JAMAICAN HOLY/SAFE HOUSE: The Sunshine Cathedral, Jamaica's only gay church!

Perhaps a enchanted rain forest, a secret meeting room, a private hide-a-way, a basement bodega, a closet, ALL suddenly transformed into the Kingston, Jamaica branch of the Sunshine Cathedral

Archbishop Drexel Gomez, retired, of The Anglican Church of Jamaica/West Indies Province. Countries that make up the ¨West Indies¨ Anglican Province are the ONLY Nations in Latin America/Western Hemisphere where it is against the law to be a LGBT citizen. Currently Bishop Gomez is chairperson of ´The Anglican Covenant´ design group which he viciously helped author in order to castigate individual, self-governing, Anglican Provinces that allow LGBT Anglicans/Christians to participate at all levels of Churchlife...Gomez and his accomplices display ¨ignorance and mendacity¨ and cause ¨untold suffering.¨ Religiously irresponsible comes to mind.

JAMAICA'S GAYS WORSHIP IN THE CLOSET

¨Most of the institutionalized Church in the world has done inestimable harm to LGBT people. In Jamaica, it's unbelievable how the ignorance and mendacity of most of the clergy and their followers in the institutional Church has caused untold suffering, including murders, of LGBT people.

Where are the voices of the clergy against this horror? Where are the voices of the sanitized professing Christians in the U.S. and elsewhere against the venomous rhetoric of the clergy in Jamaica and in all other places where homophobia is equated with "spirituality" in the minds of demented and warped individuals who have the temerity to sing such hymns in church as "Amazing Grace"?

A Christian Voice For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights, HERE

KINGSTON, Jamaica — It takes just 15 minutes to set up an underground church.

Two boxes and a white sheet make up the pulpit. The altar is a card table. Folding chairs constitute the pews. The Rev. Robert Griffin, a solidly built gay American minister in his mid-40s, unpacks a battered cardboard box; inside is a wooden chalice, two candle holders, a communion plate and a dog-eared copy of the King James Bible. Add a pianist warming up on an electric keyboard and suddenly an empty meeting room is transformed into the Kingston branch of the Sunshine Cathedral, Jamaica’s only gay church.

“We call it church in a box,” said Griffin, who travels to Jamaica once a month from Florida to hold services for Jamaica’s gay community. He helped found this congregation five years ago after reading a Human Rights Watch report about institutionalized anti-gay violence in Jamaica....

Ministers here regularly condemn homosexuality as a mortal sin, citing the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and God’s destruction of these cities because of the immoral behavior of their gay inhabitants. They also frequently quote verse 20:13 of Leviticus, which declares: "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death.”

“Ministers here are endorsing violent acts, calls for murder, to incite riots,” Griffin said. “I hear it being done here, I read it in the papers here, I have even heard it myself. They tell me: ‘We don’t believe in homosexuality and homosexuals should be killed because that’s what the scripture says.’” These beliefs also feed another equally pernicious notion about homosexuality. Since gayness is seen as an ungodly and unnatural act it is widely believed that the only way a young person becomes gay is by being coerced or raped by a gay man.

“That’s a misuse of the pulpit to me,” he said, with a look of outrage on his face. “In this culture, sex and homosexuality seems to pack the churches on Sunday morning. And if a minister is perceived to have not preached against homosexuality on Sunday morning, then that minister has not actually preached, if you will.”

“But we know that scripture says a lot of things,” he said. “My pushback is to ask why is that one particular verse up higher than other verses in that particular section of the Bible? There is another passage that says, 'Slaves, obey your masters.' Well, that particular part of the Bible hasn’t changed. But our attitudes certainly have changed about how we look at slavery. Global Post, click HERE

RECENT HOMOPHOBIC INCIDENTS in Jamaica

¨Jamaica may be one of the most violently homophobic societies in the world. This piece explores the dark side of Jamaica's culture of anti-gay violence and attitudes and explores the ideological beliefs that perpetuate it.¨

Homophobic Violence: Ernie Smith & Venom, click HERE

UPDATE:Man Held In Connection With Murder of Jamaican Envoy John Terry, click HERE

FURTHER UPDATE: Jamaica, a GRIM place to be Gay, read it all, click HERE

·Thanks to The Reverend Jerry Maneker
·Thanks to GLBTQ Jamaica Blogspot
·Thanks to Flickr Photosharing
·Thanks to The Reverend Robert Griffin
·Thanks to Micah Fink - Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
·Thanks to Gays Without Borders/Boycott Jamaica

NIGERIAN CONSERVATIVES and their accomplices led by Bishop Ikechi Nwosu of the Church of Nigeria VERBALLY ATTACK

Kingston, Jamaica
May 11, 2009
The 14th Meeting of The Anglican Consultative Council

BREAKING NASTINESS:

NIGERIAN CONSERVATIVES and their accomplices led by Bishop Ikechi Nwosu* of the Church of Nigeria VERBALLY ATTACK AND ABUSE COLIN COWARD OF ¨CHANGING ATTITUDES¨ on ¨public¨ grounds near the Anglican Consultative Council Meeting in JAMAICA TODAY!


Conservatives(?) ¨busy¨ at The Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica when this picture was taken.

¨I came to Jamaica in the knowledge that it is a very homophobic country and I would need to be very careful and discrete here. I assumed that if I were to be threatened, it would be by a hostile Jamaican man. I was wrong. I have been threatened this morning by Bishop Ikechi Nwosu* of the Church of Nigeria, reinforced by the Ven Dr Abraham Okorie, the Nigerian clergy delegate.

Conservative plots are nothing new to me, nor will they be to those reading this blog. I was reminded of the attempt by Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma to exorcise Richard Kirker at Lambeth 1998.. What has shocked me this morning is Bishop Nwosu’s* attempt to threaten and intimidate me. Isn’t this what conservatives are doing all the time to our Communion, all the time trying to hide behind a façade of niceness and reasonableness?

Stanley Isaacs also leapt upstairs after me and turned his anger on a group of American journalists standing in the foyer. The atmosphere for me now is very unpleasant here. I know there is a Nigerian bishop present whose anger is almost uncontrollable.¨ read it all, direct TODAY from the Anglican Consultative Council MEETING in Jamaica, click HERE


We´ve seen this kind of secrecy and behind-the-scene and disruptive, shameful, secret planning which seems an attempt to manipulate, control and take-over Anglican Meeting outcomes before.The Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during The Primates Meeting in 2007...a silly scampering down the stairs after a hook-up with Martyn Minns, his North American ¨editor/advisor¨ and CANA/GAFCON accomplice.

*Church of Nigeria Redefines Anglican Communion, read about part of the original groundwork for the Nigerian ¨takeover¨ and scroll down and NOTE the signatures on the ¨Advisory Committee¨, click HERE

NIGERIA/CANA redefining The Anglican Communion has been going on from 2004 and long before: ¨The Church is a part of the Convocation for Anglicans in North America A Mission of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, the orthodox group in North America that the World Wide Anglican Communion will recognize in the American Church.¨
The Rt. Rev'd Nathan C.O. Kanu, read it all, click HERE

RECENT and DEADLY/DANGEROUS ATTACKS against LGBT ANGLICANS/others on-the-ground in AFRICA:

CURRENT proclamations in Africa at the Anglican Communion: Christian anti-LGBT extremist alert, complete updates, smearing, more abusive THREATS and slander from Nigeria and Uganda, read it all, it´s extensive, it´s REAL, it´s dangerous to the physical, emotional and spiritual health of LGBT Anglicans/Christians our families and our friends and other innocents and it´s happening NOW, click HERE

UPDATED MONDAY AFTERNOON: Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, has sent a message of reassurance following Colin Cowards encounter with Bishop Nwosu

¨Davis is glad “that I came out alive from an encounter with such people who can do anything to achieve their own goals in the Communion in the name of Christianity.” I don’t think I am at risk of being killed here in the Jamaica Pegasus hotel but Davis’s comment reminds me that many Nigerian LGBT people are threatened with death and killed because of their sexuality.

The incredible anger expressed by the bishop to me shows me what gay Nigerians can expect if they dare to make themselves visible. Davis did that, initially in Nigeria and then from the relative safety of Togo where he received death threats and was physically attacked. The Church of Nigeria claimed there was no proof they were implicated in the threats or attack.

My experience this morning shows me that Nigerian bishops are perfectly capable of threatening and intimidating people – and if they will do that to me in the context of an ACC meeting, how much more feely will they attack and abuse those they disagree with at home in Nigeria...¨ read it all, a note from Changing Attitudes Director, Nigeria, click HERE

LGBT ANGLICANS, OUR FAMILIES, OUR FRIENDS ARE CALLED ´SATANIC´ at The Anglican Church of Nigeria

How do LGBT Anglican Nigerians endure satanic claims? read it all, click HERE

READ ABOUT THE TYPE OF PERSON WHO WISHES TO RULE THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION

¨Bishop exposes schismatic's leadership style and agenda¨, read it all, click HERE

THINKING ANGLICANS REPORTS COLIN COWARDS ¨Encounter¨ with NIGERIAN Bishop Ikechi Nwosu

Colin Coward has had an encounter with a Nigerian bishop, see Nigerian bishop not Jamaican homophobe threatens UK gay activist, What might the conservative strategy be? and also How do LGBT Anglican Nigerians endure satanic claims? read it all at THINKING ANGLICANS, click HERE

UPDATED ON THURSDAY, May 14th (By Colin Coward back in The United Kingdom) Restored relationship with Bishop Nwosu from Nigeria

¨I received a gift in the long queue leading into the Departure Lounge at the Airport in Kingston, Jamaica as I began my journey home. I found myself standing next to Canon Phil Groves and in front of Bishop Nwosu from Nigeria with whom I'd had the unpleasant encounter. We had smiled at each other in passing when we met in the hotel and I had wondered about opening a conversation with him. Now I was given the opportunity as we queued for 20 minutes.¨ read it all, click HERE

·Thanks to Changing Attitudes, United Kingdom, at the right sidebar
·Thanks to Changing Attitudes, Nigeria
·Thanks to Davis Mac-Iyalla
·Thanks to The Reverend Colin Coward
·Thanks to James at The Three Legged Stool, at the right sidebard
·Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, at the right sidebar
·Thanks to Flickr Photosharing

The Friends of Jake: Guess they didn't get the memo. UPDATED PALM SUNDAY

The Friends of Jake: ¨Guess they didn´t get the memo¨ regarding the upcoming meeting of The Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica. It is important reading, click HERE


My coverage on the same topic, with variations/additional sources, can be found at ¨Make a Sunbath out of a Bloodbath¨ click here

Retired (but not) Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the Anglican Province of The West Indies of which Jamaica is a Diocese. +Gomez also is the Chairperson for ¨The Covenant Design Group.¨ Let´s hope his work for a Anglican ¨Covenant¨ has improved to include ¨Thou shalt not kill¨ followed quickly by ¨Love thy neighbor as self¨...that´s all The Anglican ¨Covenant¨ really needs (Thou shalt not Steal might be considered more seriously amongst some of the Bishops of the Global South/Gafcon) in my opinion as most of us aim to respect and love God and carry out his wishes/commandments.

¨The verbal taunts and persecution of people because of their sexual orientation are so commonplace they set the stage for murderers who think it's no crime to hate gays and to act on that hate.¨ Gay bashing is a hate crime
By Diane Carman, Denver Post Staff Columnist, click HERE

Bishop Gomez, of Jamaica and The West Indies, Archbishop of Canterbury, +Akinola, +Orombi, and ALL ACC members present in Jamaica, please be the first to sign on the dotted ¨Anglican Covenant¨ ¨suggested¨ party line...you can use the REAL blood of LGBT Jamaicans/others instead of ink.

When are some of the ¨selfrighteous¨ ANGLICAN COMMUNION ¨religious leaders¨ going to start taking responsiblity for their own actions (or inactions) and the outcomes of their active viciousness directed against LGBT Christians/others and/or their deadly and slothful ¨omissions?¨

UPDATE FROM IRAQ: "Queers are being shot dead in their homes, streets and workplaces," he added. "Even suspected gay children are being murdered. They killers claim to be doing these assassinations at the behest of the 'democratic' Iraqi government, in order to eradicate what they see as immoral, un-Islamic behaviour." read it all, click HERE

It seems Bishops Akinola, Orombi, Kolini, Bul, Gomez and others have quite a bit in common with the Islamist-inspired homophobic anti-lgbt terror campaign. They create chaos and lawlessness and allow the flourishing of ¨religious anti-LGBT fundamentalism.¨ Will there be more massacres of Gay people to come? Archbishop Rowan and members of the ACC, are you feeling too ¨stressed¨ to talk about the EVERYDAY REALITY of CRIMES of HATE initiated against LGBT religious people at The Anglican Communion?

·Thanks to Friends of Jake, Ann
·Thanks to Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano (all of our sources)
·Thanks to Flickr Photosharing
·Thanks to The United States Department of State
·Thanks to Boycott Jamaica!
·Thanks to Pink News and Peter Tatchell
·Thanks to The Denver Post, Diane Carman