Sunday, November 30, 2014

Advent begins today: We seek your Word embodied


For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Advent: Waiting for the queer face of God

Today marks the first day of Advent, a time of expectant waiting for Christ’s birth.

Let’s celebrate the first Sunday of Advent with an excerpt from “Rite for Advent” by Chris Glaser, published in Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations:

One: The closet may be a fertile place:
creativity bursts out of a lonely hell,
and from a closet fertilized with hope,
the spirit leaps from a monastic cell.

Many: Those born in darkness
have seen life.

One: Out of dark soil sprouts new life,
from darkness springs embodied hope.
Both stretch for the illumination
of the cosmic landscape.

Many: Those born in darkness
have seen life.

One: Dear God,

Many: We seek your Word embodied
in life rooted in fertile darkness.
In life stretching for illumination,
we await your transforming Word.

___
Image credit: Advent wreath from All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California by Susan Russell

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Related links:

Advent resources (NGLTF Institute for Welcoming Resources)

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Chris Glaser is a gay Christian minister, activist and author of LGBT spirituality books, including Coming Out to God: Prayers for Lesbians and Gay Men, Their Families and Friends. Here is an excerpt from his “Rite for Advent,” published in Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations:

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This post is part of the LGBTQ Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, events in LGBTQ history, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.


Saturday, November 29, 2014

Friday, November 28, 2014

LGBT gift ideas: Queer saint icons, gay Jesus books

Candle with Sergius and Bacchus icon by Robert Lentz

Want to give a Christmas present that expresses your spirituality? Looking for just the right gift for a LGBTQ loved one or ally? You don’t even have to be queer to love the innovative icons at TrinityStores.com.

And for the hard-to-please queer who already has everything, check out the Top 20 Gay Jesus books. Nobody has them all!

I use Trinity icons of same-sex couples and queer saints all year long as part of the LGBT Saints series here at Jesus in Love. They have cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, and framed prints with more than 850 images by world-class artists such as Robert Lentz and Lewis Williams. Nine favorites of Jesus in Love readers are shown here.  There are many more, from Joan of Arc to We-Wha of Zuni. Click the titles or click here to visit TrinityStores.com.

   Harvey Milk icon by Robert Lentz    Saints Perpetua and Felicity by Robert Lentz  


       Sts. Polyeuct and Nearchus by Robert Lentz    Sts. Brigid & Darlughdach by Robert Lentz    St. Boris and George by Robert Lentz  

       Jonathan & David by Robert Lentz    Hildegard of Bingen and Richardis by Lewis Williams    St. Wencelaus and Podiven by Lewis Williams
All icons from TrinityStores.com by Robert Lentz or Lewis Williams

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This post is part of the LGBT Holidays series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Thursday, November 27, 2014

LGBTIQ religion scholars meet at AAR-SBL: We’ve come a long way

Kittredge Cherry appreciates the official sign at the LGBTIQ Scholars Reception: "We're not outsiders anymore."

I was struck by how far the LGBT religious community has come in the last 20 years when I attended the American Academy of Religion / Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in San Diego last weekend.

It felt like witnessing the fruit of my generation’s tough activism, a glimpse of the Promised Land, when I attended the LGBTIQ Scholars Reception on Saturday night, Nov. 23.

We queer religious folk used to spend most of our energy just battling for a place at conferences. We were weighed down by oppression and consumed by the fight to exist. Now have some official status and can actually do the work we were called to do by creating, studying, and teaching about LGBT religious journeys. We are not total outsiders anymore.

For me personally the biggest thrill was meeting "old friends" for the first time. I got to meet face to face with many friends whom I have known online for years. We all found each other at the LGBTIQ Scholars Reception.

Kittredge Cherry was overjoyed to meet Patrick Cheng and Xochitl Alvizo for the first time after years of online collaboration

Collectively the queer group felt more liberated and even happier than in the old days. A new generation is doing great quality work. The shadow of the AIDS crisis is diminishing. There appeared to be an egalitarian ease between men, women and everyone else in the LGBTIQ alphabet.

I could see the progress clearly because the last time I was in the queer faction of a major religion conference was in 1995. In the early 1990s I advocated for LGBT religious rights at more than a dozen conferences, including the World Council of Churches, National Council of Churches NGLTF and various denominational conferences. It was part of my ministry as ecumenical director for Metropolitan Community Churches.

Although I have blogged about LGBT events at AAR for years, I never actually attended any of their meetings until now. The committee that sponsored our reception didn’t even exist until recently. The AAR Task Force on the Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession was established in 2007. It became.an official standing committee just two years ago in 2012.

I wondered what to expect as my life partner Audrey Lockwood and I searched for the reception room in the enormous San Diego Convention Center. The joint annual meeting is the largest gathering of biblical and religion scholars in the world with more than 11,000 attendees. But the cavernous convention center was mostly empty by 9 p.m. when the reception began.

I knew we were in the right place when I spotted a sign with a rainbow flag proclaiming, “LGBTIQ Scholars Reception.” It was beautifully printed, not like the handwritten signs we used to sneak onto the doors of our unauthorized queer gatherings 20 years ago. Today’s staff was respectful, not homophobic, and easily agreed to take a photo of Audrey and me with the sign.

We stepped inside and began finding faces that were familiar from Facebook photos. Right away we spotted Patrick Cheng, chair of the committee hosting the event and a huge supporter / co-conspirator in many queer-Christ projects for nearly a decade. For example, I published an early draft of his book “From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ” on the Jesus in Love Blog. What a joy to hug Patrick for the very first time!

“I feel like we’ve met before,” Patrick said – a sentiment that would be shared many times as I encountered “old friends” for the first time that night. Before the night was over a crowd of about 100 LGBTIQ scholars had gathered. I had first-time reunions with such luminaries as Robert Goss, Sharon Fennema, Cameron Partridge and Heather White.

Naturally I showed off my new book “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision.” I was happy to hear professors say that their students enjoyed my Jesus in Love Blog.

Audrey marveled that she had never met so many lesbian Ph.D.’s in her life. We soon learned a new vocabulary word: dissertating. “She’s still dissertating” was used often to refer to someone who was still working on a Ph.D. dissertation.

But these academics did not take themselves too seriously. Susannah Cornwall joked about the absurdly long title of the AAR panel where she spoke “Researching Sexuality and Religion: Cultivating Self-Reflexive Practices and Ethical Relationalities.” Susannah, author of the instant classic "Controversies in Queer Theology," came all the way from England for the AAR conference.

Susannah Cornwall gave a lei to Kittredge Cherry

Dressed in a three-piece grey suit with red buttonholes, Audrey quickly gravitated toward another dapper queer in a lavender-checkered bowtie. She was Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, who presented a paper on “Materializing Sex in the Borderland.” Her many writings on queer theology include a chapter in "New Frontiers in Latin American Borderlands." Soon Robyn and Audrey were swapping tips on queer-friendly clothiers. (Audrey recommends Sharpe Suiting.)

Audrey Lockwood, left, and Robyn Henderson-Espinoza were butch fashionistas

Making a dramatic entrance near the end was another big supporter of both Jesus in Love and my Spanish-language blog Santos Queer: Xochitl Alvizo. I instantly felt the warmth of her welcome. She gave a presentation at the conference about her work with radical lesbian feminist theologian Mary Daly. Xochitl is still “dissertating” at Boston University until 2015, but it was great to hear about the job opportunities available for tomorrow’s scholars. Her chapter on "Being Undone by the Other" appears in the new book "Feminism and Religion in the 21st Century."

Almost all the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer scholars at the reception were younger than I am. I feel proud to see a new generation building upon LGBT traditions as they create their own queer spiritual paths toward the future.

I close with a few more photos of the happy moments when I met my longtime friends in person for the first time.


AAR honored Robert Shore-Goss, left, for the 20-year anniversary of his groundbreaking book "Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto" in a special program on Monday. He came out as an eco-queer theologian and invited others to take climate change seriously. Bob and his husband, Joseph Shore-Goss (right), both minister at MCC in the Valley in North Hollywood.



Cameron Partridge, chaplain at Boston University, made history this summer as the first openly transgender priest to preach at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. It was a highlight in my personal history when we met for the first time after years of email friendship.



"I couldn't have done my work without you," Sharon Fennema told me when Audrey and I met her in person at last during AAR. She interviewed me by phone years ago for her dissertation about worship during the AIDS crisis in San Francisco. We also provided her with cassette tape recordings of worship services that I helped lead. Now they are considered historic. Today Sharon teaches worship at my alma mater Pacific School of Religion.


Heather White and I discussed resources related to her presentation on "Stonewall as Sacred History." She wrote a chapter on "Gay Rites and Religious Rights" in the new book "Queer Christianities: Lived Religion in Transgressive Forms."


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This post is part of the Queer Christ series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series gathers together visions of the queer Christ as presented by artists, writers, theologians and others. More queer Christ images are compiled in my book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Codebreaker Alan Turing honored in queer pilgrimage by artist Tony O'Connell

"Seven Bowls of Water for the Saint" from “Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Alan Turing” by Tony O’Connell

Alan Turing is a gay icon, pioneering computer scientist and wartime British codebreaker who is honored as a saint in new artwork by queer artist Tony O’Connell.

The artist made a photographic record of his recent trip to the Alan Turing Memorial in Manchester, England -- an act that served simultaneously as pilgrimage, performance art and political statement.

Turing’s life story is also told in the new movie “The Imitation Game,” which opens in the US on Nov. 21. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the eccentric genius who broke many codes.

Democratizing the idea of sacredness and reclaiming the holiness in ordinary life, especially in LGBT experience, are major themes in O'Connell's work. Based in Liverpool, O’Connell was raised in the Roman Catholic church, but has been a practicing Buddhist since 1995.

“For me Alan Turing is so important because his work shortened World War II (some believe by between two and four years) and by doing so he caused millions of lives -- on both sides -- to be saved,” O’Connell told the Jesus in Love Blog. He added that Turing “laid the groundwork for the modern computer industry and even artificial intelligence.”

He decided to add Turing to ongoing series of LGBT pilgrimages. Previous pilgrimages took him to the Harvey Milk Metro station in San Francisco Metro and New York City's Stonewall Inn.

“For the LGBT community the nature of his death, that he was driven to suicide by the homophobic legislation of the period not only speaks of a profound lack of government gratitude for his work but also of an enshrined homophobia which perceives a personal consensual relationship as more important than the saving of so many thousands of lives and the advances thereof. It was for these reasons I felt this most recent pilgrimage had to be to the statue of him in Manchester to regard it as a holy place,” O’Connell said.

The Turing pilgrimage photos begin with the artist at a canal in Manchester. O'Connell removes his shoes to walk barefoot on the holy ground along the canal toward the Turing memorial.

"Walking on Holy Ground" by Tony O’Connell

The heart of the memorial is a life-sized sculpture of Turing. The bronze figure sits alone on a bench located between the local gay neighborhood and the University of Manchester, where he taught mathematics. It was sculpted by Glyn Hughes.

O’Connell puts his hands together in prayer as he greets the Turing statue. He communes with the saint in various ways, offering seven silver bowls of holy water at Turing’s feet. The artist cleanses the rainbow mosaic embedded in the pavement and bathes them with holy water. The ritual ends when O’Connell pours the water into the canal in the middle of the gay village. Photographer Damian Cruikshank recorded the whole journey.

"Prostrations to the Saint" by Tony O’Connell


"Offering the Water" by Tony O’Connell


"Bathing the Rainbow with Holy Water" by Tony O'Connell


"Daring to Sit Beside Him" by Tony O’Connell


"Adoring the Saint" by Tony O’Connell

“It has often been a theme in my work to reclaim religious imagery in a secular way to discuss LGBT issues, but this time it felt more spiritual than I would have expected,” O’Connell recalled.

After returning from the pilgrimage, he created an embossed foil icon titled “Saint Alan Turing Ora Pro Nobis.” The Latin phrase, which means “pray for us,” is repeated in the traditional Litany of the Saints.

“Saint Alan Turing Ora Pro Nobis” by Tony O’Connell

Plans are underway for an exhibition of the Turing image photos, but for now the images can be seen in an online photo album on O’Connell’s Facebook page:

O’Connell is also doing an ongoing series of photos of people with haloes formed by round objects from daily life, such as light fixtures, mirrors, windows, baskets, and the sun. “We do not need the permission of anyone else to see perfection in each other,” he explained.

Turing (June 23, 1912 - June 7, 1954) played a major role in winning World War II by breaking Germany’s complex Enigma code. He also broke the code against homosexuality. His wartime work was top secret, so nobody knew of his contributions when he was tried and convicted of homosexual acts in 1952. His security clearance was revoked and he was sentenced to “chemical castration” through hormone treatments.

Disgraced and forgotten, Turing committed suicide in 1954 at age 41. He has received a growing number of honors in the years since his death. The British government officially apologized in 2009 and the queen granted him as posthumous pardon in 2013.

The definitive biography of Turing is “Alan Turing: The Enigma” by Andrew Hodges. His life is also chronicled in the documentary file "Codebreaker." The first major motion picture to dramatize his story is "The Imitation Game," which is featured in the following video trailer.”



Turing is also depicted in the 1986 stage play "Breaking the Code" by Hugh Whitemore. Derek Jacobi as Turing took London and Broadway by storm, and later starred in the BBC / PBS television film version.

___
Related links:

Station 6: Gay Scientist Alan Turing Driven to Suicide” from “LGBT Stations of the Cross” by Mary Button
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For more art by Tony O’Connell on the Jesus in Love Blog, visit:

Tony O’Connell reclaims sainthood by finding holiness in LGBT people and places

Olympics: Spiritual art supports Russia’s LGBT rights struggle


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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery. It also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Transgender Day of Remembrance: Nov. 20, 2014



For a new version of this article, click

Qspirit.net:
Transgender Day of Remembrance: Spiritual resources

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Hot topics in queer religion: 2014 LGBTQ guide to AAR (American Academy of Religion) and SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) Annual Meeting


An amazing variety of more than 30 LGBT and queer events are planned for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Nov. 22-25 in San Diego.

Presentations cover everything from African lesbians to a queer zoological reading of Song of Songs. Hot topics this year include religion and sexuality in debates over same-sex marriage, anti-gay laws in Africa, and queer interpretations of Paul's letters in the Bible. Scholars will also make connections between queer experience and many other facets of life, such as disability and ecology.

LGBTQ programs at the conference present liberating new ideas about the Bible, the church and the impact of Christianity on individuals. They go on to take a queer look at every major world religion from various racial, ethnic and cultural perspectives.

The joint annual meeting is the largest gathering of biblical and religion scholars in the world with more than 11,000 attendees.

There's surprisingly little about Jesus from a queer viewpoint. The only LGBTIQ event focused on Christ is "Jesus Is Still Acting Up! Celebrating Bob Goss' Scholarship and Ministry 20 Years Later." Author Robert Shore-Goss and a panel of scholars will reflect on his groundbreaking 1993 book "Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto."

Other books that are up for major LGBT discussion include "The Crisis of Islamic Masculinities" by Amanullah De Sondy and "Ain't I a Womanist, Too?: Third Wave Womanist Religious Thought" by Monica A. Coleman.

For a helpful list of LGBTIQ-themed sesssions at AAR, visit:
https://www.aarweb.org/2014-lgbtiq-themed-sessions

For LGBTIQ events at SBL, click this link and input the key word “queer”:
http://sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramBook.aspx?MeetingId=25

Reading the schedule provides a sneak-preview of the latest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer religious scholarship, even for those who can’t be there.

Best wishes to the many friends of the Jesus in Love Blog who will be attending and presenting at AAR-SBL!



Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Monday, November 17, 2014

Dance of the 41 Queers: Police raid on Mexican drag ball remembered


For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Dance of the 41 Queers: Police raid on Mexican drag ball remembered

“Los 41 Maricones” (The 41 Queers) by Jose Guadalupe Posada, 1901 (Wikipedia)

One of the world’s most notorious police raids on a queer gathering occurred on this date (Nov. 17-18) in 1901, when police arrested 41 men at a drag ball in Mexico City.

The raid on the “Dance of the 41” caused a huge scandal with lasting repercussions against LGBT people. The incident was widely reported and was used thereafter to justify years of police harassment, including more raids, blackmail, beatings and imprisonment. The number 41 entered popular culture in Mexico and continues to be used as a negative way to refer to gay men, evoking shame.

About half of the men at the Dance of the 41 were dressed as women, with silk and satin dresses, elegant wigs, jewelry and make-up. Police raided the private house where the “transvestite ball” was underway. They never released the names of those arrested because they came from the upper class of Mexican society.

As punishment the 41 detainees were humiliated in jail and then forced into the army, where they dug ditches and cleaned latrines in the Yucatan. A lesbian gathering in Santa Maria was raided soon after on Dec. 4, 1901, but it received much less publicity.

The vivid reports of the Dance of the 41 included a famous series of caricatures by popular Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada. These mocking images stand in contrast to the LGBT Stations of the Cross by Mary Button, whose paintings connect police raids of queer bars with the suffering of Jesus. The raid on the Dance of the 41 is an example of police harassment that happened in many countries and continues in some.

Today same-sex marriage is legal in Mexico City and the Dance of the 41 is being reclaimed and reinterpreted by LGBT activists and scholars. A non-profit organization called “Honor 41” honors and celebrates Latina/o LGBTQ individuals who are role models. Their English-language video on the Dance of the 41 gives an accessible overview of the history.

The event is known in Spanish as simply as “el baile de los cuarenta y uno” (the dance of the forty-one) or with an added anti-gay insult “el baile de los cuarenta y uno maricones” (the dance of the forty-one fags).

All the facts and the full context concerning the Dance of the 41 are examined in the scholarly book “The Famous 41: Sexuality and Social Control in Mexico” by Robert McKee Irwin, Edward J. McCaughan and Michelle Rocio Nasser.


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Related links:

Dance of the 41 (Wikipedia English)

Baile de invertidos (Homosexual balls) (Wikipedia Spanish)

To read this post in Spanish / en español, go to Santos Queer:
El baile de los cuarenta y uno: Recordando el momento en que la policía allanó un baile queer en México

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This post is part of the LGBTQ Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, events in LGBTQ history, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Poem: Battle at First Holy Communion

Lesbian poet Audrey Lockwood was forced to wear a frilly veil and dress at her first communion in 1966

Nations around the globe mark the end of World War I today, but another battle is still being fought -- the struggle for LGBT equality in the church.

"Battle at First Holy Communion" by lesbian poet Audrey Lockwood is posted here today, which is Veterans Day in the United States. Many LGBT people get caught in the conflict between religion and queer identity. This poem comes from the front lines of a new kind of holy war.

Battle at First Holy Communion
By Audrey Lockwood

Battle at first holy communion,
Date May 1, 1966.

Rigid gender roles rewarded and fawned
over. My Waterloo was the prayer book.
Girls were required to carry white prayer books
boys got black ones.

Humiliation over having to wear the frilly
White dress was just too much for me; the
battle over the missalette was one I thought
I could win.

Older, I was a bit older than the other girls
different from the other girls, more athletic
hating sex roles of that era.

Mom got me a black missalette; I was adamant!
This little butch girl was not going to give in
on this point. It was a book, it would last forever,
the white dress would be lost to oblivion later.

The battle over the white dress was long lost;
the book worth fighting for.

My Mom, ever the diplomat, compromised and
made a white cover out of a pillow case.
I marched down the aisle with my “white” book
knowing that the black prayer book was hidden
underneath; protective coloration.

May 1, 1966, black was beautiful that year.

Now Audrey wears a top hat whenever she wants

____________

Audrey Lockwood's poetry has been featured at Homocentric, Writers at Work, and the My Life is Poetry events of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Her inspirations include butch identity, mermaids and ambivalent church attendance. She and Kittredge Cherry were united in a "Holy Union" wedding in 1987 at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco.

Related links:

December poem: What if the Sea Told Us by Audrey Lockwood (Jesus in Love)

Monday, November 03, 2014

Malachy of Armagh: Same-sex soulmate to Bernard of Clairvaux

“Malachy of Armagh” by Rowan Lewgalon

Malachy of Armagh is an 11th-century Irish saint who died in the arms of his more famous soulmate, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. Bernard showered Malachy with kisses during his lifetime and they are buried together, wearing each other’s clothes. Malachy’s feast day is today (Nov. 3).

Malachy is also the attributed author for the “Prophecy of the Popes,” which predicted that there would be 112 more popes before the Last Judgment. Most scholars dismiss the document as an elaborate 16th-century hoax. Still it’s sobering that the 112th and final pope in the prophecy is the current pontiff, Pope Francis. The prophecy remains popular with doomsday fanatics.

Malachy (1094 - Nov. 2, 1148) was born in Armagh in northern Ireland and rose to become archbishop.In Middle Irish his name is Máel Máedóc Ua Morgair. He became Ireland’s first native-born saint to be canonized.

He was primate of all Ireland when he first visited the French monastery at Clairvaux around 1139. The abbott in charge was Bernard (1090-1153), a mystical author, advisor to five Popes and a monastic reformer who built the Cistercian order of monks and nuns. Bernard is considered to be the last of the Church Fathers. They soon became devoted, passionate friends. Malachy even asked the Pope for permission to become a Cistercian, but the Pope refused.

Malachy traveled to see Bernard again in 1142. They were so close that Bernard covered him with kisses in a scene that is described well by Orthodox priest Richard Cleaver in “Know My Name: A Gay Liberation Theology”: “Bernard's account makes deeply romantic reading for a modern gay man. “Oscula rui,” Bernard says of their reunion: “I showered him with kisses.”

Their relationship had lasted almost a decade when Malachy reunited with Bernard for the third and final time. Malachy fell sick when he arrived in Clairvaux in 1148. He died in Bernard’s arms on All Soul’s Day, Nov. 2. Again Cleaver tells the details based on accounts by Geoffrey, Bernard’s secretary and traveling companion:

“Geoffrey of Auxerre tells us what happened later. Bernard put on the habit taken from Malachy's body as it was being prepared for burial at Clairvaux, and he wore it to celebrate the funeral mass. He chose to sing not a requiem mass but the mass of a confessor bishop: a personal canonization and, incidentally, an example of using liturgy to do theology. Bernard himself was later buried next to Malachy, in Malachy’s habit. For Bernard, as for us today, this kind of passionate love for another human being was an indispensable channel for experiencing the God of love.”

After Malachy’s death Bernard lived on for another five years. During this time he wrote “Life of Saint Malachy of Armagh,” which is his idealized tribute to the man he loved.

Bernard forbid sculptures and paintings at the monastery during his lifetime, but by the late 15th century the altarpiece at the Clairvaux Abbey had a painting of Christ’s baptism -- being jointly witnessed by Bernard and Malachy.

The Irish archbishop comes back to life in the striking contemporary portrait of Saint Malachy as a young man at the top of this post. It was created by Rowan Lewgalon, a spiritual artist based in Germany and a cleric in the Old Catholic Apostolic Church.

Malachy and Bernard were men of their time who supported church teachings on celibacy. People today might say that they had a homosexual orientation while abstaining from sexual contact. Medieval mystics created alternative forms of sexuality that defy contemporary categories, but might be encompassed by the term “queer.” They directed their sexuality toward God and experienced God’s love through deep friendship with another human being... such as the relationship between Malachy and Bernard.

A prayer written by Bernard’s secretary Geoffrey shows how the community at Clairvaux understood and celebrated the man-to-man love between Bernard and Malachy. He thanks God for these “two stars of such surpassing brightness” and “twofold treasure.”
___

Related links:
Saints Bernard of Clairvaux and Malachy: Honey-tongued abbot and the archbishop he loved

To read this post in Spanish / en español, go to Santos Queer:
San Malaquías de Armagh: El alma gemela de Bernardo de Claraval

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, heroes, holy people, humanitarians, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts



Sunday, November 02, 2014

Video: Imagine if the queer martyrs had lived



Imagine what would have happened if modern queer martyrs like Harvey Milk and Matthew Shepard were not killed before their time?

A moving video shows the headlines they might have made. In this beautiful world without hate, Harvey and Matthew lived long, productive lives -- and so did Martin Luther King, Anne Frank and many other martyrs for justice.

I'm posting it here for All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos).

The video “Imagine a World Without Hate” was produced by the Anti-Defamation League, a civil-rights group fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry.

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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, heroes, holy people, humanitarians, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

Saturday, November 01, 2014

Icons honor queer saints for All Saints Day

“Saints Polyeuct and Nearchus” by Robert Lentz

   Harvey Milk icon by Robert Lentz    Saints Perpetua and Felicity by Robert Lentz  

Innovative Religious Art
Buy now at TrinityStores.com
Icons of queer saints are available from TrinityStores.com. Favorites of Jesus in Love readers are pictured here for All Saints Day.

Click the images to browse and buy cards, plaques, T-shirts, mugs, candles, and framed prints with these images and many more at TrinityStores.com.  New icons by the same artists are listed at the end of this post.


       Sts. Polyeuct and Nearchus by Robert Lentz    Sts. Brigid & Darlughdach by Robert Lentz    St. Boris and George by Robert Lentz  

       Jonathan & David by Robert Lentz    Hildegard of Bingen and Richardis by Lewis Williams    St. Wencelaus and Podiven by Lewis Williams
All icons from TrinityStores.com by Robert Lentz or Lewis Williams

"Daniel in the Lion's Den"
by Lewis Williams

Robert Lentz is a Franciscan friar based in New York. Known for his innovative icons, he was rebuked by the church for making icons of LGBT saints and God as female. Colorado artist Lewis Williams of the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO) studied with Lentz and has made social justice a theme of his icons.

Lentz and Williams artists created a variety of new icons over the past year, including at least one queer saint: the Biblical prophet Daniel, a eunuch famous for surviving the lion's den. (Click here for more on the queer side of Daniel).

The following icons are so new that I haven't had time to look into whether they qualify as queer. But they do represent the diversity of God's people, so explore for yourself:

New icons by Brother Robert Lentz, OFM

Click the names or visit TrinityStores.com to view:

Josephine Bakhita (19th century, Sudan)

Katharine Drexel (1858-1935, American)

Faustina Kowalska (20th century, Poland)

Andrew Dung-Lac (1785-1839, Vietnam)

Martin de Porres (1579-1639, Peru)

Pedro Betancur

Toribio Romo

Pio of Pietrelcina (1887 -1968

Simone Weil (1909 -1943, France)

New icons by Lewis Williams, SFO

Daniel in the Lion's Den

Peruvian Nativity

Columba and Ernan (521-597, Ireland)

Christmas Scene: Montrose, Colorado