Archbishop Rowan Williams’ three-day visit, which began Thursday with a lecture and ends Saturday with a papal audience, was scheduled before the Vatican announced it was making it easier for traditional Anglicans upset over the ordination of women and gay bishops to become Catholic.

The Vatican has said it was merely responding to the many Anglican requests to join the Catholic Church and has denied it was poaching for converts in the Anglican pond.

But the move has already strained Catholic-Anglican relations and is sure to affect Williams’ 77-million worldwide Anglican Communion, which was already on the verge of schism over homosexuality and women’s ordination issues before the Vatican intervened.

In a speech at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Williams was gracious in referring to the Vatican’s new policy, which he called the “elephant in the room.” The policy was an “imaginative pastoral response” to requests by some Anglicans but broke no new doctrinal ground, Williams said.

He spent the bulk of his speech describing the progress that had been achieved so far in decades of Vatican-Anglican ecumenical talks and questioning whether the outstanding issues were really all that great.

“The ecumenical glass is genuinely half full,” the archbishop said.

Anglicans split from Rome in 1534 when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment. For decades, the two churches have held theological discussions on trying to reunite, part of the Vatican’s broader, long-term ecumenical effort to unify all Christians.

But differences remain and the ecumenical talks were going nowhere as divisions mounted between liberals and traditionalists within the Anglican Communion itself.

While acknowleging the outstanding differences with Rome, Williams suggested that a way forward might be to embrace a “diversity of types of communion,” in which communion could be achieved but not with a “single juridically united body.”

The Vatican official in charge of relations with Anglicans, Cardinal Walter Kasper, also sought to put a positive interpretation on the future, drawing a clear distinction between the doctrinal talks on unification and questions of conversion.

“We cannot close our doors when others knock on them. But this does not exonerate us from” pursuing the broader unification of the churches as institutions, he said in a speech to the Gregorian symposium.

The new policy allows Anglicans to convert to Catholicism but retain many of their Anglican liturgical traditions, including married priests. The Vatican will create the equivalent of new dioceses, so-called personal ordinariates, for these former Anglicans that will be headed by a former Anglican priest or bishop.

Estimates on the number of possible converts has ranged from a few hundred to thousands.

The new policy has elicited heated criticism in Britain, both in Anglican and Roman Catholic circles. Catholic theologian Nicholas Lash said it was “disgraceful” that the Vatican devised the policy without even consulting Catholic bishops, much less Anglican ones.

Williams, for example – the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion – wasn’t even informed of the change until right before it was announced.

Kasper referred to the criticism in his speech, saying that in the future issues of both conversion and ecumenism “should be undertaken in the greatest possible transparency, tactfulness and mutual esteem in order not to entail meaningless tensions with our ecumenical partners.”

One group that has cheered the new policy is the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), which split from the Anglican Communion in the early 1990s after the first women were ordained Anglican priests. The TAC, which has long sought to come under Rome’s wing, says it has 400,000 members in 41 countries, although only about half are regular churchgoers.

Already, TAC’s British province has voted to take Rome up on its invitation. TAC leader Archbishop John Hepworth has said he anticipates others will follow.

It remains to be seen how the new policy will affect Pope Benedict XVI’s planned trip to Britain next year. One thing is likely, however: The Vatican will surely hold out the upcoming beatification of the most famous Anglican convert, Cardinal John Henry Newman, as a symbol of bridge-building, since the 19th century theologian is a hero to many Anglicans and Catholics alike.

The decision last week against Ang Ladlad (Out of the Closet), a group representing lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, sent shock waves through the gay community.

In issuing its decision, the commission said the group “tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs” and exposes young people to “an environment that does not conform to the teachings of our faith.” The ruling cited passages from the Bible and the Quran condemning homosexuality.

Homosexuals are generally accepted in the Philippines, despite the dominant Roman Catholic religion’s rejection of same-sex relations.

Leila de Lima, chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights, denounced the Election Commission’s ruling as “retrogressive” and said it “smacks of discrimination and prejudice.”

She promised to support Ang Ladlad’s efforts to gain recognition as a party.

The group’s leader, Danton Remoto, a prominent gay activist and English professor at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, filed a petition Wednesday asking the commission to reconsider its ruling, which he said was based largely on religious, not legal, grounds.

There are no laws in the Philippines against homosexuality or against sexual discrimination. If his group is allowed to run and wins a congressional seat, Remoto said he hopes to push for the adoption of a proposed anti-discrimination bill that has been languishing for nine years because of insufficient support.

“The law is just silent,” he said. “We are just invisible in the law.”

He said his group’s platform does not include same-sex marriage, but pushes for nondiscrimination in the workplace and schools. He cited instances in which companies allegedly refused to hire gays and schools required parents to sign a document certifying their children were not gay.

Candidates and political parties planning to run in the May 2010 national elections have until Dec. 1 to apply with the Elections Commission, which must give its approval.

The head of the commission’s legal department, Ismael Rafanan, said Ang Ladlad’s petition will be reviewed by the seven-member commission. If it reaffirms the rejection, Ang Ladlad can bring the case to the Supreme Court for a final ruling.

Both teens were brutally slain in separate instances last week.

These are the vigils we could find – please add others or additional information in the comments. 365gay will attend the NYC vigil and report back here on Monday (or you can check the live Twitter coverage at http://www.Twitter.com/JenniferVanasco).

Abilene, TX – 5:30PM, ACU campus, next to GATA fountain [Facebook link]

Amherst, MA – MONDAY 11/23 – 6:30PM, Food For Thought Books [Facebook link]

Boston – 7PM, Trinity Church, Copley Plaza [Facebook link]

Chicago – 4PM, Division and California, procession to Humboldt Park Boat House [Facebook link]

Durham, NC – 6PM, Corcoran St, CCB Plaza [Facebook link] (Event previously said Saturday, this will occur with the others on Sunday)

Los Angeles – 8PM, Santa Monica and San Vicente [Facebook link]

New York – 5 p.m., Christopher St. Pier 45

Oakland – 3:30PM, MacArthur and Lakeshore/Grand Ave [Facebook link]

Philadelphia – FRIDAY, Nov. 20.  6:30 PM, Church of St. Luke & The Epiphany, 330 South 13th St.

San Antonio, TX – 8PM, Crockett Park

San Francisco – 7PM, Castro and Market [Facebook link]

Terre Haute, IN – FRI 11/20 – 6:30PM, Indiana State, DeDe Plaza [Facebook link]

In 2006, China banned Lou Ye from shooting movies for five years after he screened “Summer Palace” at the Cannes Film Festival without government approval. In the film Lou tackled the Chinese military’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy student protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people are believed to have been killed.

But he defied the ban, secretly shooting the love story “Spring Fever” with small, digital cameras in the eastern city Nanjing last year. He also entered it at Cannes this year, where it won best screenplay in May.

In “Spring Fever,” he takes on homosexuality – another taboo in China – with graphic gay sex scenes. The 115-minute movie is about a private investigator hired to spy on a married man having a gay affair. But the investigator falls into a love triangle with his own girlfriend and the boyfriend of the husband he is investigating.

Commercial distributors have bought “Spring Fever” for release in Russia, South Korea, France, and the U.S., but not so in China. It was only screened in four showings at an independent film festival in Nanjing last month.

On Friday it screened as one of the two opening movies at this year’s Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. But a Chinese distribution deal is unlikely, given Lou’s status.

Lou said, however, that Chinese film officials have turned a blind eye to his supposedly illegal activities, including for shooting “Spring Fever” and showing it at the independent film festival in Nanjing.

He has also been allowed to travel freely in and out of China, but he wants the ban lifted so his films can be screened more widely in China.

“It’s regrettable that this film won’t be released in the Chinese market,” Lou told The Associated Press in an interview before the Hong Kong screening.

Lou, whose credits also include “Suzhou River” and “Purple Butterfly,” urged the Chinese government to shorten his ban.

“Everyone should be able to make movies. I hope this ban will be canceled earlier and I hope the government won’t impose any more bans on other directors,” the 45-year-old director said.

Lou arrived in Hong Kong on Friday from Paris, where he was preparing for his next project, his foreign-language debut – a French film about a Chinese student’s romance in Paris.

Judge Yves de Montigny said Friday the board erred last February when it rejected Bethany Smith’s bid.

Smith says she fled the army instead of going to Afghanistan with her unit because she was harassed and threatened by fellow soldiers over her sexual orientation.

The U.S. military has a policy of discharging openly gay members but Smith says she was denied a discharge because soldiers were needed for the Afghanistan mission.

The judge says the board unfairly dismissed evidence suggesting that gays face harsher treatment in the American military justice system.

Smith says she would fear for her life if she were returned to the army.

The 4,700-word document, called “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience,” sounds familiar themes from political and social debates over the health care overhaul and gay marriage battles.

While acknowledging that “Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage,” the group rejects same-sex marriage. The declaration states that opening a legal door for gay marriage would do the same for “polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships.”

President Barack Obama’s desire to reduce the need for abortion is “a commendable goal,” but his proposals are likely to increase the number of elective abortions, the document contends.

“The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense,” it says.

Obama has said he wants to strike a balance on abortion coverage in the health care overhaul.

The declaration also cites threats to health care workers’ conscience clauses and anti-discrimination statutes it argues impinge on religious freedoms.

Signatories include 15 Roman Catholic bishops, including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl; Focus on the Family founder James Dobson; National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson; seminary leaders, professors and pastors.

Equality California announced Thursday that it would be airing a spot featuring a teenage girl with two mothers during the Nov. 22 contest, which is airing on the CW and My Network TV.

Keith Lewis, the pageant’s executive director, says he would give Prejean the same amount of time if she wanted to provide a pre-taped message.

Lewis, who is gay, accused Prejean of violating her contract when she ignored his advice on how to handle the intense publicity after she said during this year’s Miss USA pageant that she was opposed to same-sex marriage.

Gay activists expressed disappointment that the suspect wasn’t immediately charged with a hate crime, saying authorities in Puerto Rico have never invoked a law covering crimes based on sexual orientation.

The dismembered body of 19-year-old college student Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was discovered Friday along a road in the interior town of Cayey. Lopez was widely known as a volunteer for organizations advocating HIV prevention and gay rights, and activists are planning remembrance vigils for him in cities including San Juan, New York and Chicago.

The suspect, 26-year-old Juan Martinez Matos, was arrested earlier this week and allegedly confessed to killing Lopez and mutilating his body. He was charged with first-degree murder and weapons violations and jailed on $4 million bond.

It could not be immediately determined if Martinez was represented by an attorney.

Martinez met Lopez while looking for women Thursday night in an area known for prostitution, according to prosecutor Jose Bermudez Santos. Bermudez said the suspect confessed to stabbing Lopez, who was dressed as a woman, after discovering he was a man.

“He has a deep-seated rage,” Bermudez said in remarks reported by the newspaper El Nuevo Dia.

“All the information we have is very clear that this is indeed a hate crime,” said Pedro Julio Serrano, a Puerto Rico native who is a spokesman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

A 2002 hate crime law in this U.S. territory has not been applied to any cases involving sexual orientation or gender identity despite calls to use it more aggressively, Serrano said. A suspect convicted of a hate crime offense as part of another crime automatically faces the maximum penalty for the underlying crime. For murder, that would be life in prison.

Serrano said he has identified at least 10 slayings on the island over the last seven years that should have been investigated as hate crimes, including some in which the victims were sex workers.

Two U.S. Congress members from New York, who are of Puerto Rican origin, have suggested prosecuting the case under new federal hate crimes legislation that extended coverage to sexual orientation. President Barack Obama signed it last month.

The FBI is monitoring the investigation, and Lymarie Llovet Ayala, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in San Juan, said Wednesday that federal prosecutors are considering whether to take on the case.

Puerto Rico has some history of violence against gays. In the 1980s, the island was terrorized by serial killer Angel Colon Maldonado, known as “The Angel of the Bachelors,” who was linked to the murders of 27 homosexual people and is serving life in prison.

But the island also is known as a welcoming place for gays, particularly in comparison with more socially conservative Caribbean islands where homosexuals often live in hiding.

“The people of Puerto Rico are very inclusive and accepting of differences,” said Serrano. “I think these kinds of crimes show the ugly side of homophobia, but it’s a minority of people that are willing to be so violent in expressing their prejudice,”

Serrano said a protest against homophobia was planned for Thursday outside Puerto Rico’s Capitol.

However, the judges ruled narrowly, and asked that the legislature resolved the question of marriage equality.

From the New York Times:

…the decision gave gay advocates a small victory because it was narrowly written and applied to a relatively small number of people.

In their majority ruling, four of the seven members of the court said they were making their decision on narrow grounds involving the specifics of each case, and not settling the broader question of whether same-sex marriages performed in other states should be recognized. Judge Eugene F. Pigott Jr., writing for the majority, expressed “hope that the Legislature will address this controversy.”

But in a concurring decision, three of the justices said that the court should have addressed the wider issue because New York law already allows for the recognition of marriages that are considered legal elsewhere.

Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, who wrote the concurring decision, said “that the orders under review should be affirmed on the ground that same-sex marriages, valid where performed, are entitled to full legal recognition in New York under our state’s longstanding marriage recognition rule.”

The ruling leaves open the possibility that there could be future challenges on the issue in New York.

Gov. David Paterson issued an executive order last year extending state recognition to gay couples who are married in states where same-sex marriage is legal. The order was challenged by anti-equality activists who argued that marriage equality should be decided by the legislature.

A marriage equality bill has passed the New York State Assembly; it is not clear whether it will come up for a vote in the state senate.

*****
From Evan Wolfson:

The policy of honoring marriages on equal terms was upheld in a ruling today by the NY Court of Appeals, with a strong and repeated plea by the High Court to the Legislature to act on the underlying question of the freedom to marry here in NY.

Says the Baltimore Sun:

Jason’s killing left his teachers, classmates and relatives in tears and family members asking questions of one another even in the days leading up to today’s funeral.

Did Jason leave his mother’s house and move in with his aunt, as his grandmother suggested? Or was he just visiting on that fateful day, as a cousin said? And why did people in his aunt’s house open their door to the suspect, a convicted killer released early from prison because of flaws in his case?

His paternal grandmother, Wanda Williams, one of the first Jason confided in about being gay and who handed him a few dollars now and then for food and clothes, questioned how other relatives could have allowed the boy to be in the same house with Parrish, given his violent past.

“I haven’t cried so much this entire life,” Williams said. “My grandson hollering for help and there is nobody there to help him.”

Jason was one of the most popular kids at school, his English teacher said, always first to class, always first to the cafeteria, where students fought to sit at his table, always first to turn in his homework and always getting near-perfect grades.

“He was outspoken and excited about everything he talked about,” Jones said. “Walking into school, he was the first one to share what he did over the weekend. He was very, very popular, and he was everyone’s best friend.”

Jason wanted to be a pediatrician, Jones said, and the only thing the two debated was Jason’s constant chatter.

“He was not a behavioral problem,” Jones said. “He was a talking problem.”

A Baltimore police spokesman would say only that Jason “was staying at his aunt’s house.” It was there that Jason met Parrish, with whom the spokesman said the teen had a “forced sexual relationship.”