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