¨No Anglican Covenant Coalition¨: Moderator Malcolm French is a candidate to become the next Bishop of the Diocese of Qu’Appelle

Moderator French an Episcopal Candidate

¨We are pleased to announce that the moderator of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition (and convenor for the Anglican Church of Canada), the Rev. Malcolm French, is a candidate to become the next bishop of the Diocese of Qu’Appelle in the Anglican Church of Canada. The list of candidates is here. Malcolm’s profile is here.¨

Please pray for the selection process in the Diocese of Qu’Appelle.

MY PUEBLO IN FULL BLOOM/THE LAND OF ETERNAL SPRING: The Poinsettias aka "pascuas" are out in abundance now.

I live in a small village in Guatemala.  The villagers grow beautiful export quality flowers and coffee plants too.  The Fincas are large and small and many and varied but this time of year, right now, the ¨Pascuas¨ are in full-flower and making ready for their trip to homes all around the world and also to be sold locally.

Living at the source of a large export market for Roses, Poinsettias, Orchids and Coffee beans is quite a joy and all-year round we have various types of flowers that come into season...it's living in a huge endless garden that keeps on flowering in the ¨Land of Eternal Spring.¨ Yesterday, my friend Joan and a friend of hers came to San Miguel to purchase their Christmas Poinsettias...they loaded their car and off they went with this years treasures of real live decor for their homes in Antigua...it's a Holiday Tradition.

Guatemala is a lush, fertile and lovely place to live.  The abundance of great beauty is all around us and many who come here are caught immediately by a certain/special enchantment that seems to be thick in the air...almost mysterious.  Truly the heart of the Maya.

The Fuego Volcano and the finca San Sebastian. Literally at the end of the street where I live (only blocks up the road).

HECTOR ¨MACHO¨ CAMACHO'S STAR HAS ASCENDED: “Just a happy-go-lucky guy who loved people.”

In this Dec. 9, 1986, file photo, Hector "Macho" Camacho, then the WBC lightweight champion, is escorted by Marty Cohen, left, and promoter Don King at a news conference in New York. (David Bookstaver / AP Photo)

¨Hector “Macho” Camacho, a former three-division boxing champion who had 88 professional fights against a who’s who of legendary opponents stretching from Ray Mancini (whom he defeated in 1989) to Oscar De La Hoya (who beat him by decision in 1997), has died. He was 50.

Camacho was pronounced dead Saturday after being shot in the head four days earlier while seated in a car outside a bar in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Camacho’s condition deteriorated before his family opted to take him off life support...¨ HERE

Thanks to Lance Pugmire

Thanks to The Los Angeles Times

November 24, 2012, 6:38 a.m.

To Hector ¨Macho¨ Camacho, his family, his friends and fans: I offer prayers of thanksgiving from all of us who have been fortunate enough to appreciate/admire Hector with his larger-than-life presence in our everyday lives.

Hector ¨Macho¨ Camacho

There are STARS in the sky and there are STARS we can appreciate living amongst us right here on Earth.  Hector ¨Macho¨ Camacho represents a whole galaxy of bright twinkling STARS of enthusiasm in our own lives.  A right-sized-giant-sized down to Earth kind of guy who is loved and appreciated by millions -- before and now.  A multi-faceted STAR of a man.  Thank you for being our friend. Today his life is dimming but his STAR is forever  --  it is ascending -- soon ¨Macho Camacho¨ will fly way up high in the sky where he will shine-on all of us again.

Leonard Clark/Leonardo Ricardo
Guatemala, Central America

Día de Acción de Gracias*: HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2012 (my favorite holiday)

Tondo: Prudence, ca. 1475
Andrea della Robbia (Italian, 1435–1525)
Italian (Florence)
Terracotta with tinted tin-enamel glazes

¨The Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia (1399–1482) used tin glaze in a new and imaginative way, by mixing batches of white glaze with oxides of various metals in a finely powdered form. When fired, the resulting glazes were colored in their entire mass with blues from cobalt, yellows from antimony, greens from copper, purples and violets from manganese, and oranges and browns from iron rust. These colored glazes were applied to the already fired terracotta sculptures in a liquid form with water admixed, and fixed in a second firing. They covered the sculptures with washes of color in areas needed for clothing and background details, much as paints would do for a picture. The colors were permanent and could be exposed to the weather.

Luca's family continued the use of his innovation in their workshop in Florence and elsewhere until late in the sixteenth century. His nephew Andrea, the creator of this large relief, also made freestanding busts and reliefs with religious, heraldic, or moralizing subjects, as here, with the figure of Prudence, one of the Cardinal Christian Virtues. It is likely that this large relief, which has part of the brick wall adhering at the back from its original installation, was once placed in a prime location with reliefs of the three other Cardinal Virtues (Courage, Justice, and Temperance). The encircling wreath of four fruiting plants is very typical of the della Robbia workshop. The segments probably indicate the seasons of the year, with pine cones for winter, grapes for autumn, lemons for spring, and gourds for summer.¨ HERE

Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

*El Día de Acción de Gracias (en inglés, Thanksgiving Day; francés, Jour de l'Action de grâce) es una celebración tradicional de Estados Unidos y Canadá. En los Estados Unidos se celebra el cuarto jueves del mes de noviembre, aunque originalmente se hacía el último jueves. En Canadá, por su parte, se celebra el segundo lunes de octubre. Generalmente en esta festividad se reúnen en torno a una mesa familiares y amigos a compartir un banquete. Aunque religiosa en origen, está considerada como una festividad secular.

Ceramics de Totonicopan, painted by Leonardo Ricardo, Polyurethane finish (used as decorative accessories, flower vases and snack servers.

THE ERA OF ++ROWAN´S CONFUNDLEMENT: The near end of an era at the Church of England/Anglican Communion

 

Dr. Rowan Williams and the end of his era of Church of England/Anglican Communion confundlement

¨Well confusion sucks just like brain wars in your head or maybe both together which isnt even the slightest of a thought of what is going on in my head right now which is such a big humungo-ish-izzle thing that I cant even describe or explain this...*thing* and the worst part about it is I cant do anything about it cuz it just is and the only two things I can think to do to help/solve/worsen it could end up being very very good or very very bad and I dont want the bad and I want the good of course but that doesnt make anything any easier nor my choice and this is the same damn thing I wrote in the post about 3 post-a-mobobbers ago and idk it just has come  back and it is bothering me constantly and it is scary¨

 HERE

 

 What's next for the Church of England ? HERE

MEET JAIME PARADA HOYT: LGBT rights activist became the first openly gay political candidate elected in Chile

Jaime Parada Hoyl, spokesperson for the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation

¨A Chilean LGBT rights activist late last month became the first openly gay political candidate elected in the South American country.

Jaime Parada Hoyl, spokesperson for the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, on Oct. 28 won a seat on the municipal council in Providencia, a wealthy enclave of Santiago, the country’s capital. The area is one of the South American country’s wealthiest and most conservative areas.

Josefa Errázuriz, who backed Parada and appeared in one of his campaign ads, defeated long-time Providencial Mayor Cristián Labbé, a retired colonel who was security agent for the secret police that operated during the first four years of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship that began in 1973.

Parada also mocked Labbé as a homophobe in a web ad his campaign produced.

“Labbé symbolizes what we don’t want for Providencia: Entitled, exclusion and a dark past in the dictatorship’s intelligence services,” says the spot. “That is why we honor him with this ‘tribute.’”
Parada further described Labbé as a “recalcitrant fascist” during an interview with the Washington Blade on Nov. 19.

“We did not just present ourselves as gay in the election,” he said when asked about his historic election. “We put forth a platform that had a lot to do with a political agenda, and that is why our campaign had an impact. It had a lot to do with sexual diversity and discrimination in general. It was not something we would have been able to imagine with the setbacks of a few years ago. And with this opportunity we can communicate the contrary.”

Parada became a prominent figure in Chile’s growing LGBT rights movement earlier this year after a group of self-described neo-Nazis allegedly beat Daniel Zamudio to death in a Santiago park because he was gay...¨ HERE

Thanks to the Washington Blade, sidebar
Thanks to Jaime Parada Hoyl
Thanks to The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation

TODAYS GRATITUDE NEWS: It's a wonderful life!

ONE

¨For 15 years, Aung San Suu Kyi waited in her lakeside villa, confined to the small plot of land under house arrest, dreaming of her return to the world. On Monday, the world, or a big piece of it, came calling on her.

President Obama pulled up to the driveway of her house in Rangoon, Burma and he brought Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with him...¨  Thanks to the Washington Post

TWO

Mariachis at Iglesia Cristo Rey church today in Wattsonville, California, U.S.A.

First Communion, Iglesia Cristo Rey, November 18, 2012  thanks to Michael Dresbach  ¨Padre Mickey¨

THREE

 

As the Church of England weighs whether it will allow women to become bishops, the Anglican Church has ordained its first female bishop in Africa.

Ellinah Wamukoya, 61, was consecrated Saturday to serve as the church's bishop in Swaziland, a tiny, impoverished nation surrounded by South Africa that is the continent's last absolute monarchy. Speaking Monday to The Associated Press, Wamukoya said she wanted to bring integrity to the church. HERE

FOUR

THANKSGIVING IS COMING!

ANOTHER MILESTONE IN CUBA: Adela Hernandez, first known transgender person to hold public office UPDATE: Transgender Day of Remembrance 2012

¨Adela Hernandez, a biologically male Cuban who has lived as a female since childhood, served two years in prison in the 1980s for "dangerousness" after her own family denounced her sexuality.

This month she made history by becoming the first known transgender person to hold public office in Cuba, winning election as a delegate to the municipal government of Caibarien in the central province of Villa Clara.

In a country where gays were persecuted for decades and sent to grueling work camps in the countryside, Hernandez, 48, hailed her election as yet another milestone in a gradual shift away from macho attitudes in the years since Fidel Castro himself expressed regret over the treatment of people perceived to be different.

"As time evolves, homophobic people — although they will always exist — are the minority," Hernandez said by phone from her hometown.

Becoming a delegate "is a great triumph," she added.

Because she has not undergone sex-change surgery, Hernandez is legally still a man in the eyes of the Cuban state: Jose Agustin Hernandez, according to the civil registry. Hernandez, who switched back and forth between feminine and masculine pronouns when referring to herself during an interview, said she hasn't made a decision to seek an operation but doesn't rule it out either.

Hernandez won office in early November by taking a runoff vote 280-170. Her position is the equivalent of a city councilor, and her election makes her eligible to be selected as a representative to Parliament in early 2013...¨ HERE

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2012: Never Forget Our Dead
Dallas, Texas, and around the globe – The 14th Annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is set for November 20, 2012. Women, men, youth, and queer folk of every stripe will be gathering throughout the week, and especially on this coming Tuesday evening, to memorialize our Transgender Sisters and Brothers, gender variant people who have not yet identified, and those perceived to be Transgender who have lost their lives to unreasoning hatred since this time last year.
The first TDOR was established to remember the murder of Rita Hester who died on November 28, 1998–a case that has never been solved to this day. The heinous character of hate crimes against gender variant people is compounded by the fact that so many of these homicides remain, like Rita’s, unsolved, with no one brought to justice...¨ http://unfinishedlivesblog.com/2012/11/18/transgender-day-of-remembrance-2012-never-forget-our-dead/

Thanks to ABC News
Thanks to Associated Press
Thanks to Adela Hernandez
Thanks to Towleroad, sidebar
Thanks to Unfinished Lives, sidebar

RELIGIOUS/RACIAL HATE CAMPAIGN: Where are the Christians? ¨Ninety-three percent of African Americans voted for Obama...¨

 

Linda Harvey Doubts Christian Faith of African Americans who Supported Obama       

¨Mission America head Linda Harvey is stunned that President Obama received an overwhelming percentage of the African American vote, and is now arguing that African American Christians cannot support Obama while believing in “the Lord’s vision of life and truth.” She says that black voters chose not to “choose candidates based on the content of his or her character” or “open their eyes” about Obama and instead were “swayed by race,” even though he has “insulted our Lord, our values and our faith...”  sicker than a dog, HERE

Pretty is as pretty does:  Linda Harvey, Religious Bigot and Racist. HATE ages!

Thanks to Right Wing Watch, sidebar
Thanks to Brian Tashman

HALL OF GAY FAME: Dodger's Glenn Burke ¨the guy who invented the high five¨

Glenn Burke: 1952. He was known as “the guy who invented the high five,” when in a game in 1977, Burke was standing on deck as fellow Dodger Dusty Baker was rounding third and headed for home after hitting a home run. As Baker crossed home plate, Burke raised his had. Baker responded by raising his also, and when the two slapped hands, history was made. Believe it or not. And to make the scene complete, Burke then stepped up to the plate and hit a home run of his own.

Burke made another kind of history, after a fashion: he is believed to be the first gay ballplayer who was out to his team mates. According to his 1995 autobiography, Out at Home, Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis offered to pay for his honeymoon if Burke agreed to get married. Burke said no. He also angered manager Tommy Lasorda by hanging out with Lasorda’s estranged gay son. The Dodgers soon traded him to the Oakland A’s, where manager Billy Martin called him a faggot in front of his teammates. He retired in 1979. In 1982, Burke became the first professional league player to come out as gay. He was a hero in his adopted community in San Francisco’s Castro, but without baseball his life soon spiraled downhill. He struggled with drug addiction, and for a while became homeless. He spent several months in prison for grand theft and possession of a controlled substance. His final months were spent with his sister before succumbing to AIDS in 1995 at the age of 42.¨ HERE

Thanks to Glenn Burke
Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar

AFRICAN-AMERICAN and GAY: President Obama has nominated Judge William Thomas to serve on the United States District Court/Florida

Obama makes history for both the African-American and gay communities:

¨The White House announced on Wednesday that President Obama has nominated Judge William Thomas, an out gay man, to serve on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Thomas would be the first out LGBT black man to serve as a lifetime-tenured federal judge. In a statement, Obama noted the diversity of Thomas and six other nominees, saying, "They ... represent my continued commitment to ensure that the judiciary resembles the nation it serves." He added, "These individuals have demonstrated the talent, expertise, and fair-mindedness Americans expect and deserve from their judicial system. I am grateful for their willingness to serve and confident that they will apply the law with the utmost impartiality and integrity. Too many of our courtrooms stand empty. I hope the Senate will promptly consider all of my nominees and ensure justice for everyday Americans..." HERE

Thanks to Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, sidebar
Thanks to Buzz Feed
Thanks to Chris Geidner

Catholic Bishops Suddenly Silent as LGBT Ugandans Face Possible Death (A Deadly Silence from Lambeth and Bishopthorpe Palaces too)

¨By any measure, last week's elections marked a watershed moment in the history of the LGBT civil rights movement. The most pro-LGBT president in American history was re-elected, marriage equality won at the ballot box for the first time (in three states!), Minnesota beat back a constitutional marriage discrimination amendment, and the 113th Congress will contain a record number of out LGBT lawmakers, including Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, who will be the first member of our community to openly serve in the United States Senate.

These historic victories came despite weeks of concerted attacks against President Obama and LGBT equality from America's Catholic bishops which were, to the best of my memory, unprecedented in both their stridency and overt partisanship. Green Bay Bishop David Ricken and Springfield, Illinois Bishop Thomas Paprocki both told Catholics in their respective dioceses that voting for candidates who support issues like marriage equality, reproductive choice, and stem cell research were putting their eternal souls in jeopardy -- essentially telling the faithful that if they vote Democrat, they were going to hell. Other bishops, like John Myers of Newark and Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, declared that sexually active LGBTs and pro-marriage equality Catholics were unfit to present themselves for Communion. And earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI publicly endorsed these spiritual bullying tactics in an address delivered to a group that included Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt, one of the most enthusiastically outspoken proponents of Minnesota's failed amendment effort.

Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda, Rebecca Kadaga

Against this putrid backdrop, American Catholics did what they've learned to do on other issues like contraception: they ignored the bishops and voted with their consciences. And in a stinging rebuke to the prelates who lead them, a majority voted to re-elect Barack Obama. To this former Catholic, the public backfiring of the bishops' divisive anti-gay agenda was nothing short of divine.
But I was abruptly snapped out of my post-election euphoria by the incredibly disturbing news that the government of the central African nation of Uganda plans to pass its notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill by the end of this year. According to a report from the Washington Post, MP Rebecca Kadaga, speaker of the Ugandan parliament, insisted in an interview with the AP that Ugandans are "demanding" the body swiftly pass the bill, which would make homosexuality a crime punishable by death; punish same-sex Ugandan couples marrying abroad with lifetime prison sentences when they return home; outlaw all advocacy on behalf of LGBT people including the provision of medical care, lodging, and basic services; and require citizens to report any LGBT people they know to the police. (Under the proposed law, refusing to report one's LGBT friends, neighbors, and family members constitutes "aiding and abetting homosexuality," a crime that carries a seven-year jail sentence.) Some Christian leaders apparently went even further, perversely claiming that the bill's passage would be "a Christmas gift" to the nation...¨ HERE

Thanks to Bilerico Project, sidebar
Thanks to John M. Becker

THE OBSESSION WITH SEX and ¨KILLING GAYS¨ IN UGANDA: “Young people, commit your sexual organs to the Lord...¨ Anglican Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi

Anglican Archbishop Orombi/Uganda

"People should respect nature and the great creator who modelled man and woman. He wasn't blind and he knows why he created a man's parts and a woman's parts. Why should anyone try to undo that?" Henry Luke Orombi,   HERE

¨Malicious¨ Janet Museveni, Member of Parliament and First Lady of Uganda (she wants to become the next President after her three-term husband)

 

"In God's word, homosexuality attracts a curse, but now people are engaging in it and saying they are created that way. It is for money The devil is stoking fires to destroy our nation and those taking advantage are doing so because our people are poor," she said. Mrs. Museveni advised the youth not only to listen to messages on how they can make money but also focus on spiritual growth. "You know that you will lose everything else when you lose your soul.¨  MP Janet Museveni, HERE

  

 

The ¨not so ethical¨ government minister of ¨morals and ethics¨ Father Simon Lokodo

HERE

  

“Young people, commit your sexual organs to the Lord. He does not need your money, but He needs you. Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.”  Archbishop Orombi  HERE

 

Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi  and Anglican MP David Bahati. Bahati is author/adamant promoter of ¨Kill the Gays¨ genocide bill (++Orombi is Bahati´s ´spiritual counselor´)  http://leonardoricardosanto.blogspot.com/2012/09/meet-despot-bigots-homophobes-and.html

 

 

DEADLY RESENTMENT?

Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga/Uganda, recently returned from international conference in Canada where she and her government in Uganda were challenged on extreme and deadly pending legislation on anti-LGBT issues. 
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/10/31/1117031/ugandan-parliament-speaker-pushes-for-kill-the-gays-bill/

¨The Associated Press reports that according to Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, Uganda's long-pending "Kill The Gays" genocide bill will be passed by the end of the year. Local clergy have petitioned the government, demanding the bill's passage as a "Christmas gift to Christians."

http://leonardoricardosanto.blogspot.com/2012/11/lgbt-murdercleansing-alert-christmas.html

 

Hault the promotion of religious genocide in Uganda

 

  Anonymous targets Ugandan officials for 'kill the gays' bill

http://www.examiner.com/article/anonymous-targets-ugandan-officials-for-kill-the-gays-bill

 

 

LGBT MURDER/CLEANSING ALERT: ¨Christmas Genocide Gift to Christians in Uganda¨ -- Anglican MP David Bahati´s ¨Kill the Gays¨ Bill to be passed quickly to ¨satisfy local clergy¨



RESENTMENT? Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga/Uganda, recently returned from international conference in Canada where she and her government in Uganda were challenged on extreme and deadly pending legislation on anti-LGBT issues.  http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/10/31/1117031/ugandan-parliament-speaker-pushes-for-kill-the-gays-bill/

¨The Associated Press reports that according to Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, Uganda's long-pending "Kill The Gays" genocide bill will be passed by the end of the year. Local clergy have petitioned the government, demanding the bill's passage as a "Christmas gift to Christians."

Religious lust for LGBT genocide in Uganda

Ugandans "are demanding it," she said, reiterating a promise she made before a meeting on Friday of anti-gay activists who spoke of "the serious threat" posed by homosexuals to Uganda's children. Some Christian clerics at the meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, asked the speaker to pass the law as "a Christmas gift."

Anglican and MP David Bahati is author/adamant promoter of ¨Kill the Gays¨  genocide bill http://leonardoricardosanto.blogspot.com/2012/09/meet-despot-bigots-homophobes-and.html

"Speaker, we cannot sit back while such (a) destructive phenomenon is taking place in our nation," the activists said in a petition. "We therefore, as responsible citizens, feel duty-bound to bring this matter to your attention as the leader of Parliament ... so that lawmakers can do something to quickly address the deteriorating situation in our nation."

The anti-gay activists paraded in front of Kadaga, with parents and schoolchildren holding up signs saying homosexuality is "an abomination." The speaker then promised to consider the bill within two weeks, declaring that "the power is in our hands. Who are we not to do what they have told us? These people should not be begging us," Kadaga said of activists who want the bill to become law.

While the above-linked AP report claims that the bill "originally mandated death for some gay acts," in fact the bill does continue to call for the death penalty for "serial offenders." Box Turtle Bulletin notes that according to Clause One of the act, a "serial offender" is defined as a someone who has "previous convictions of the offence of homosexuality or related offences." In other words, a second conviction brings the death penalty. And those "related offenses" include renting a room to a gay person or failing to inform the government that someone they know is gay, meaning that a straight person could also suffer the "gay death penalty..." HERE

Thanks to Joe.My.God., sidebar
Thanks to Associated Press
Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar
Thanks to Warren Throckmorton, sidebar
Thanks to Think Progress, sidebar

SHALL WE STAY OR FALL AWAY? ¨...hold open the possibility of changing my mind¨ The Rt. Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, designate

Estimado Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham, Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury designate,

Onward we go.  Yes we do.  You do and I do. Forward we go by opening our minds/spirits and receiving, adjusting to one another and by being willing to grow into the greatest and newest discoveries amongst Gods constant revelations.  What a challenge for mutual discernment we have before your enthronement March, 2013.  Saint Augustine pray for us.

Bishop Justin Welby, are you willing to change?

Thankfully, I´ve arrived at some understanding of Gods will for me, and for some other Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people like me after a lifetime of trying to figure ¨God¨ out! I'm especially glad to share the God of my understanding with you today.   You seem like a spiritually healthy soul to me and I trust the Crown Nominations Commission has not let me/us down after submitting your nomination to the Prime Minister and the Queen for approval as our next Archbishop of Canterbury.

I just watched an interview featuring you from Lambeth Palace on CNN International. It's nice to meet you, Bishop.  Please come right in and have a seat in my home at the Foot of the Volcano in Guatemala, Central America. 

There is a pressing personal matter that I'd like to discuss with you before you officially become another first amongst equals at The Anglican Communion.

I am 69 years old.  I am a retired ¨Americano¨ and  I am an active artist/painter, and a ¨Gay¨ (as opposed to Heterosexual) member of The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion.  I live in Central America and I am also a resident of Florida, U.S.A..  There you have it, the basics about me, or at least, it's a start:

I was born in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.  I was born to heterosexual parents who loved one another until death when they did part.  I have an older sister and we had a Cocker Spaniel named ¨Taffy¨ while growing up.  We were a middle class family.  We had a nice home with a lovely garden and the world shined and sparkled around us.  We were a fortunate family in many ways.  I knew it then and I know it now.  Thanks be to God.

I was different even as a child into adulthood.  I knew I was different but I lived with my ¨sexual orientation¨ secret, because, afterall, I agreed with people who said there could be something wrong with me/people like me.  I felt shame, I felt guilt! I felt alone/different and I didn't even know why I was different or why God made me into being the way I was.  It didn't make sense.  I didn't make sense even to me as I grew up. 

Best to pretend *things* were different than they really were in my very own customized/isolated reality.  Onward. 

Oddly, I was a very outgoing kid and young adult.  My happy nature prevented me from being a cowardly and timid member of society.  I was thrilled to be alive, that is, I was mostly thrilled to be me (except for a not-as-big-as-I-thought-it-to-be-secret that was eating away inside of me as I bit my fingernails).  Inferiority?  How could this be?  I was a lively, healthy, creative, playful, loved/loving one of Gods beings (except I loathed me)? 

Best to drink and make that part go away! Best it go away for the moment, for the evening or until another day. My difference faded when I drank them away.  Presto, gone.  Many enchanted evenings and a decade+ passed on as I tried to make *things* different than they were.

I drank alcoholicly from 18 years old until age 35.  I was a success in my personal life but I loathed the innermost me.  At age 35 I couldn´t hide anymore, there was no place left to hide from the homosexual shame inside of me.  I was at the dropping off place and I wanted to die! I couldn´t pretend anymore.  That is,  I wanted to die but then I´d be dead.  I didn't want to be dead!  I just wanted to die or find out how to live.  I prayed to God (with drunken pleading) to ¨take this away from me.¨ God did.  The alcoholism that is.

So, from age 35 right up until this momento I've been relieved of my active alcoholism.  I've not been relieved of being the authentic me.  The biggest, and best, lesson I´ve learned in sobriety was/is that God wanted me to be me...in all my affairs.  Not just sometimes.  Not cowardly! Not just when it was convenient/safe.  Not just when I was on the otherside of the need to tell you, in the church and beyond, what I thought you/they, we wanted to hear. I'm called to always to be me.  Now that's a challenge.  Personal authenticity!  Imagine,  being selfaccountable in my reality in front of you and everyone else on a regular basis!  My shrinking away into someone else days/daze were over at last!  Freedom at last!  I got to be the whole person that I was born to be.  Thanks be to God.  Enter personal responsibility!

Bishop Justin Welby.  It's time for you to step up to and address one of the greatest ¨religious¨ issues/crimes of our time.  It's up to you to lead the Church of England/Anglican Communion by helping to introduce everyday reality, equality and mutual-accountability at Church.  It's time for you and others to stop playing pretend that you are different than me (and Anglican people like me).  The thinking/beliving must be reviewed that you are somehow more honorable than me and other Anglicans like me and our LGBT clergy.  It´s your chance to HELP LGBT Anglicans at home and abroad by demonstrating your personal integrity and the open mindedness you wish to have. You pray to have.  You ought not look the otherway when Anglicans like David Kato are murdered in Uganda nor when a innocent is beaten to death in Liverpool (while the Lambeth Conference is in session with no mention) or while preaching in LGBT bloodrenched Jamaica during the ACC meeting... and/or when Anglican Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo is ex-communicated for ministering to the marginalized/suicidal LGBT Ugandans!  Speak up against viciousness within the Anglican Communion.  Anglican and MP David Bahati is currently promoting his ¨Kill all the Gays¨ legislation again at the Parliament of Uganda.  Please don't play pretend, Bishop.  Lifetimes of evil directed against LGBT Christians will not go away just because you are ¨holding open the possibility of changing your mind!¨

It's time for you to stand tall as our next Archbishop of Canterbury.  It's time for you to cry out to God and ask God to help you/us find your/our way away from the active discrimination and the practicing of difference, fear and hate against LGBT Christians at the Church of England and various deadly outposts of Christianlike ministry at the Anglican Communion.

Very truly yours,

Leonard Clark aka Leonardo Ricardo

Bishop Justin,

Here are two notes I received today.  I'm forwarding them to you and they are from a former Anglicana in Central America:

¨ I think I should have told the BBC that the Church of England should learn from the Republican Party in the U.S. They moved so far to the conservative side that they lost the election.  

The Church is not living in the present, and the members of the church are voting with their feet, walking out. There is a price to pay. You would think I wouldn't be so mad considering I left the church over 10 years ago, but it still resonates.¨

 

About the note to the BBC:

 

¨I just read on BBC that a new Archbishop is being ordained. But it looks like same old, same old in his views on homosexuality and gay marriage. I wrote a comment, and after i sent it it said they would use my name, but not my email should they decide to publish it. No big deal, but didn't like the fact that the information was given only after the message was submitted. My comment was something like "it's disappointing that the new Archbishop of Canterbusy hasn't changed his views on homosexuality and gay marriage. When will the Church start living in the present, or at least show compassion for homosexuals. I am 75 years old, not gay, and I have left the Church." I would word it differently now, but it's gone.¨  Love you

 

Friends of Juan Carlos: In the swim of things

Juan Carlos is gamekeeper, fish warden, head dog trainer/groomer and executive bird watcher too.

 

 

Everything is clean as a whistle in the mainstream of life and good health abounds at our house.

 

 

Thanks to Juan Carlos, Chepe, Henry and Violeta we run a very hospitable home at all times 

 

 Center top:  Our Mayor, Dr. Julio Quinoñez and to his right Jose ¨Chepe¨ Vice Mayor and many other notable citzens and pals.

PRESIDENT OBAMA WINS! ONWARD WE GO (all of us together, thank you very much)!

President Barack Obama of the United States of America (Norte)

REELECTED!

VALIDATED!

¨God, gods, and goddesses willing, we may be watching the beginning of the end of homophobia as a political force.¨  http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-big-gay-night.html