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

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...¨  Dr. Sentamu
HERE (emphasis and comment in blue 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

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.¨

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¨

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...

¨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!

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´

¨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

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?

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?"

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!

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

¨ 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

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

¨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?

¨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

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.”

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¨

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

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.

¨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

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.¨

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.

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



 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?

¨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!

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