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

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...

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

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.

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

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



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

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!

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!

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'

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!

¨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?¨

¨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

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!

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...¨

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

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.¨

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)

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

¨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?¨

¨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.¨

¨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."

¨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...¨



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?¨

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