially serious consequences for this and future generations of Anglican Christians, and for those ecumenical partners with whom we are in conversation. Nothing will be worse than for the Covenant to be yawned through at a July Synod preoccupied with debating the ordination of women as bishops, passed and then put in a drawer — only for us to discover that those who now brand it “toothless” then use it and propel the Communion into a litigious and factious future.

The Archbishop of Canterbury made it clear in his Advent letter that such is not his purpose. But the proposed Covenant cannot now escape the identity it has acquired as an instrument of exclusion...¨ please read it all, by subscription, HERE

· Thanks to the Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee and the Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby
· Thanks to CHURCH TIMES, HERE

BASIC DECENCY REQUEST -- ATTENTION -- Anglican Bishop Thomas Elango Dibo: Seven jailed gay men in Cameroon have issued a New Year's message thanking all those who have supported them.

2012-01-08T11:38:00.004-06:00

Prisoner Jean Claude Roger Mbede with Lawyer and Activist Alice N'kom
¨Happy New Year¨
2012

"Although you’ve accompanied us with a lot of sadness, you’ve especially shown us a lot of kindness, love and determination throughout this year. We exhort you to never give up in to the discouragement and to never weaken in your mobilization for us and for the LGBT cause. Because your support represents for LGBT in Cameroon in general and specially for us who are in prison… the HOPE. The HOPE to be one day, released from the PRISON in which we’ve been thrown, but also the HOPE that one day, LGBT people can walk quite freely in Cameroon, without any humiliation.

We wish you, from the bottom of our heart, to be of happy, healthy and that the coming year be full of promises and success.¨ HERE

•Jean Claude Roger Mbede
•Singha Jonas,
•Ndome Ndome Frankie,
•Ombwa Joseph Magloire,
•Tiomela Lontsie Emma,
•Ntamack Nicolas,
•Ntsama Séraphin.

· Thanks to LGBT Asylum News, sidebar
· Thanks to Paul Canning
· Thanks to Alice N'kom

A ¨Qualified¨ APOLOGY: Chicagos Cardinal George Apologizes to LGBT Community

2012-01-07T08:43:00.001-06:00

Cardinal Francis George

PERHAPS ONLY SOME GAYS AND LESBIANS ARE MEMBERS OF THE KLAN? A WHIFF OF HUMILITY.

"During a recent TV interview, speaking about this year's Gay Pride Parade, I used an analogy that is inflammatory. I am personally distressed that what I said has been taken to mean that I believe all gays and lesbians are like members of the Klan. I do not believe that; it is obviously not true. Many people have friends and family members who are gay or lesbian, as have I. We love them; they are part of our lives, part of who we are.

"I am deeply sorry for the hurt that my remarks have brought to the hearts of gays and lesbians and their families. I can only say that my remarks were motivated by fear for the Church's liberty. This is a larger topic that cannot be explored in this expression of personal sorrow and sympathy for those who were wounded by what I said..." HERE

· Thanks to Truth Wins Out, sidebar
· Thanks to Joe.My.God., sidebar

THE FABRIC OF AMERICA: Why should LGBTQ people care about immigration reform?

2012-01-05T07:56:00.000-06:00

¨The answer is simple: because lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are part of the fabric of every American demographic and, therefore, are subject to all aspects of injustice. We are black, Asian, Latino, white, poor, rich, differently-abled and, yes, undocumented. It would be foolish not to support the best and the brightest undocumented youth in our country. And it would be inhumane to look the other way while a corporation continues its anti-LGBTQ, anti-environment, anti-woman, anti-minority and – as the Occupiers would say – anti-99% crusade...¨ please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Get Equal, sidebar
· Thanks to Tiffani Bishop, Issac Brown, Iana DiBona, and Michael Diviesti

ATTN ANGLICAN CHURCH OF WEST INDIES: Anti-homophobia candidate to become prime minister of Jamaica!

2012-01-04T17:02:00.003-06:00

Elected with a landslide victory, Portia Simpson Miller becomes Prime Minister of LGBT bloodsoaked Jamaica

“Our administration believes in protecting the human rights of all Jamaicans,” Simpson Miller responded. “No one should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. Government should provide the protection.”

Speaking out against discrimination, bigotry and hate in Jamaica

¨Portia Simpson Miller’s People’s National Party won a landslide victory in Parliament over the ruling Labor Party in Jamaica yesterday, giving her a second run at her previous role as first female Prime Minister of that Caribbean nation.

Homophobe ¨chairman¨ of the punative Anglican Covenant design team, Archbishop, retired and waiting to inflict more pain, Drexel Gomez, Anglican Church of the Jamaica and the West Indies
HERE

¨Jamaica is well known for its severe homophobia around the world, and in the past decade, many instances of serious anti-gay violence in Jamaica have caught the attention of the international media. In addition disgraced former Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, had vowed to keep gays out of his Cabinet, a policy supported by Simpson Miller’s opponent, and outgoing Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, who stepped in to take Golding’s place upon his resignation two months ago....¨ HERE

http://blog.noanglicancovenant.org/

· Thanks to The Washington Blade, sidebar
· Thanks to Portia Simpson Miller
· Thanks to The Parliament of Jamaica
· Thanks to The No Anglican Covenant Blog, sidebar

THE REPELLENT REPUBLICAN RACE: Santorum's (2nd place) win is not a referendum on who he is as a man (inhumane and ignorant), or who he is as a candidate (pandering and mean).

2012-01-04T12:53:00.003-06:00

Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center For Lesbian Rights

"In the repellent race to the bottom (no pun intended) it should be no surprise that Santorum did so well in the Iowa caucuses. Mitt Romney is in a major stall, and in a field of class clowns Rick Santorum stands out as particularly cartoonish. [snip] Santorum's win is not a referendum on who he is as a man (inhumane and ignorant), or who he is as a candidate (pandering and mean). It is simply the gasping statement of a thankfully dying breed of Americans -- those who fear, loathe or hate anyone different from themselves, who mistrust or reject the idea that government can and should be a force for good, and who detest even the slightest exposure to information or ideas that challenge their world view." - Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center For Lesbian Rights, via press release.

Santorum and the ‘Creep Factor’

¨Rick Santorum will ultimately lose because he has a screw loose. The “Creep Factor” will come into play if he ever gets to the general election. This is a man with serious issues that include the fetus situation and his obsession with homosexuality. There is something profoundly wrong with Santorum and it will be his undoing...¨ read it all, by Wayne Besen, HERE

· Thanks to Kate Kendell, HERE
· Thanks to National Center For Lesbian Rights
· Thanks to Truth Wins Out, sidebar
· Thanks to Wayne Besen
· Thanks to Joe.My.God.

HEALING PRAYERS BEING RECEIVED IN GUATEMALA -- Thank you everyone from the family of Beverly Emiko

2012-01-03T18:19:00.001-06:00

Mom and Paul selecting rare textiles for their Maya collection last year

UPDATE: Sacatapequez, Guatemala, Central America

Dear Friends and all of you much loved and appreciated supporters of our dear Beverly Sakai,

Yesterday we asked for your prayers of ¨comfort and peace¨ for Beverly and just a few minutes ago the family of Beverly Emiko Nakatani Sakai telephoned me to report that the doctors are cautiously pleased and optimistic as Beverly is now eating well, begun to heal and regaining physical strength. Her general physical health and well being (she held her son Pauls hand strongly and even did a few simple strengthening exercises in bed encouraged by son Tom) has taken a turn for the better last night and into today.

Last year. Mom at home doing her favorite cross-word puzzle

Thanks be to God and Thanks to each of you. Blessing to you and yours and may we ask you to continue to keep Beverly in your prayers.

Peace be with you. Prayers of transition requested for our dear friend Beverly...

2012-01-02T17:05:00.006-06:00

Prayers ascending for peace of mind and for the continued comfort of Beverly and her loving family

Peace be with you

A bad case of déjà vu: ¨...the Republicans and the Loony Religious Fringe¨

2012-01-02T14:08:00.001-06:00

¨Every single one of the sops Newt Gingrich and the other Republican candidates are throwing the far right have been scripted for them by generations of so-called Reconstructionist "thinkers", Roman Catholic ideologues and Christian Zionists that have been pushing the religious community -- and America -- steadily in the direction of overthrowing democracy and replacing it with some version of an Americanized theocracy...¨ please read it all, by Frank Schaeffer, HERE

· Thanks to Frank Schaeffer, sidebar
· Thanks to Flickr Photosharing
· Thanks to "Burn In Your Hell" by Herr Müller

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 - 2012: Work in progress from my studio...

2011-12-31T09:01:00.003-06:00

Full Bloom II 3´x 4´

The Otherside of the Volcano 4´x 5´

Feastival (painted pot), Feast Table II, Orchid Chair (six different chairs/orchids)

Insider View Feastival Pot

Feast Table II, Feastival Pot

· Thanks to Juan Carlos, photos
· Thanks to Taller Staff
· Thanks to 2011 into 2012
· Thanks to Caniz (door to door shipping)

´Tis the night before another New Years Eve. Saying goodbye to 2011 is hard for me...

2011-12-30T22:17:00.008-06:00

Some colors and textures of 2011

Big times. Big days. Little and big parties with friends...it´s been a lovely Holiday Season (yes, I celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas too at the foot of the volcano) 2011. There´s are new acquaintances who offer fresh smiles, nice additions and color my horizon differently. I need and want them (mostly) to add to the

experience, a shared experience with those I love and cherish.

2011 at the foot of the volcano

There´s been sad moments as dear ones fade away into the sunset of their own being and it´s so hard to let go, to say no, to deny, to repaint reality before the paint is dry. I over-try to hope even before and after I cry ¨do not go¨ away from me, I try to insist and demand things aren´t as they really are (sometimes)...it´s the life I learn as ¨I am willing to accept the things I can not change and become willing to change the things I can...¨ (sometimes with a grudge).

It´s in the Trust of God that all will be well no matter what...ít´s trusting that becomes gratitude to me. ´Tis the night before another New Years Eve...saying goodbye is hard for me...I often love the known and unknown in all that I see/feel each year...I cling to my very own version of reality.

Leonardo Ricardo, Sacatapequez, Guatemala, Central America

P.S. I just got up from bed for a few moments because the volcano roared me awake...it´s still dark, it´s Five A.M., the volcano is complaining or celebrating -- which will it be (or simply letting off a little steam, like me)?

· Thanks be to God

AT THE FOOT OF THE VOLCANO - 2011 - Fiestas, Feasting, Friendships/Families and Lifelines/Lifesytles Linking - Sacatapequez - Guatemala

2011-12-28T10:48:00.005-06:00

Dr. Julio Cesar Quiñonez/re-elected Mayor and Chepe his right hand ¨councilman¨ too, Lisa Jensens despidida, Juan Carlos delivers dozens of ¨Angel Food¨ bags to the elderly, The Gang of Four/Five (Tom taking the picture), Stained Glass Window by Nathan Laskey, Sue Patterson of ¨Wings¨, John Holden/live lava, The Ladies of Fuentes, Violeta and nieta, Juan Carlitos, Gold Award winning Historian Elizebeth Bell, The Dogs of December (not pictured ¨Honey¨ and ¨Frida¨)

Gene Siesting, Birds Chirping, Minature 1´x 1´ painting, Garden Party Fiesting, Judy Sandlier Preening, Guest of a Guest Visiting, Marcos´ Waking, Our Garden Bursting, Tables Nesting, Turtles Finning, Frida Posing, Little Tables Positioning, ¨Honey¨ Peeking, Juan Carlos' Tia Visiting, Irene and Cynthia Feasting, Juan Carlos Presenting and a Little Bench for Resting.

My heart is full, my life, my art, my passion for ¨being¨ continues to unfold before me and I am alive and thankful to be exactly the person I was created to be.

2011-12-27T18:18:00.003-06:00

At the Foot of the Volcano

¨It´s the way that we see things that makes the World be things¨
Dorothy Johnson

·
33 years sober
Thanks be to God
2011
Leonardo Ricardo/Len Clark Beardsley
D.O.S. December 13, 1978

PART FOUR/ MY FAVORITE ERUPTIONS UNDER THE VOLCANO 2011: Prayers for Alcoholics and Addicts, Elizabeth Taylor Knew, Cultural Prejudice, Doubletalk From Lambeth Palace

2011-12-25T08:38:00.005-06:00

NINE
For Those in Immediate Danger
¨Heavenly Father, save all in immediate danger due to addiction. We no longer trust ourselves or anyone else; but help us to trust you as our only way out. We beg for your help right now: to pick up the phone, to make the call, to let someone know, to admit the truth: that we have lost the war with alcohol and drugs. It is over, now, Lord, you are our last, best hope; our only one. We can’t even believe that you would stoop so low as to pick us up. Yet you are ever strong to save and eager to love us, despite our overwhelming sins and grief. Lord, by whatever means necessary, help us to surrender now to your loving power. Put aside our pride, heal our shame, calm our nerves, quiet our hearts and show us, O Lord of Power, that you will get us through this to new and better life, if only we are humble enough to ask in the Name of Jesus. Lord, we never knew we needed a Savior; but we do.¨ Amen.

Mar 31, 2011
FROM THE DAILY OFFICE: ¨Prayers for Alcoholics and Addicts¨ by Josh Thomas
HERE

TEN
WE DIDN´T KNOW WHAT TO DO BUT ELIZABETH TAYLOR DID -- SEPTEMBER 19, 1985 --

DINNER WITH ELIZABETH TAYLOR
Early evening on September 19, 1985 a group of specially invited guests -- including the fabulous/beautiful and bejeweled friend to all, Lillian Bernie Wallen Ezer (RIP) of Beverly Hills, who was the only female present at our party and later served as hostess at our table-- gathered at my duplex near Fourth and La Cienega--just a few blocks from Cedars Sinai hospital. Champagne corks popped and drinks flowed and we were lucky to all be alive! We were having a little pre-party before a very special dinner later at the downtown Los Angeles´ Bonaventure Hotel. All were thrilled and dressed elaborately, rented several limousines and with great thanks to my somewhat homophobic ¨employer/dinner-sponsor´ in New York, Sirco International Corporation, Burt Siris (RIP), Chairman, we were ready to attend a ¨star studded¨ dinner after purchasing a ¨Silver¨ table (I don´t think I knew there were ¨Gold¨ tables available for purchase or I would have pushed for a ¨Goldie¨) at the AIDS Project Los Angeles’ Commitment to Life dinner. Intertestingly, Dame Elizabeths face, hair and lovliness is exactly the ¨minds eye¨ image (above, although she wore a gorgeous gown) I recall it to be as she made her presentation at the dinner that night. It was the start of decades of her warriorlike activism when fighting HIV/AIDS!

Mar 23, 2011

Dinner With ELIZABETH TAYLOR: Just me, my coworkers, our round ¨silver¨ table and 2,500 others at the Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles
HERE

ELEVEN
"Cultural prejudice has not only succeeded in making most heterosexuals hate gays; it has succeeded in making most gay people hate themselves" Randy Shilts

¨I wholeheartedly agree with this quote from the late Randy Shilts, but I would add that it is cultural prejudice, fueled and reinforced by religious prejudice against LGBT people, spewed by all too many clergy who have vilified Gay people from their pulpits, that has spawned this hate by their justification of that hate and discrimination, that frequently leads to vilification, bashings and murders of LGBT people.¨ the Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker

Feb 26, 2011

Christian Hate Spewers : ¨Every single drop of blood shed by LGBT people, either through suicide, bashing, or murder, is on the hands of homophobic clergy...
HERE

TWELVE
The Archbishop of Canterbury supports Bishop Orombi's exclusion of homosexuals.* How does excluding people for who they are even pretend to be Christian?

In his press conference yesterday in Dublin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, condemned the actions of the Ugandan rag "Rolling Stone" (not to be confused with the US magazine) for calling for the hanging of "homos". He pointed out that words matter ..... when uttered by what he called "this rotten, disgraceful Ugandan publication" and they have serious consequences. Responsibility needs to be taken, he said.
¨The same goes for the Archbishop. Words matter. In the same press conference he defended Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi's anti-gay stance. The Irish Times put it this way: "Defending Bishop Orombi, Archbishop Williams, head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, emphasised that, as with other relevant Anglican primates, Bishop Orombi’s position concerned “exclusion from ministry on grounds of behaviour, not orientation”.

Jan 31, 2011

Defending Bishop Orombi? We need to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury to stop speaking out of both sides of his mouth... HERE

PART THREE/MY FAVORITE ERUPTIONS UNDER THE VOLCANO 2011: The First Memorial Day, Fundamentalist/Evangelical Warning, ¨My Love¨ a poem

2011-12-23T23:41:00.003-06:00

SEVEN

¨The first known observance of Memorial Day was in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865; freedmen (freed enslaved Africans) celebrated at the Washington Race Course, today the location of Hampton Park, and each year thereafter. African Americans founded Decoration Day, now referred to as Memorial Day, at the graveyard of 257 Union soldiers and labeled the gravesite "Martyrs of the Race Course" on May 1, 1865. Black Charlestonians created this American tradition...¨

May 29, 2011

AFRICAN AMERICAN FOUNDERS: DECORATION DAY/MEMORIAL DAY 1865
HERE

EIGHT
Ignorance has been elevated to a new form of "virtue"

Apr 23, 2011

FUNDAMENTALIST/EVANGELICAL WARNING: ¨If Religion Kills America There Will Be No Resurrection (Happy Easter!)¨ Frank Schaeffer HERE

NINE
Following the murder David Kato, Ugandan poet Musa Okwonga dedicated his poem "My Love" to David Kato and Eudy Simelane. LGBTI Activist David Kato was murdered in his home in Uganda in January and lesbian football player Eudy Simelane was gang-raped, beaten and stabbed to death in South Africa in 2008. Musa Okwonga has now turned "My Love" into a multimedia project.

Apr 17, 2011

MY LOVE COMES THROUGH ANYTHING: ¨The cleverest geneticists can’t fathom him, Priests can´t defeat him with venomous rhetoric...¨ HERE

THE ´POSADITA´ de TOMAS y PABLO: A Great White Star hung directly over the fiesta on this clear night of a thousand stars

2011-12-23T09:29:00.002-06:00

The guests arrived

One of the most inspiring moments of this Holiday Season happened high atop the hills overlooking the Panchoy Valley near the village of San Mateo Milpas Altas this week. Juan Carlos and I were present for a spectacular pre-Christmas event.

The prayers were offered here

Our dear pals Tom, Paul and Tod hosted a breathtakingly beautiful and deeply spiritual event, una posadita (grande), and the whole countryside came. Up the steep mountain road hundreds and hundreds trudged from San Mateo Milpas Altas and surrounding aldeas and tiny barrio communities tucked into the landscape. Over one thousand pilgrims strong followed the ¨traje¨ clad statues of Saint Mary and Saint Joseph that were hand carried on a decorated platform. Mary and Joseph were lit brite in the darkness of night by battery powered generators being pulled along to fuel spotlights...up the hill the candle carring night visitors came accompanied by a special brass band from San Antonio Aguas Calientes...a spectacle of great humility and anticipation of the great event to come, heavily flavored with soothing chants and songs, prayers filled with passion and renewed hope for all humanity.

Preparing for la ¨posadita¨ Orlando and Juan Carlos

And then there was the generous and very appreciated hospitality: Thousands of tamales, gallons of hot chocolate and hundreds of bags of dulces and galletas (for the children) all orchestrated and produced by Gerardo Santos and the extended Santos Perez families of Santiago Zamora and San Antonio Aguas Calientes--delicious.

· Thanks to Tom, Paul and Tod, Hosts
· Thanks to Gerardo, Orlando and Juan Carlos
· Thanks to Photos by Tomas, transfered by Juan Carlos
· Thanks to don Luis and the San Antonio Aguas Calientes band
· Thanks to The village layreaders and prayer leaders of San Mateo
· Thanks to The Families Santos Perez

PART TWO/MY FAVORITE ERUPTIONS UNDER THE VOLCANO 2011: Leonardos birthday, David Hicks and Lady Pamela and Gay Equality too!

2011-12-22T19:21:00.004-06:00

FOUR
Gotta keep my eye on the ball, gotta keep moving along...Happy 68th Birthday to me!

“The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.”

Aug 26, 2011

A BIRTHDAY MESSAGE FROM TEDDY: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” HERE

FIVE
The Grand Canyon (the real reason David Hicks and Lady Pamela Mountbatten came to see us)

Jul 13, 2011

ARIZONA HERE I COME: I´m returning to the scene of the non-crime -- well, mostly non-crimes! HERE

SIX
¨Openly gay New York Times op-Ed columnist Frank Bruni writes about what he believes is one of the biggest reasons marriage equality finally made it's way to New York state: those who once opposed same-sex marriage had their minds changed by the gays and lesbians in their lives.¨

Jun 26, 2011

GAY PRIDE: ONE DAY AT A TIME, MOMENT BY MOMENT, BREATH BY BREATH, TRUTH BY TRUTH, SIDE BY SIDE WITH EVERYONE ELSE! HERE

MY FAVORITE ERUPTIONS UNDER THE VOLCANO - 2011: A little awareness, payback, fondness and all-around GLEE!

2011-12-22T10:52:00.003-06:00

ONE

Nov 16, 2011

BEING A PEDOPHILE HAS ZERO TO DO WITH BEING GAY*: ¨The vast majority of men who abuse boys are either not attracted to adults of either gender or are straight men who are emotionally disturbed¨ HERE

TWO

Oct 30, 2011

LATINOBAROMETRO´S BEST ´LEADER´ IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE: BARACK OBAMA HAS HIGHEST APPROVAL RATING!
HERE

THREE

September 22, 2011

BIGOTS BE AWARE OF YOUR OWN PERSONAL CHARACTER: The righteous anti-LGBT loathing is all about a feardriven sickness inside of you!
HERE

THE CHRISTMAS ANGELS OF DEATH: Anglican Church 'does not and will not accept homosexuals'

2011-12-21T07:24:00.008-06:00

Himself, Anglican Archbishop Albert Chama, Central Africa

Just in Time for Christmas

Over and over again, time after time we hear from ¨religiouslike old men¨ who have apparently lost their way in Africa and Jamaica as they condemn and further harm, then disparage, the Human Rights of their fellow Human Beings.

Old men at Church, and they mostly are spiritually/emotionally challenged grasping old men, who intentionally issue unpastoral edicts against the leaset amongst them/us, the marginalized, the despised.

Many Anglican old men intentionally create danger for LGBTI Anglicans. This time the less-than-intelligent-and-loving pontificating comes from Albert Chama, a Gafcon schismatic, who was not long ago enthroned Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Central Africa. After much political posturing/rangling and with the support of American ¨evangelical¨ contributors/backers, this power seeking man and his pals, a ¨cluster¨ of bigots at Church, have done much to endanger many lives of our LGBTI brothers and sisters, our families and our friends in Central Africa.

The nations of Central Africa, please don´t forget despot-enslaved Zimbabwe is amongst them, are places where daily intrigue, political/civil unrest, sex slavery, rampant alcoholism, poverty, child witchburning and the vile living/health standards of most citizens are ignored. Ignored once again as MORE fear and hatefilled distractions against LGBTI citizens are first imagined, and then become, the deadly force driving daily life.

Central Africa is a very sad place to spend Christmas. With such lack of compassion, with slothful religious leadership and, then, when missing REAL Grace and REAL caring it seems anticipating the great good of Jesus Christ is just an illusion, a con game, a superstious event which is to be twisted and misunderstood.

May God have mercy on us ALL as the bigots and hatemakers/thieves at the Anglican Church/beyond continue to conspire to make themselves into holylooking men on the backs of the less fortunate, the oppressed. Leonard Ricardo

¨THE head of the Anglican Church in the Central Africa Province, Archbishop Albert Chama, said his church does not accept gay practices.

The Central Africa Province consists of Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and Zambia.

Archbishop Chama, who is based in Zambia and is on a visit to the country, said this yesterday when he presided over the Order of Epiphany at St John's Cathedral in Bulawayo. He said the church was not going to reverse its position on same sex marriages.

The Order of Epiphany service is when the church recognises the great work of individuals in its ranks who had sacrificed a lot in peace building and community.

Speaking after the three hour service, Archbishop Chama said his church did not support homosexuals as this was an unacceptable practise...¨ there is more, HERE

· Thanks to Bulawayo 24, News
· Thanks to Three Rivers Episcopal
· Thanks to Jim Simons

DESPERATION, THE DESERT, DEATH: A Human Rights Crisis Is Taking Place At The United States of America and Mexicos Border!

2011-12-20T08:13:00.001-06:00

¨The remains of at least 6,000 migrants have been found in U.S. desert land since U.S.-Mexico border policies were implemented in the 1990s. Some groups estimate that for each set of remains recovered, those of 10 more people are lost to the harsh desert elements.

Advocates and authorities attribute the escalating number of deaths not only to rising heat but also to ever-tightening border security forcing migrants into more remote and dangerous terrain. Deserted calls on viewers to recognize these deaths as a humanitarian emergency and human rights crisis.

The video includes chilling images of a morgue in Tucson, Arizona in which row after row of body bags contain human remains that may never be identified, of people whose families may never know what happened to them...¨ see video, if you´re courageous enough to watch it, HERE

· Thanks to LGBT Asylum News, sidebar
· VIDEO CREDITS: Directed, filmed and edited by Dana Variano with Ishita Srivastava; music by Denver Dalley; post-production audio by Hobo Audio. Produced by Breakthrough.

THE REVEREND DR. CHRISTIAN TROLL: ¨a great disturbance in the force¨ or ¨panic stricken Anglicans?¨

2011-12-19T09:03:00.002-06:00

¨Kim Jong Il - a delightful man whose grasp on truth has so faithfully served as a role-model for so many young Fundamentalists¨

¨Just minutes ago I was awoken by what is technically known to Orthodox Biblical Theologians like myself as “a great disturbance in the force”. Immediately I knew in My Spirit that a great despotic leader had passed from this world into the next. But who?

Since the phone wasn’t ringing with panic-stricken calls from little ++Valentino Mokiwa, ++Henri Orombi, or +++Nicholas Okoh , all asking who would now tell them what to say when addressing Anglicans less preoccupied with killing albinos or gays than the machete-loving faithful of their own peace-loving congregations, I knew Archbishop Jensen of Mordor hadn’t suddenly been summoned to the biggest conference of them all. And since it was too late at night to run down to the supermarket and grab the latest edition of The National Enquirer I was left with no alternative other than to consult the world’s next most reliable news source: FoxNews.

Where, to my utter horror, I learned of the tragic passing of Kim Jong Il - a delightful man whose grasp on truth has so faithfully served as a role-model for so many young Fundamentalists. (Yes David Ould, I was thinking of you as I wrote that– and while I’ve got your attention, could you please post another charming piece of racism on VIAGRAVILLE ? Obviously the reason your previous efforts received so few comments has to do with a temporary outbreak of tact on behalf of the happy throng frequenting the place, and I’m sure a third effort will gain some traction. Or at least earn you an honorary degree from an institution run by people with experience in standing around burning crosses dressed in pointy white robes.) ...¨ don´t miss a word, HERE

· Thanks to GAFCON, ¨God and Father Christian: Obscuring Nothing¨

DEDICATED TO THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: You know you made me love you

2011-12-18T18:58:00.001-06:00

THE GRAND OLD PARTY: ¨Gimme, gimme what I cry for¨

You made me love you

I didn't wanna to do it
I didn't wanna do it
You made me want you
And all the time you knew it
I guess you always knew it
You made me happy
Sometimes you made me glad
But there were times, dear
You made me feel so bad
You made me sigh
For I didn't wanna tell you
Didn't wanna tell you
I want some love that's true
Yes I do
'Deed I do, you know I do
Gimme, gimme what I cry for
You made me happy
Sometimes you made me glad
You know you got the brand
Of kisses that I die for
You know you made me love you

· Thanks to Jimmy Durante, RIP
· Thanks to My Imagination, alive and watching

MEMORIES OF MAMA AND CHRISTMAS PAST: ¨While we went to the annual Christmas party for children of Elk´s my mother stayed home with a friend and created beautiful/delectable Christmas Cookies every year!

2011-12-18T05:52:00.002-06:00

One of our family traditions

This time of year. The Christmas Holdiays never seems complete to me without seeing/eating decorated Christmas Sugar Cookies. When we were kids my Father took us to the annual Elk´s Christmas Party for their children ( where I never won once the extensive drawings for gifts done by Santa and his helpers but Marilynn, my sister did...I noticed) at the then glamours Elks Club, downtown, overlooking the river, in Spokane Washington. It was a very lovely party.

Meanwhile, at home, my Mom and her Elk´s wife (then, Elks were only men) friend baked dozens of decorated Christmas Cookies for us. It was our greatly appreciated tradition to come home to a house filled with the aroma of fresh baked Christmas cookies wafting through our house...they elevated our sense of ´Christmas Cheer and seemed to be the ¨kick of Christmas¨ that would be celebrated with days of preparation, secret gift wrapping, tree decorating and such...by Christmas Eve we were cozy and happy under the Christmas tree (we were allowed to open one Christmas Gift on Christmas Eve after ¨candlight services¨ at Church and the rest of the gifts were opened on Christmas Day...our tradition of a way that we liked and maintaned because traditions ran anticipations high! Of course, I´ve never met a iced sugar cookie like Moms, they are often very good, but, never the same.

· Thanks be to God for a family who loved us
· Thanks be to God for a family who cared for us entirely
· Thanks be to God for the kindness and good-will of all the Days of Christmas before and now

CREATING CHANGE FOR LGBT PEOPLE IN CHINA: ¨Xiangqi, the founder of Shanghai Nvai is setting up the city's only lesbian group for local Chinese, faux marriages where gay men and lesbian women marry...¨

2011-12-17T21:27:00.000-06:00

Xiangqi, founder of Shanghai lesbian group

¨Given what a struggle it is to find an ‘out’ lesbian community in any part of the world, we really hit the jackpot in Shanghai when we met the ladies of Shanghai Nvai, Shanghai’s only lesbian group for local Chinese. Shanghai Nvai brings together sophisticated, engaging, and progressive women for salon discussions and social events.

The founder of Shanghai Nvai is Supergay Xiangqi (Shiang-chi), a soft-spoken woman with an unstoppable voice. Xiangqi wants her group to not only provide a community for lesbians, but to further share the lesbian culture with society at large. Xiangqi invited Lisa and I to come talk about our Out & Around journey at their meeting, and our discussion with this educated and inquisitive group was definitely one of the highlights of this year’s trip.

We also had a chance to sit down with Xiangqi for an interview at her new apartment, which she shares with her girlfriend and their dog. Due to Shanghai’s rapid growth, the city is demolishing old buildings to make room for new ones, and Shanghai Nvai’s orginal meeting space was one of the victims. With its large living area, Xiangqi plans to use their apartment as the group’s new space.

We talk to Xiangqi about her work with Shanghai Nvai and lesbian life in China…¨ read the entire interview, HERE

· Thanks to Fridae, sidebar
· Thanks to Jennifer Chang and Lisa Dazols

From the No Anglican Covenant Coalition Team: We wish you a very happy and blessed Christmas, and a very peaceful and joyful new year

2011-12-16T17:23:00.002-06:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition · Anglicans for Comprehensive Unity

HERE

Dear Supporters:

Thank you so much for being part of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition. If you have seen our latest News Release then you will know that much has been achieved in the year since we started the campaign.

Perhaps the most significant two pieces of news are firstly that the Tikanga Maori defeated the Covenant at their biennial runanganui; making it very likely that Covenant in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia will be defeated.

Second, four dioceses of the Church of England have rejected the Covenant (Birmingham; St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich; Truro; Wakefield). What is significant is that where synod members were provided with balanced background material (i.e., material that presented both the case for and the case against the Covenant), the synods have voted it down. Four dioceses, where little or no material was presented other than officially sanctioned pro-Covenant material, have approved the Covenant (Lichfield; Durham; Europe; Bristol).

If eighteen more Church of England Diocesan Synods say “No” to the Covenant then it will not go back to General Synod and the Church of England will not adopt the Covenant. Clearly, we need as many Provinces as possible to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury to reconsider. I feel that if the Church of England says "No" then a re-evaluation of this dreadful document would need to happen.

We are tremendously grateful to our Episcopal Patrons, Bishops John Saxbee and Peter Selby, who are working to encourage a full and balanced presentation of the proposed Covenant in the Church of England.

Please help us by letting us know what is going on in your area (particularly the date that the Covenant will be debated in your area/Church/Diocese) and by campaigning for a proper debate – encouraging debates to have both “For” and “Against” speakers. When that happens and people understand the document properly then the message about how unwise, unpleasant and unhelpful the Anglican Communion Covenant is shines through.

We have many resources and are willing to send them to you if that helps – please get in touch. In the meantime, I think an excellent new resource is the Presentation against the Covenant by Perran Gay in Truro.

Christmas greetings from one of the ¨Viveros¨ just up the street from my home, Sacatapequez, Guatemala, Central America, Leonardo Ricardo, No Anglican Covenant Team

I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of all the No Anglican Covenant team, to wish you a very happy and blessed Christmas, and a very peaceful and joyful new year.

With very best wishes and many thanks,

Rev’d Dr Lesley Crawley
Moderator, No Anglican Covenant Coalition

GIVING AND RECEIVING: ¨I am a lesbian. And I am a Christian. Christmas holds the same meaning for me that it does for you.¨

2011-12-16T08:38:00.002-06:00

An Open Letter to Homophobic Christian Parents This Christmas: Op-Ed

¨I am not your daughter or your son. But if you are a Christian with a lesbian daughter or a gay son, and if you've allowed yourself to be spoon-fed the traditional condemning rhetoric about homosexuality, I can probably speak for her or him. As the holidays approach, he or she is probably in the same pain that I’ve experienced.

You raised us to believe that God loves us. You told us that Jesus died to provide forgiveness for all of our sins (presumably, whether you and I define "sin" in the same way or not). One of the first songs you taught us in Sunday school was "Yes, Jesus loves me…For the Bible tells me so." And you told us that our place in Heaven was guaranteed, as long as we just believe that.

Then, somewhere along the way, you realized that we were lesbian or gay. And at whatever point we found the courage to tell you, you did an immediate 180, and now you tell us we are an abomination, and our place in Hell is guaranteed.

The most fundamentalist among you claim that you reject your children because you take the whole Bible literally. But that is not true -- and it’s time for you to just get honest about that. If you are aware of the content of the Bible you must know that there is much in there that you do not take literally. How can you not know that? How can you not admit that? You must, at some point, have read where Jesus said that in order to follow Him, one must hate mother, father, sister, brother. (Luke 14:26) But not one of you feels any less a Christian because you love your family. Clearly, scripture must be interpreted in a broader context than its literal words. It amazes me that you still claim to take it all literally.

To be Christian means to seek to be like Jesus, to follow His teachings and example, right? That's what makes your rejection of your LGBT children and their partners so richly ironic. The good news is that the upcoming holiday season provides you with a perfect opportunity to take a step toward turning things around...¨ please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Elizabeth Kaeton+
· Thanks to The Reverend Marilyn Bowens, HERE
· Thanks to She Wired, Advocate

Thirty-three years sober: Yesterday was the anniversary of when I screamed out to God for HELP (I was drunk)

2011-12-14T19:17:00.006-06:00

Miracles happen.

Mine was a doozie, but, as my friend Suzanne taught me later,
woozie was/is a word, and woozie, doozie and extra boozie is exactly where I was when my moment of miraculous detox/liberation and journey into reality=sobriety began.

It´s true. I was rolling around on the living room floor (having a cocktail or twelve with my dogs) in the late night/early morning trying to drink enough vodka to go back to bed when I finally thought I was a gonner because I´d never felt so lost and so sad. I was going to kill myself (besides drinking myself to death) because I couldn´t take the emotional and physical strain of it ALL anymore. There was one problem, if I killed myself, I would be dead.

I was ¨sick and tired of being sick and tired¨ everyday and then medicating myself with booze in the afternoon (lunch drinks didn´t count) to go out and play and play at night. I was very sick, but I went to work everyday, had a good job, lived in a nice duplex in a very ¨good¨ part of Los Angeles, however, I wanted to die and I knew that anyone that I may want to love wouldn´t ever want to love me (blubber, blubber, blubber)! The fact was, although I was only 35years old I had been drinking heavily/alcoholicly since college daze/days and I was at the ¨dropping off place¨ (you´ll know it when you get there or if you´ve already slipped down, down, down near the edge) in my young life.

Somehow, and I don´t know why, I was reminded of a flicker of light place still blinking inside of me (but it´s battery was burning out). I remember connecting to the deepest most ¨still alive¨ place and thinking ¨that is the good inside of me and I want it back¨! I didn´t know why my innermost good was almost gone but it was running on empty...I was on empty but I wanted another chance to get me back and fill up with life again...I cried out to God to ¨save me from this¨ and God did. That was early in the morning on December 13, 1978 and I didn´t drink anymore as I staggered up to bed.

Thanks be to God I was given the chance to let reality begin, and it did, reality gradually seeped in and I was given a seat in the very center seat of the front row of my life...it´s been a thriller (so far).

Leonardo Ricardo
Leonard Richard
Sacatapequez, Guatemala
Central America

· Thanks be to God
· Thanks to Ardythe and Leonard, RIP
· Thanks to Danny and Danny, RIP
· Thanks to Lillian E., RIP
· Thanks to Bill W. and Dr. Bob, RIP
· Thanks to Mary L.
· Thanks to Mary E. RIP
· Thanks to Jerry J.
· Thanks to Butch, RIP
· Thanks to Thomas P.
· Thanks to Ron W.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY: ¨It is imperative to foster dialogue between religious groups and gay communities...¨ Empowering Gay Asia

2011-12-14T08:31:00.001-06:00

¨Should homosexuals give up their faith even though they still believe that Islam is a peaceful religion and a blessing for the universe? Gay people still can practice their religious duties since religion is a personal relation with God and has nothing to do with sexual preferences. What can we expect from religious groups that spread their ideologies through blasphemy, abuse and negligence of their sense of shared humanity as creatures created by the same God as gay people?

It is therefore imperative to foster dialogue between religious groups and gay communities to bridge the difference. Instead of renouncing gay people as deviant, religious groups should embrace them and learn how to synchronize their situation with Islam.

It is religion’s responsibility to bring homosexuals closer to God regardless of their sexual preferences. On the other side, gay communities need assistance from religious groups to enable them to practice their religions and express sexual preferences safely. This back and forth process is challenging but even small steps by discussing this issue with moderate stakeholders will bring powerful results. Instead of pointing out different points of view, they should seek common grounds to disseminate peace and resolve conflict within society.

The notion of being gay and Muslim at the same time is very tough when we see how stereotypical views about gay people are still present in our society. Most people grossly conflate gayness with pedophilia, promiscuity, social pathology and other stigmas. read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Fridae, sidebar
· Thanks to Abdul Rohman, Indonesian Islamic University
· Thanks to The Jakarta Post
· Thanks to the BBC/photos

¨Is it wise to entrust a loved one to unconventional treatments being administered by people who have a vested interest in rejecting the American Psychological Association's assertion that same-sex attraction is not a psychological disorder?¨

2011-12-13T19:32:00.000-06:00

¨I was a fairly sensitive, creative child with a bright outlook¨

The “Ex-Gay” Movement and The Negative Impact It Has Had On My Life

By Seth Guyette

¨...I am a gay man who has never identified as “ex-gay”. Regardless of the fact that I have never partaken in any sort of “reorientation” counseling (aka “conversion therapy”), “ex-gay” politics and philosophies have harmed me and the relationship with some of my family members. I am not the only one this has happened to. The following personal account is not meant to vilify any of my loved ones or negate any form of religion.

I was a fairly sensitive, creative child with a bright outlook. Although my family had its share of unusual dynamics and classic dysfunction, we always pulled through in a spirit of love, doing the best we could. My siblings and I were brought up as Baptist/Evangelical Christians within a fairly sheltered environment and we were instilled with a desire to live an honest, clean life. My brother and I were even educated in a private, Christian school and our intake of non-religious media was monitored and regulated well into my later teen years. This form of Christianity, while it has a lot of positive aspects, also relies on a very literalistic interpretation of the Bible, which condemns homosexuality as being, by nature, sinful.

The religious social circles where my family circulated always presented a negative view of homosexuals. This attitude started to generate a lot of personal anxiety around age eleven, when typical male biological changes began and I found myself experiencing strong physical and emotional attractions to other males. This directly contradicted what I was taught, causing me to fear my life and spiritual salvation. I knew that I could not risk telling anyone about it in light of the possibility of social stigma and harsh, religion-based counseling. Therefore I kept my sexuality deeply hidden. After graduating from high school life became more complicated. Everything had been structured around the false notion that I was heterosexual and it was assumed that I would start living my life in the fashion of a conservative, Christian man with an innate attraction to the opposite sex. I was constantly at war with the steady diet of dogma and anti-gay condemnation that had been drilled into my mind from a very early age.

Despite this, I had developed a small, hidden circle of gay friends with whom I felt a sense of comfort and camaraderie. My issues were later compounded when I decided that 'coming out' to my parents was the honest, logical thing to do. I had seriously considered the prospect of living a double life where I would masquerade as a heterosexual, possibly taking on a girlfriend or wife, but this form of living seemed dishonest, needlessly complicated, and unnatural (not to mention the damage that this type of deceit can do to one's spouse and family down the road). So I stopped hiding my social circle and began leaving strong indicators to help my parents understand the true nature of their son...¨ please read it all,
HERE

· Thanks to Beyond Ex-Gay, HERE
· Thanks to Seth Guyette

THE REWARDS OF DESPAIR: ¨To live through horror, persecution and deprivation is not unknown to many peoples; indeed, LGBTQ people seem to be rather adept at learning how to survive in a hostile world.¨

2011-12-12T07:52:00.000-06:00

¨Suffering does give us an insight into the human condition, with all its foibles and its hopes. And it does take courage and bravery to live through anxieties, and we are brave and courageous if we dare to look horror in the eye and scream, “I want to live,” as loudly as we can.¨ Desmond Rutherford

¨Just screaming that you aren’t going to take it anymore, is not enough; you must demand to live. I know it can seem impossible…I’ve felt despair too. I’ve seen the horrors in the faces of others, reflected in and lurking behind their eyes, in the dungeons of their minds. And I am humbled when I have little, and they have nothing…but their determination to go on living.¨

¨The circumstances of one’s life are often overlooked as being a significant contributing factor for creative work, and yet adverse conditions might be used to dismiss the opportunity to create.

Trying to write, compose, or even live, whilst constrained by one catastrophe after another is, obviously, challenging. The uncertainty of not knowing if the bed you got out of this morning will still be yours tonight is not something that provides the most stable environment conducive to creativity.

It seems that we can recognize the emptiness of our own personal apocalypse, simply through our life’s circumstances...¨ please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Desmond Rutherford
· Thanks to LGBTQ Nation, sidebar

THE IGNORANT ATTEMPT TO "TRANSFORM" GAY PEOPLE: "Since it is acquired it can be unacquired."

2011-12-11T19:52:00.003-06:00

¨I defy anyone to show me chapter and verse where same-sex love is condemned, or where same-sex marriage is condemned!

To resort to some Old Testament passages to support the specious argument that being Gay is destructive is terribly misleading, not only because Christians are not bound by the laws of the Old Testament, and that the context of these "clobber passages" are in the framework of a tribal society living on the edge that needed to propagate in order to survive, but that other cultural practices in ancient Israel are affirmed in the Bible that no sane person would currently adopt, such as stoning to death recalcitrant children, stoning to death those caught in adultery, and stoning to death those who work on the Sabbath. I'm not even going into such prohibitions listed in the Bible as the eating shell-fish and the wearing of mixed fibers in one's clothes!

More to the point, the attempt to "transform," or in any way suppress, that which God has made is a sin in and of itself!

Being Gay is "acquired" the same way that being Straight is "acquired!" God made us in these ways, and it is a sin to thwart God's plan for any of God's children, for to do so not only does inexplicable harm to that person, but also thwarts the will of God and shows a definite lack of trust in God and in God's plan for each person's life!

Even secular psychologists affirm the possible danger that accrues to those who are the victims of attempts to change their sexual orientation, and Christians should know enough to agree with that affirmation as well, even on purely biblical grounds. Our sexuality is a wonderful gift from God, and that is true whether we were created to be Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgender!...¨ please read it all,
HERE

· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker, sidebar
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for LGBT Rights, sidebar

DR. ROWAN WILLIAMS TO RESIGN: ¨Ecclesiological consequences, as well, will follow the end of Anglican unity: the disappearance of a coherent, worldwide denomination, led by the archbishop of Canterbury...¨

2011-12-10T09:07:00.004-06:00

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

¨The archbishop of Canterbury is going to resign next year. At least that’s the story making the rounds of newspapers in London, and the interesting part is not that the 61-year-old Rowan Williams should be willing to give up another decade in the job. Or even, if the Telegraph is right, that the clergy and his fellow bishops are working to push him out.

No, the interesting news about the looming resignation is how little attention anyone appears to be paying to it. The Church of England just doesn’t seem to matter all that much, fading from the world’s stage only slightly more slowly than the British Empire that planted it across the globe.

Queen Elizabeth I, ¨The great middle way¨

Theological consequences will follow the dwindling of Anglican identity—the claim, ever since Queen Elizabeth I, that the Church of England represents the great middle way between Protestantism and Catholicism. Ecclesiological consequences, as well, will follow the end of Anglican unity: the disappearance of a coherent, worldwide denomination, led by the archbishop of Canterbury, for those who hold a certain moderate form of Christian belief...¨ please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to The Weekly Standard, United Kingdom
· Thanks to JOSEPH BOTTUM
· Thanks to Three Rivers Episcopal, sidebar
· Thanks to MAD PRIEST , ¨Beating dead horse¨ cartoon

A CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM A COALITION MEMBER, HERE

ATTENTION DR. ROWAN WILLIAMS/ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: ¨You want an alternative to your punative and exclusionary covenant?¨

2011-12-09T07:06:00.003-06:00

Well, here it is:

¨We, the member churches of the Anglican Communion, agree to meet together regularly and to engage each other in adult conversation.
We, the member churches of the Anglican Communion, acknowledge that we will not always agree.
We, the member chuches of the Anglican Communion, commit oursleves, in the face of disagreements, to love each other anyway, just as Jesus calls us to do.¨

Saying "something must be done" does not prove that something must be done.

¨There have been a lot of developments about the Anglican Covenant since last I posted about it. Conveniently, the No Anglican Covenant Coalition has conveniently issued a news release summarizing recent events.

In the Church of England, four diocesan synods (Wakefield; St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich; Truro; Birmingham) have rejected the Covenant. Four others (Lichfield; Durham; Europe; Bristol) have approved it. In order to return to General Synod for final approval, the Covenant needs to be passed by 23 of the 44 dioceses - meaning that 22 rejections is enough to scuttle it in the Church of England. The Covenanters need another 19 approvals to carry the day, while the Covenantsceptics only need another 18 to stop it.

In the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, the Tikanga Maori rejected the Covenant at their biennial runanganui. Several Paheka dioceses have also rejected it. It is unlikely that the Covenant will be approved in New Zealand.

In the Episcopal Church of the Philippines, the House of Bishops have indicated an intention to reject the Covenant, making it virtually certain that it will not be approved.

One of the interesting snippets out of England is the emergence of a disturbing pattern. Bishops and diocesan officials in several dioceses have refused to allow the distribution of material critical of the Anglican Covenant to synod members. Of the eight dioceses that have voted on the Covenant, four allowed the distribution of balanced material and four did not. It will not take a rocket surgeon to figure out which four are which. The Coalition's episcopal patrons, John Saxbee and Peter Selby are actively encouraging their former colleagues to povide for a fair and honest debate in every diocese.

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

In the midst of this, the Archbishop of Canterbury has published his Advent Letter to the Anglican Primates. In an intellectual fiddle which should be an embarrassment to any current or former academic, the Archbishop's defence of his pet project makes less sense than Glenn Beck on acid...¨ please read it all, By Malcom+ HERE (emphasis added by Leonardo Ricardo)

· Thanks to Simple Massing Priest, sidebar

GREETINGS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM: A CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM A COALITION MEMBER, HERE

PREPARING A GENERATION OF CENTRAL AMERICAN LEADERS: Knowledge is the currency of the 21st century. Democracy and prosperity require informed populations

2011-12-08T08:00:00.004-06:00

Volunteers, helping/teaching one another the Riecken Learning Center way

Riecken Community Libraries awaken a spirit of discovery and a love of reading. Equipped with quality books and new technology, they pull isolated communities into the bigger world, where they can both benefit from globalization and contribute to it.

¨Globalization has pulled billions of people into a dynamic, interconnected world where they benefit from unprecedented access to information, goods, services, jobs and opportunities. But even as those billions move into a powerful future, another billion are being left behind. Persistent poverty destabilizes both the countries where it exists and the world as a whole.

Central America is a stunning example of the uneven benefits of globalization. It is marked by the special problems of states that have emerged from conflict and where democracy, while anchored, is still fragile.

Riecken Community Libraries are proving to be keystones for dramatic social advances in Central America, allowing the most vulnerable populations in the region to cross into the global economy. To stimulate human talent and advance human capacity – a transformation that can only occur with unfettered access to information – we support quality community lending libraries with the aim of offering free Internet connections.

Some of the Ladies who thrive

In communities with Riecken Community Libraries, more than 40 percent of the library patrons come from households with monthly incomes below $100 and more than a quarter live in homes with dirt floors. About half the library users have fewer than six books in their own homes, and less than one percent own home computers. Riecken Community Libraries offset those shortfalls to accessible information, providing disproportionate benefit to the most vulnerable populations in developing countries: children, women, indigenous people and rural populations...¨ HERE

Meet Riecken’s Israel Quic

Recently Israel was asked “what is your dream for your village?” Without much thought the 36-year old director of the Biblioteca Comunitaria Rija’tzuul Na’ooj in San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala responded “more educational opportunities for the children.” Israel, whose first language is tz’utujil, was recently one of the stars in a US west coast fundraising trip. Not only did he speak to groups in his native language as well as in Spanish he managed admirably all of the technology needs for a week of presentations.

Israel lives with his family including three of his five siblings, 26 or so chickens, three dogs and an internet connection. He credits his mother, who was an orphan who never was able to go to school, with the fact that he and his five siblings all have university educations...¨ HERE

· Thanks to Riecken Community Libraries
· Thanks to Israel Quic
· Thanks to Biblioteca Comunitaria Rija’tzuul Na’ooj

¨Tis the Season¨

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THE NO ANGLICAN COVENANT COALITION/UNITED KINGDOM: ¨When fair debate has been allowed, the results have been gratifying.¨

2011-12-06T07:34:00.000-06:00

As we celebrate the Feast of St Nicholas, the No Anglican Covenant Coalition has issued a news release looking back over the accomplishments of the past year.

NEWS FOR ST NICHOLAS

“In November 2010, we launched the Coalition to ensure that the case against the proposed Anglican Covenant would be given a fair hearing,” said the Revd Dr Lesley Crawley, the Coalition's Moderator. “Today we are seeing our efforts bear fruit. When fair debate has been allowed, the results have been gratifying.”

The Coalition also noted the critical role played by Bishops John Saxbee and Peter Selby, our Episcopal Patrons, who have worked tirelessly to encourage a full and balanced presentation of the proposed Covenant in the Church of England.

With respect to the diocesan votes taking place in the Church of England, the Coaltion notes that in dioceses where the Covenant presentation has included only official pro-Covenant materials, they have voted for the Covenant. But where a balanced presentation of both pro- and anti-Covenant materials has been provided to diocesan synods, they have consistently voted against the Covenant...¨ please read it all, HERE

http://blog.noanglicancovenant.org/2011/12/news-for-st-nicholas.html

· Thanks to the No Anglican Covenant Coalition, sidebar
· Thanks to The Rev. Dr. Lesley Crawley, Moderator, United Kingdom
· Thanks to Bishops John Saxbee and Peter Selby, Episcopal Patrons

AWARD OR FURTHER DISGRACE? Exodus President Alan Chambers joins the rank Archbishop Peter ¨Massacre at Yelwa¨ Akinola* condemning homosexuals internationally!

2011-12-05T18:28:00.004-06:00

Christian zealot Americans and Christianlike bigots in Africa circling for fresh LGBT kill

World Magazine has awarded Exodus President Alan Chambers their 2011 Daniel Award. With this award, Alan Chambers joins the ranks of Kenneth Star, John Ashcroft, Phillip E. Johnson (“father” of Intelligent design), Peter Akinola* (rabidly anti-gay Nigerian priest), and Stephen C. Meyer (Intelligent Design), among other past recipients.

In an article which appears in the December 17th edition, Chambers and Exodus are painted in glowing, courageous terms. Many of Chambers’ key talking points are covered nicely, while any opposition is portrayed in a one-dimensional fashion. This website is said to have “whole sections devoted to condemning Chambers and other ministries to homosexuals.”

We would like to think it is the facts which “condemn these groups, but then World Magazine hasn’t exactly attempted to cloak their own bias when it comes to Exodus. They have written this type of PR piece for Exodus in the past (the same author, Jamie Dean), and one has to ask if this is more of a corroborative effort than journalism. Could this be the first volley in the effort to re-brand Exodus International, or at least it’s president? If so, it seems skewed into the conservative space, heavy on “change is possible” rhetoric...¨ HERE

* http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2008/02/abp-akinola-and-massacre-of-yelwa.html

· Thanks to ExGay Watch, sidebar
· Thanks to David Roberts
· Thanks to Fr. Jake, sidebar

ARCHBISHOP ¨CONDONER OF EVIL IN AFRICA¨ JENSON: ¨ Issues of inequity regarding the financial and legal status of same-sex relationships have already been addressed by the Parliament and I have supported these changes¨

2011-12-02T11:34:00.002-06:00

¨Sydney's archbishop, Peter Jensen, has used the bigoted Anglican Church League website, which is second only to Anglican Mainstream for right wing fascism, to express his deep sadness about the ALP having to debate the false rhetoric of ‘equality’ surrounding same-sex marriage! Tunnel- visioned Jensen, who is known for denying women equality, says ... The present law defining marriage is not a denial of rights.... HIS rights! He goes onto claim that ...Issues of inequity regarding the financial and legal status of same-sex relationships have already been addressed by the Parliament and I have supported these changes...please read it all, by Calamity Jane HERE

¨Is this the same Peter Jensen who was instrumental in dividing the worldwide Anglican Church because of a homosexual bishop?

Yes, the same one who sided with African bigots, when they wanted to introduce a jail sentence for gays and anyone who helped them. What did Martin Luther say... “One who condones evil is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.”

· Thanks to Liberal Anglicanism in Sydney, sidebar
· Thanks to ¨Calamity Jane¨

THE GREAT WISDOM OF THE NIGERIAN SENATE: ¨Straights who support a same sex marriage go directly to jail for ten years¨

2011-11-30T10:59:00.002-06:00

Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh, Anti-lgbt ¨Great Evil¨ hate law promoter HERE

¨You might consider forwarding this story to your straight friends so they are fully informed because they are now at risk! The massive epidemic of hate against LGBT people continues unchecked in Africa. The latest is Nigeria. In all their wisdom, the Nigerian senate just passed legislation that would send not only their LGBT citizens to prison for marrying BUT also send any straight friends who supported them in their marriage to prison too!!!

Guilt by association in Nigeria

Yep, that is right, there is a new twist happening in some of the homophobic legislation that is being passed. Straights who support a same sex marriage go directly to jail with us for ten years. You read it right. Ten years in jail for witnessing our marraige! Wonder if they will allow us neighboring cells so we can stay in touch? don´t miss a word of Nigerian wisdom, HERE

· Thanks to David Mixner, sidebar
· Thanks to The Washington Post, HERE

A FEAST DAY FOR QUEEN VICTORIAS DEAR FRIENDS: Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV

2011-11-28T13:36:00.000-06:00

King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emm´s commemorative stained Glass window at historic St. Andrews Cathedral, The Episcopal Church, Diocese of Hawaii

Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV's baptism into the Anglican Church, in 1862, at St. Andrew's Cathedral. This was there second baptism since they were baptize in their childhood in the Calvinist faith. HERE

Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, his queen consort, were devout members of the Church of England led by their good friend Victoria of the United Kingdom. At their request, Thomas Nettleship Staley was appointed bishop in 1862. Inspired to build a place of worship in the Anglican tradition, Kamehameha IV commissioned the construction of what would later become the Cathedral of Saint Andrew. However, the king died on the feast day of Saint Andrew in 1863 before ground-breaking. Kamehameha V, the king's brother, took over the project and laid the cornerstone in honor of his predecessor on March 5, 1867.

St. Andrews Cathedral, diocese of Hawaii, The Episcopal Church

The Cathedral of Saint Andrew was built in the French Gothic architectural style, shipped in several pre-fabricated pieces from England. The western facade has a window of hand-blown stained glass that reaches from the floor to the eaves, depicting the European explorers that visited the Hawaiian islands. HERE

· Thanks to Padre Mickey´s Dance Party, sidebar
· Thanks to The Daily Office, sidebar

THE REIGN IN SPAIN: “very happy with a Spain that respects human rights and that considers all its citizens equal.”

2011-11-26T08:59:00.002-06:00

Princess Litizia of Asturias

Letizia, the Princess of Asturias, an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, on Wednesday said she supports gay marriage, Chilean daily La Tercera reported.

During their first official trip to Chile, Letizia and her husband, Prince Felipe de Borbon, visited Santiago's Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) to inaugurate an exhibit of works by Spanish photographer Chema Madoz.

The couple were accompanied by Cecilia Morel, the First Lady of Chile, who introduced the pair to Chilean writer Paul Simonetti, who also heads the gay rights group Equal Foundation.

Simonetti asked the princess, the heir apparent to the Spanish throne, her thoughts on marriage equality.

She answered that she was “very happy with a Spain that respects human rights and that considers all its citizens equal.” HERE

· Thanks to Princess Letizia, España
· Thanks to Paul Simonetti, Equal Foundation, Chile
· Thanks to On Top Magazine, sidebar

THE FIGHT FOR DIGNITY, EQUALITY, FREEDOM and JUSTICE: ¨Zimbabweans, as a people need right now, a concerted popular effort to demand human dignity...¨

2011-11-25T18:41:00.000-06:00

ZIMBABWE RIGHT NOW: ¨...we use candles for light and firewood for cooking...¨

“Where after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home-so close and so small that they can not be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the nighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world” Eleanor Roosevelt on the Universal declaration of human rights

¨This quote speaks to the essence of what Zimbabweans, as a people need right now, a concerted popular effort to demand human dignity and all that comes with it. We need food on our tables; decent wages and employment; a good education for our children; proper healthcare including affordable medication when we need it; roofs over our heads; reliable electricity supply; running and clean water; and proper working sewer systems.¨

¨These are things we should be demanding to see in a new constitution and as Eleanor Roosevelt said, without concerted citizen action, as Zimbabweans we will continue to look to ‘donors’ to assist us, yet we could solve our problems ourselves.¨ HERE

· Thanks to Black Looks, sidebar
· Thanks to by Rumbidzai Dube
· Thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt

EPISCOPALIAN/ANGLICAN NOTABLE CITIZEN: Elizabeth Bell ¨Orden Diego de Porres¨ Award

2011-11-23T15:36:00.004-06:00

Elizabeth Bell, Historian, Author, Brilliant Person, Friend!
Antigua Tours, HERE

WELCOME HOME: The Christ Episcopal Church in Savannah Georgia belongs to TEC and not the Anglican Church of Uganda

2011-11-21T10:31:00.009-06:00

Breaking: Ga. Supreme Court says Christ, Savannah belongs to TEC

¨In a 5-1 decision, the Georgia Supreme Court this morning decided that Christ Episcopal Church in Savannah belonged to to the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia, not a breakaway faction aligned with the Anglican Church of Uganda...¨ please read it all, By Jim Naughton HERE (Read the opinion.)

A WORD OF CAUTION From Wounded Bird/Grandmere Mimi:

¨The Episcopal Church is not a congregational church. Anyone is free to leave but not with the property. Are you watching Bp. Mark Lawrence of the Diocese of South Carolina? Are you, as a bishop of the Episcopal Church, permitted to give away what is not yours? Of course, certain folks in the diocese may believe theirs is a special case. We shall see...¨ HERE

Georgia high court sides with national Episcopal Church in property spat with Savannah congregation

¨Georgia's highest court has sided with the national Episcopal Church in a property dispute with the oldest church in Georgia.

The Georgia Supreme Court voted six to one to uphold a lower court's October 2009 ruling confirming the national Episcopal Church's claim to historic Christ Church in Savannah.

The dispute arose after members of the local congregation decided in 2007 to leave the Episcopal Church, which they said was straying from Biblical teachings. After the split, the Georgia diocese and the national church claimed ownership of the church building...¨ HERE

BACKGROUND to ¨Christ Church¨ Property Dispute: ¨I must protest this unwarranted incursion into The Episcopal Church. I am concerned that you seem to feel it appropriate to visit, preach, and exercise episcopal ministry within the territory of this Church, and I wonder how you would receive similar behavior in Uganda...¨ Presiding Bishop Kathrine Jefferts Schori, Primate, The Episcopal Church

May 12, 2008

FROM: Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori
Primate, The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion.

TO: The Most Revd Henry Luke Orombi Archbishop of Uganda and Bishop of Kampala PO Box 14123 Kampala, Uganda, East Africa

¨My dear brother,

I understand from advertising here that you plan to visit a congregation in the Diocese of Georgia on 14 May of this year. The diocesan, Bishop Henry Louttit, has not given any invitation for you to do so, nor received any information from you about your planned visit. I must protest this unwarranted incursion into The Episcopal Church. I am concerned that you seem to feel it appropriate to visit, preach, and exercise episcopal ministry within the territory of this Church, and I wonder how you would receive similar behavior in Uganda. These actions violate the spirit and letter of the work of the Windsor Report, and only lead to heightened tensions. We are more than willing to receive you for conversation, dialogue, and reconciliation, yet you continue to act without speaking with us. I hope and pray that you might respond to our invitation and meet with representatives of this Church.

I remain

Your servant in Christ,
Katharine Jefferts Schori¨

Please read the reply from Archbishop Henry Orombi/Uganda which includes: ¨ I am not visiting a church in the Diocese of Georgia. I am visiting a congregation that is part of the Church of Uganda. Were I to visit a congregation within TEC, I would certainly observe the courtesy of contacting the local bishop. Since, however, I am visiting a congregation that is part of the Church of Uganda, I feel very free to visit them and encourage them through the Word of God...¨ HERE )

· Thanks to Episcopal Cafe, sidebar
· Thanks to The Supreme Court of Georgia, HERE
· Thanks to Jim Naughton, The Lead HERE
· Thanks to Wounded Bird, sidebar HERE
· Thanks to Three Rivers Episcopal, sidebar HERE

Thanksgiving, The Spirit of Iximche: In Spanish and Kaqchikel -- Thanking Mother Earth for her bounty

2011-11-19T10:03:00.002-06:00

I often visit Maya ruins in Central America. One of my favorite ancient places is Iximche...Iximche isn't a huge city but it is heavy with Kaqchikel lore (and key Spanish Colonial History)and thick with modest ruins of gorgeous temples, grassy gaming fields and sacred ceremonial countryside sort of place....Iximche doesn't get a lot of tourists dropping in as do Copan, Vera Cruz or Tikal...Iximche is my kind of a quiet and mysterious, close-to-the-earth kinda of a whafting spirit of a Holy place.

The first time I went to Iximche was with my friend Jose Luis A.R. and that was over two decades ago...we were the only visitors and we strolled around in the early morning misty sacred space of a place and I felt I had been there before...a long time before.

A few years ago when sharing Iximche with Juan Carlos (we visit Iximche often) and visitor from the United States we also were quite alone but the sacred space seemed filled with uplifting spirituality, almost brimming with quiet conviviality...we hiked around and we came upon my favorite part...the place where the Shaman perform their purifying rites.

Out of nowhere, literally from the forest, a Shaman (similar to the gentlemen in the painting above/artist unknown) appeared. He ignored my friend Juan Carlos C.F. and I as an associate of his stood not far away on a little hill as a sort of traditional guard/scout (I think)...anyway the fire started, the Shaman wraped his headscarf around his head, said a prayer and crossed himself to the "Father, Son and Holy Ghost" as he knelt down...chanting, Spanish and Kaqchikel, thanking Mother Earth for her bounty and as the ritual continued he added libations and offerings of flowers, candles, sweets, meats, alcohol, eggs with shell, and lots and lots of dry herbs...all the time thanking God and thanking Mother Earth that had blessed us all with our being.

I moved closer and the Shaman invited me to join him, on my knees by the fire...I did (my friends moved further back on a neighboring knoll)...as he continued his chanting and prayers of thanksgiving a swarm of bees came to our fire...many bees, maybe dozens of bees (but I don't want to turn this into a "fish" story)....the bees in multiples started landing on my outstretched bare arms...he told me not to worry the bees had come to offer a fine blessing to me...a blessing from Mother Earth personally so I closed my eyes and opened my heart and received it willingly...¨ Thanksgiving before and now, Leonardo Ricardo HERE

· The Bees blessed me.
· The Bees didn't sting me.
· The Bees flew away.
· Thanks be to God/Mother Earth
· Thanks be to the depths of Reality
· Thanks be to the seen and unseen

NO ANGLICAN COVENANT UPDATE: Birmingham diocese, Church of England, rejects Anglican Covenant

2011-11-19T09:11:00.000-06:00

St. Philips Cathedral, Church of England, Birmingham, England

The Diocese of Birmingham voted today on the Anglican Covenant, and rejected it.

According to our correspondent, the voting was:

Bishops 1 for. (Suffragan bishop absent).

Clergy 17 for, 17 against, 1 abstention.

Laity 12 for, 25 against, 1 abstention.

· Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, HERE

SONG OF THE WALL STREET GOONS: All Hail To The Grand Old Predators, Exploiters, Greedsters, Bigotted Presidential Candidates and/or GOP Congressional Doubletalking Thieves!

2011-11-18T23:15:00.000-06:00

¨GREAT EVIL¨ -- ANTI-LGBT HATE PROMOTED IN NIGERIA: “...insidious bill that appears to be limited to same-gender marriage, but is actually an attack on basic rights”

2011-11-18T09:54:00.001-06:00

The Primate, Church of Nigeria, the Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Nicholas D. Okoh, has described the practice of homosexuality, lesbianism and gay marriage as great evils that must neither be condoned nor allowed to further exist in our society. HERE

Anglican Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Nigeria

“The church has zero tolerance for homosexuality. The only time they will accept someone being homosexual is if they come to ‘confess’ and ‘repent’ of it, to say they are cured so they can be forgiven.” Damian Ugwu, Social Justice Advocacy Initiative.

¨Homosexual and lesbian practices are considered offensive to public morality in Nigeria.¨

¨Rights groups in Nigeria fear a same-sex marriage bill being discussed in parliament could boost already prevalent discrimination against homosexuals. The bill goes much further than banning same-sex marriage; it threatens to ban the formation of groups supporting homosexuality, with imprisonment for anyone who “witnesses, abet[s] or aids” same-gender relationships, and could lead to any discussion or activities related to gay rights being banned.

Under a colonial-era law, sodomy is punishable by a 14-year jail sentence; and in the country’s mainly Muslim northern states, where a version of Shar’ia law applies, the penalty is death by stoning, although this has never officially been carried out.

The National Assembly began debating the latest version of the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill in November. Most high-ranking officials have voiced their approval of the bill, signalling it is likely to pass....¨ HERE

· Thanks to Damian Ugwu
· Thanks to Social Justice Advocacy Initiative
· Thanks to Paul Canning
· Thanks to LGBT Asylum News, sidebar
· Thanks to Human Rights Watch
· Thanks to Graeme Reid
· Thanks to Changing Attitude, Nigeria

NOTE: Changing Attitude, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, will campaign against the prohibition of marriage between persons of the same sex bill recently introduced in the Senate of Nigeria. HERE

¨Changing Attitude Nigeria (CAN) deplores the introduction of “A bill for an act to prohibition marriage between persons of same sex, solemnisation of same and for other matters related therewith” in the Nigerian Parliament.

The Bill will have an immediate negative effect, raising prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Nigeria and further demonizing us. Tens of thousands of LGBT will feel more vulnerable as a result. It is likely to lead to outbreaks of persecution and violence against people identified as lesbian and gay and will incite people to hate crimes. It will destroy the self esteem of LGBT people making many of us think less of ourselves and will lead to rejection in our homes, churches, schools and place of work...¨ read it all, HERE

I spent sixteen years as a fundamental evangelical Christian, trying to get God to fix me: ¨I was really at the point where I was either going to be a gay woman, or a dead woman¨

2011-11-17T09:42:00.001-06:00

‘They publicly prayed for my death’

By John Shore

[Here is one of the thirty letters from gay and lesbian Christians included in Wings on a Pig: Why the "Christian" View of Gays Doesn't Work, now available as a Kindle book and a NookBook.* I wanted to collect and present these stories, because I knew that -- especially in the aggregate -- they would obliterate the notion that one cannot be both gay and Christian. And if it's possible to be both entirely gay and entirely Christian, then the whole argument that God condemns homosexuality necessarily starts breaking apart. This is one of the thirty hammer blows in "Wings" that contributes to that demolition. And it certainly shows the anti-gay sentiment in our churches, in all of its ghastly, dysfunctional splendor. But more than that, it shows what one person, who refuses to be beaten by ignorance and bigotry, can do, just by keeping their vision focused not on hatred, but on love.]

¨I spent sixteen years as a fundamental evangelical Christian, trying to get God to fix me. I studied theology and Biblical counseling for three years in the hopes of discovering what I was doing wrong that was keeping God from answering my prayers to make me straight. I struggled with the guilt of same-sex attraction every day, and had no way of turning it off.

I was so despondent over my situation that I felt suicidal. I knew what was in store for me if I came out, but I was really at the point where I was either going to be a gay woman, or a dead woman. Thinking about my two beautiful children, I knew that they would prefer a gay mom. So I did what I had to do. I just had no idea how bad it would get before it started to get better.

I came out to my fundamental evangelical husband almost four years ago. Initially, he was loving and kind. However, the church knew something was wrong–and when he told them what it was, I never had another civil conversation with him. He came home from a meeting with the pastors, and announced that the church was starting “Biblical discipline proceedings” (construed from Matthew 18) against me, and that the elders of the church would be contacting me...¨ please read it all, it´s important to expose the dominionistlike ¨Biblical discipline¨ insanity, HERE

· Thanks to Wings on a Pig: Why the "Christian" View of Gays Doesn't Work
· Thanks to John Shore
· Thanks to LGBTQ Nation, sidebar
· Thanks to Views and Voices, HERE

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