HOSNI MUBARAK STEPS DOWN

The Egyptian flag.

From the New York Times:

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt resigned his post and turned over all power to the military on Friday, ending his 30 years of autocratic rule and bowing to a historic popular uprising that has transformed politics in Egypt and around the Arab world.

The streets of Cairo exploded in shouts of “God is Great” moments after Mr. Mubarak’s vice president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, announced during evening prayers that Mr. Mubarak has passed all authority to a council of military leaders.

Mubarak has left Cairo and retired to his home in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Let us pray for the people and the government of Egypt.

O God, whose glory is in all the world: We commend the nation of Egypt to your merciful care, that, being guided by your goodness, they may dwell secure in peace. Grant to the new President of Egypt and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do your will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling to humbly serve the people of their country. Amen.

Tomb of Nakht

A tomb relief depicts workers plowing the fields, harvesting the crops, and threshing the grain under the direction of an overseer.

Image from Wikipedia.

STORY OF THE DAY - DAY BREAK

liking each other because it's a beautiful
day & it seems like a waste of time to
disagree about stuff the other one is
refusing to change out of sheer
stubbornness

From StoryPeople.

LETTER FROM BISHOP CHRISTOPHER SENYONJO TO ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS

The following is the full text of the letter from Bishop Senyonjo to Archbishop Rowan Williams and the Anglican Communion.

Dear Archbishop Rowan Williams, Primates and fellow bishops, clergy and people of our diverse Anglican Communion.

Peace from God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I give thanks on behalf of the family and friends of David Kato for your love and prayers at this difficult time. All over the world, human beings are longing for liberation, love, respect and the dignity to have meaningful lives. This week alone, we witnessed it in Egypt .We also see this longing in the struggle for human rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (LGBT) through the sacrificial life and death of David Kato. As human beings, we must respect our differences and be united in our call for listening and sharing with each other. To understand God, we are all called to understand the mystery of each other, including our sexualities. God has given us this gift and to defame, condemn, imprison and kill human beings because of their God-given nature, is a great human error. The church has a tragic history of condemning Jews, Moslems, scientists and LGBT people. Our teaching and theology has a causal effect and if we do not learn from our own historical mistakes, we will repeat the same sinful destruction of lives, families and communities.

When European churches failed to protect minority communities during World War II, people were sent to the gas chambers and concentration camps. Many religious people in Europe emerged from that experience to help create the Declaration of Human Rights. We now have sixty years of building an internationally recognised framework for the protection of human rights in every country. If Anglicans in one country dehumanize, persecute and imprison minorities, we must be true to the Gospel and challenge such assaults on basic human rights. They key to our ministry must be to educate our people and encourage LGBT people to tell their stories and the impact of homophobia in their lives. Listening to the stories of LGBT people was the beginning of my own transformation. This work of understanding the phenomenon of human sexuality should be taken seriously in our theological seminaries and schools. The clergy should be well equipped to serve and not to ignorantly repel the people of God. A required course in Human Sexuality should be required of all seminarians and clergy.

Many African countries imprison LGBT people because of who they are. As a bishop in the midst of those countries, I am now a shepherd caring for the lost sheep that are persecuted by the Church and threatened by a pending anti-homosexual draconian bill in Uganda. I preach the new covenant of Jesus Christ sealed in love as we read in John 15:12. This is the heart of the Gospel-the Good News. This sacrifice of Love is mocked when sister churches tolerate or promote the violation of basic human rights. Life and liberty are at risk and we must hold each other accountable. A loving Anglican Communion should not keep quiet when the Rolling Stone tabloid in Uganda openly supports the “hanging of the homos,” including a fellow bishop who pleads for their inclusion and non-discrimination! Silence has the power to kill. We have witnessed its destruction this past week in the tragic and cruel murder of David Kato.

We African Anglicans have a rich and powerful history of speaking out on human rights in the most difficult of situations. Bishop Colenso worked with Zulus to establish an indigenous church while being fought by his fellow English bishops. Bishops Trevor Huddleston, John Taylor and Desmond Tutu resisted Apartheid. We must not demean our great tradition by oppressing LGBT minorities under any circumstances, even to maintain Anglican unanimity. The criminalization of homosexuality remains the greatest state and church sanctioned violence perpetrated against LGBT people and their allies in many countries. We must agree to demolish all forms of institutional homophobia beginning with the removal of all laws that punish human beings for being gay or living in loving relationships. This will be the first step in providing basic human rights to a largely invisible international community who live in daily fear of their lives.

So in thanksgiving for the unity and commitment we have together, let us continue to listen to one another, to protect the vulnerable and marginalized within our own societies and to bring our collective wisdom to the work of repairing the world and correcting the great injustices in our local communities.

+Christopher

Rt. Rev. Christopher Senyonjo

Bishop Christopher presided over the graveside service for David Kato, after the Anglican Lay Reader assigned to preside over Kato's funeral launched into an angry rant against LGTB persons.

H/T to Leonardo at Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano.

UPDATE: From Leonardo:

Further information on the work of the St. Paul’s Centre and Bishop Christopher may be obtained from Rev. Canon Albert Ogle at aogle@stpaulsfoundation.com

Here's the link to make a donation to St Paul's Foundation.

Thanks to SCG at Wake Up and Live for the link. SCG's birthday is on Valentine's Day. She suggests you send her a valentine by making a donation to St Paul's Foundation.

MORE ON THE SWINGING GRANNY

From CBS News:

The "super-senior" who bravely fought-off jewel thieves with her handbag has been unmasked.


She's 71-year old grandmother, Ann Timson -- and she's being called a hero by her community.

Timson was caught on video Monday beating up a gang of robbers with her bag. They were trying to break the windows of a jewelry store in Northampton, England.

She initially thought a kid was being beaten up.

"My mother's instinct kicked in and I ran across the road shouting at the lads to stop it," she said in an interview with the British newspaper The Sunys. "I was not going to stand by and watch someone take a beating, so I intervened. As I got closer, I saw it was a robbery - and then I was even more angry that they felt they could get away with that in broad daylight"

The fiesty granny was on a mission.

I understand about the mother's instinct kicking in. Perhaps I could run like a quarterback, if I thought a kid was getting hurt. And she was not deterred when one of the crooks threatened her with a hammer! I'd like to meet the courageous lady.

LITTLE iAPPS - CONFESSION: A ROMAN CATHOLIC APP

From Beliefblog:

Yes, the Roman Catholic Church still supports the new app designed to help Catholics make confession. To a point.

The Vatican qualified its support for "Confession: A Roman Catholic App,” on Wednesday, a day after the program’s developer announced it was the first app to have official church sanction.

Thanks to Whiteycat.

“It is essential to understand well the sacrament of penitence requires the personal dialogue between the penitent and the confessor and the absolution by the confessor,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters on Wednesday. “This cannot in any way be substituted by a technology application.”

“One cannot talk in any way about a ‘confession via iPhone,’ ” Lombardi said.

Eons ago, we worked from lists of sins against the Ten Commandments. In the age of technology, why not an iPhone app? I used the lists to remind myself of my wickedness and then committed my sins to memory for use in the confessional, but, on one occasion, a couple of my friends tried to take their lists into the confession box, but it was so dark that they could not read off their sins. I suppose the iPhone has a light, which would eliminate that problem, but then a good many folks don't use the confessional any longer and prefer a face to face experience of confessing their sins.

For good or for ill, it's been years since I've made a formal confession to a priest. I confess to God and, at times, to a wise and trustworthy friend. My last experience of confession was embarrassing for me and, I believe, for the priest - not because of the sins I confessed, because there was nothing extraordinary in their content, but just the experience itself was awkward, and I've not tried again.

Thanks to Ann V.

UPDATE: From Maureen Dowd in the New York Times:

Our Father, who art in pixels,
linked be Thy name,
Thy Web site come, Thy Net be done,
on Explorer as it is on Firefox.
Give us this day our daily app,
and forgive us our spam,
as we forgive those
who spam against us,
and lead us not into aggregation,
but deliver us from e-vil. Amen.

Thanks to Whitecat.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

From the New York Times:

Representative Christopher Lee of New York abruptly resigned on Wednesday night after a shirtless photo of himself, which he had e-mailed to a woman, was published on the Internet.

Mr. Lee, a two-term Republican from western New York, notified the House speaker, John A. Boehner, of his decision in a letter on Wednesday afternoon, after the scandal had erupted, according to senior Congressional officials.

Mr. Lee’s office released a statement in which he asked for forgiveness. “I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents,” he wrote. “I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness.”

The resignation came hours after Gawker, a gossip Web site, published an e-mail exchange that Mr. Lee, who is married and has a son, had with a 34-year-old Maryland woman he had met through Craigslist.

According to Gawker, Mr. Lee, who is 46, replied to a personal ad that the woman had placed in the “Women for Men” section of Craigslist, seeking a financially and emotionally secure man.

No, no picture of the shirtless Mr. Lee. Sorry.

How could Mr. Lee do something so stupid and believe he could get away with it? At some point, one has to wonder if folks like Mr. Lee want to get caught.

Gawker said the woman, a government employee who asked not to be identified, eventually stopped contacting Mr. Lee after she searched for his name online and discovered that he was lying about his profession and his age. The woman then sent the e-mails to Gawker.

Oops!

UPDATE: Ed of "The Ed Show" on MSNBC showed the picture of the shirtless Lee and said, "Isn't that special?"

THE FORCE OF A HANDBAG WIELDED BY AN ANGRY OLD LADY

Extraordinary footage as a gang attempts a smash and grab raid in Northampton - only to be fought off by a pensioner armed with a handbag.

So many folks have sent me the link to the video, that, although the YouTube version has gone viral, I now feel compelled to join the crowd and post the video.

That's one brave and, some might say, foolish old lady. No, I am not the old lady in the video, but I admire her greatly. All you crooks out there, keep in mind that the force of a handbag wielded by by an angry pensioner is not to be dismissed. The old girl runs like a quarterback.

"THE SETTING SUN"

From IT at The Friends of Jake:

Last Thanksgiving, BP and I joined Mom and Dad at Bodega Bay, along the northern coast of California, for a tranquil holiday get away. I took this photo at sunset. It was beautiful, and peaceful, and I treasure those days as a lovely memory of my Dad. It was the last time I saw him. This weekend we will inter his ashes, and I'll be slowly getting back to regular blogging. Thanks again for your love and support.

Please leave messages of sympathy and support at The Friends of Jake. Thank you.

R. I. P. BISHOP SAMUEL RUIZ GARCIA

From the New York Times:

Bishop Samuel Ruiz García, an impassioned defender of the Mayans in southern Mexico and a mediator in peace talks between Indian rebels and the government, died on Monday in Mexico City. He was 86.
....

During his 40 years of presiding over a Roman Catholic diocese in Chiapas State, Bishop Ruiz cast light on abuses suffered by the Indians and sought to bring them into the church as equals with other Mexicans, challenging the rigidly stratified social order.

His advocacy and egalitarian views, which were tinged with socialism, brought him into conflict with the Mexican government, which accused him of fomenting a violent uprising in Chiapas in 1994. He also rankled the Vatican, which said he had strayed from ecclesiastical principles to create a politicized ethnic church, and in 1993 publicly invited him to step down. Mexican clerics rallied to his defense, however, and he remained as bishop until he retired in 2000.

Bishop Ruiz attracted a fervent following among Indians in Chiapas, who called him “Tatic,” which means “father” in a Mayan language. On Tuesday, Indian parishioners filled the cathedral in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a colonial town in the Chiapas highlands, for a memorial Mass that also commemorated the 51st anniversary of Bishop Ruiz’s ordination there.
....

As economic changes in the 1980s deepened the poverty and isolation of the Indians, many Catholics joined an uprising that erupted when the Zapatista National Liberation Army, a group of armed Indian rebels, occupied several Chiapas towns in January 1994.

Bishop Ruiz openly supported the Zapatistas’ goal of fighting injustice, but he did not endorse their violent tactics.

Bishop Ruiz Garcia had the heart of a true shepherd for his flock which included in its numbers so very many of the poor and dispossessed. Please read the entire account in the NYT.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Samuel. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light.
Amen.

May his soul and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
------------------

Let us also pray for all who mourn, that they may cast their care on God, and know the consolation of his love.

Almighty God, look with pity upon the sorrows of your servants for whom we pray. Remember them, Lord, in your mercy; nourish them with patience; comfort them with a sense of your goodness; lift up your countenance upon them; and give them peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

H/T to The Daily Office.

IT GETS BETTER

Wow! Mike Carney's video is great.

From The Trevor Project.

H/T to The Daily Office.