MCC 47th anniversary! Photos show LGBT church history

Kittredge Cherry celebrated communion in 1993 at Metropolitan Community Churches General Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

Happy birthday to Metropolitan Community Churches! And thanks for 47 years ministering in the LGBT community. MCC was founded 47 years ago today on Oct. 6, 1968.

Rev. Kittredge Cherry, 1988

Photos from MCC history are posted today for the first time in honor of the occasion, and as a tribute to all queer people of faith who dare to believe that God loves us just as we are.

The photos here show highlights from my own ministry in MCC during the 1990s. I had the privilege of working closely with Rev. Troy Perry, the openly gay man who founded MCC. He was incredibly brave and visionary to create a church for queer people back in 1968, when homosexuality was still considered a sin, a sickness and a crime. He describes the founding and early years of MCC in the book Don't Be Afraid Anymore: The Story of Reverend Troy Perry and the Metropolitan Community Churches by Troy D. Perry and Thomas Swicegood.

I joined MCC in 1985 and became an ordained minister. I served as program director at MCC San Francisco. Then I joined the denominational headquarters in Los Angeles, where I handled ecumenical and public relations, working with Troy and Rev. Nancy Wilson, who currently heads MCC as moderator. She chronicles the history of MCC in her book “Outing the Church: 40 Years in the Queer Christian Movement.”

I try to post some of my historic MCC photos every year on MCC’s anniversary. This year I am sharing many of Nancy and me doing ecumenical ministry together. The photos capture just a few moments from those memorable times.

Details about the photo at the top of this post: Pictured are, from left, John Torres (?), Jay Neely, unknown, Kittredge Cherry, Rev. Elder Jean White, Rev. Elder Hong Tan, unknown, and Ravi Verma. This worship service was co-sponsored by the Department of Ecumenical Witness and Ministry and the Department of People of Color. I was ecumenical field director at the time.

My old IBM computer was HUGE and already outdated, but I was using it in 1994 when this photo was taken in my office at MCC headquarters in Los Angeles.

Women clergy having fun together in 1991. From left: Betty Pederson, Kittredge Cherry, Audrey, Jane Spahr and Coni Staff. Betty, Coni and I were all MCC clergy at the time. We were at my farewell party as I prepared to leave San Francisco to minister in Los Angeles. Janie has been an activist for since the 1970s as a Presbyterian minister, facing church trials for breaking church law to marry committed same-gender couples.

MCC San Francisco's 1986 All-Church Retreat, October 1986. Those were the days! Retreats were the highlight of the year at MCC-SF in the late 1980s.

Small groups for discussion and prayer were the heart of every MCC-SF retreat in the late 1980s. My small group at the 1986 retreat included,from left, Kittredge Cherry, George Voigt, Patrick Horay, Karen Miller, Charles West and Gordon Gross.

MCC San Francisco Retreat, October 1987. It was the height of the AIDS pandemic and we had a wonderful, spirit-filled time together. Some of those pictured have passed on to new life.

My small group at the 1987 MCC-SF retreat included, from left, Bob Crocker, Dennis Edelman, Sylvia Perez, unknown, Kittedge Cherry, Paul (Holton?) and Lynn Jordan.

My life partner Audrey and I at the 1987 MCC-SF retreat.

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See more of my MCC photos at these links:

Motorcycle blessing at 1980s gay leather bar remembered


Mel White stands for LGBTQ religious justice then and now


Happy 44th birthday, MCC! Photos show LGBT church history

Happy birthday, MCC and Desmond Tutu!

See LGBT history in photos

Happy 40th birthday, MCC!

First openly LGBT clergy ever helps lead Inaugural Prayer Service

A lesbian minister, Nancy Wilson of Metropolitan Community Churches, became the first openly gay or lesbian clergy member in history to participate as a worship leader a Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service.

She read the scripture at President Obama’s Inaugural Prayer Service yesterday morning (Jan. 22) at the National Cathedral in Washington.

You can see her reading the Bible passage (Isaiah 55:6-11) there on video at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIrhAh-ApYg

I worked closely with Nancy in the 1990s when I was MCC’s National Ecumenical Officer and she was Chief Ecumenical Officer. Since then she went on to become moderator of the whole Metropolitan Community Churches denomination, which was founded in 1968 as a LGBT-affirming church and now has ministries in 40 countries. Nancy was part of the first LGBT delegation to meet with a sitting president in 1979. Almost 35 years later she is serving on President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Rev. Nancy Wilson at President Obama’s Inaugural Prayer Service (mccchurch.org)

Nancy read a scripture that includes one of my favorite lines: "My word... will not return to me empty; but it will accomplish that which I have purposed, and prosper in that for which I sent it."

How often I turned to that scripture in the early days of my LGBT ministry! It helped me through the emptiness of the AIDS crisis and the rejections that Nancy and I faced in trying to do "dialogue on homosexuality" at the World Council of Churches and National Council of Churches. It is amazing to see that the seeds we planted are bearing fruit now. God's purpose is being accomplished, although the journey is far from over.

Nancy stood for many queer people when read the Bible at the Inaugural Prayer service. Before the event, she wrote about what is means in a blog post for Believe Out Loud: “When I stand in the presence of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden to read the Hebrew Bible under the soaring arches of the National Cathedral on Tuesday, I will be exalting. This exaltation is not for myself but for the millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people who have longed for a safe place to call home,” she wrote.

The Inaugural Prayer Service was the final event on the inauguration schedule. The inclusion of an openly lesbian minister was a suitable ending for an inauguration with many breakthroughs for LGBT people. No president had ever even mentioned LGBT people before in an Inauguration speech, but Obama set a new precedent with a strong affirmation of LGBT equality:

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until… click here for full text.

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Related links:

Inaugural Prayer Service Includes First Out Gay Clergy Member (Advocate)

A Lesbian, a Bible and an Inauguration Service: In Search of Safe Homes by Nancy Wilson (Believe Out Loud)

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

Happy 44th birthday, MCC! Photos show LGBT church history

Protestors carried a sign saying, “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free” when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to Metropolitan Community Churches in November 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. Pictured in the middle is Nancy Wilson of MCC. Photo by Kittredge Cherry.

Happy birthday to Metropolitan Community Churches! And thanks for 44 years ministering in the LGBT community. MCC was founded 44 years ago today on Oct. 6, 1968.

Photos from MCC history are posted today in honor of the occasion, and as a tribute to all queer people of faith who dare to believe that God loves us just as we are.

The photos here show highlights from my own ministry in MCC during the 1990s. I had the privilege of working closely with Rev. Troy Perry, the openly gay man who founded MCC. He was incredibly brave and visionary to create a church for queer people back in 1968, when homosexuality was still considered a sin, a sickness and a crime. He describes the founding and early years of MCC in the book Don't Be Afraid Anymore: The Story of Reverend Troy Perry and the Metropolitan Community Churches by Troy D. Perry and Thomas Swicegood.

I joined MCC in 1985 and became an ordained minister. I served as program director at MCC San Francisco. Then I joined the denominational headquarters in Los Angeles, where I handled ecumenical and public relations, working with Troy and Rev. Nancy Wilson, who currently heads MCC as moderator.

I try to post some of my historic MCC photos every year on MCC’s anniversary. This year I am sharing many of Nancy and me doing ecumenical ministry together. The photos capture just a few moments from those memorable times.

We held protest signs and took over the microphones when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to MCC in Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 12, 1992. Nancy, pictured in the middle, seized the podium and said, “It’s easier to get into heaven than into the NCC!” She banged her fist on the podium so hard that it cracked. Protest signs in this photo say, “Stonewall Rises Again!!!” and “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free.” Pictured are, from left, John Taktikos of Axios (Orthodox gay and lesbian group), Nancy Wilson of MCC, and Lorna Cramer of Unitarian Universalists for Lesbian/Gay Concerns. Photo by Kittredge Cherry. RIP John Taktikos, who died of AIDS in October 1993.

The MCC banner is carried by Peter Trabaris and Gloria Soliz at the National Council of Churches meeting in Cleveland in Nov. 1992. The banner has the MCC logo and the words, “A Christian fellowship reaching out the gays and lesbians around the world.” Barely visible in the background is Rev. Howard Warren of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. It looks like his sign says, “Gay, lesbian and bisexual by God’s design.” The banner on the wall says, “National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.” Photo by Kittredge Cherry. RIP, Howard Warren, who died in 2003.

Here is the NCC-MCC Dialogue Committee in November 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. We sure look miserable. Our committee tried and failed to find common ground on homosexuality. Left to right: Bishop Clinton Hoggard (African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church), Jean Marshall, Kittredge Cherry (MCC), Nancy Wilson (MCC), Laura Bailey (Disciples of Christ) and NCC staffer Eileen Lindner. Some other committee members are not pictured. RIP Bishop Hoggard, died 2002.

Ordination of Kittredge Cherry, July 1993 at MCC General Conference, Phoenix, Arizona. Ordination was done through laying on of hands by the elders. Elders pictured with me are, from left, Revs. Jean White, Don Eastman and Freda Smith. My life partner Audrey stands beside me on the far right. RIP Jean White, who died in 2010.

Close-up of my ordination from the photo above.

Happy times with Kittredge Cherry, Nancy Wilson, and my life partner Audrey at in July 1993 at MCC General Conference, Phoenix. I love the way the arch forms an arc over my head.

Nancy Wilson, left, and Kittredge Cherry advocated for LGBT rights at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991. I’m wearing headphones to listen to the translation at the multilingual event. This was the first conference that I attended after being hired as Field Director of Ecumenical Witness and Ministry for MCC.

MCC’s delegation to the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991 included, from left, Revs. Steve Pieters, Sandi Robinson, Nancy Wilson and Kittredge Cherry.

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See more of my MCC photos at these links:

Happy birthday, MCC and Desmond Tutu!  (2011)

See LGBT history in photos (2010)

Happy 40th birthday, MCC! (2008)

My first LGBT Pride march, 1986

Kittredge Cherry, second from right, at the Lesbian and Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, on June 29, 1986. Her partner Audrey is third from right.

One of the happiest days of my life was my first lesbian and gay freedom march in June 1986. (Back then, 26 years ago, we didn’t yet use the terms “LGBT” or “Pride.”)

My partner Audrey and I had recently moved to San Francisco after a rough coming-out process with our families and friends. We found a new lesbian- and gay-affirming community by joining Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. But we were still afraid when our new friends invited us to march in the Freedom Day parade with them. We were held back by the years spent hiding our love in closets of shame. We told our friends that we would watch the parade from the sidelines.

When the big day came, I was stunned to see queer people of all kinds proudly marching by the hundred while thousands more clapped and cheered. The people in the parade showed me a seemingly endless variety of ways to be gay, from “dykes on bikes” to outrageous drag queens. News reports estimated the crowd at 100,000. It seemed like LGBT people had taken over the whole city, marching down Market Street while rainbow flags hung from the street lights all the way to City Hall.

Then we saw our friends approach with the Metropolitan Community Church banner. Audrey and I couldn’t watch from the curb any longer. We decided together instantly: “Let’s go!”

We ran into the street and grabbed the banner. My heart soared. A friend snapped a photo to record our joy. It truly was Freedom Day, the day that this lesbian broke free of shame and learned to let her love shine.

The smile on my face says it all: I'm free to be me!

Happy birthday, MCC and Desmond Tutu!

Archbishop Desmond Tutu with MCC leaders in 1994

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) both celebrate birthdays Oct. 6 and 7. In their honor, I am posting a1994 photo of Tutu meeting with MCC leadership.

MCC was founded 43 years ago today on Oct. 6, 1968 to preach God’s love for LGBT people back when homosexuality was still considered a sin, a sickness and a crime. Tutu was born Oct. 7, 1931. He is a Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning human rights activist and Anglican bishop from South Africa.  He turns 80 years old.

Every year on MCC’s anniversary I try to scan and post at least one “new” historic MCC photo that has never appeared online before.

The photo above shows, from right, Tutu, MCC National Ecumenical Officer Kittredge Cherry, MCC Chief Ecumenical Officer Nancy Wilson, and an unknown woman. The MCC delegation was in Johannesburg, South Africa in January 1994, to advocate LGBT religious rights at a meeting of the World Council of Churches. Wilson was elected Moderator of the MCC denomination in 2005 -- the same year that  Cherry launched Jesus in Love.

Click here to see more photos from MCC history in the Jesus in Love image archive. It’s important to preserve our history. So I post these images as a tribute to all queer people of faith who dare to believe that God loves us just as we are.

Hands Around the God Box: Prayer and protest for LGBT religious rights

Kittredge Cherry speaks at Hands Around the God-Box, a prayer demonstration to end homophobia in the church. A rainbow ribbon stretches across the stage. MCC founder Troy Perry is clearly visible in a dark suit at the front of the crowd. Standing next to him is Otis Charles, Episcopal bishop who came out as gay in 1993.

Protests for LGBT rights in the church have been going on for years. Hands Around the God Box, an interfaith prayer demonstration to end religious homophobia, was held 17 years ago today (June 24, 1994) at the Interchurch Center in New York City. Let’s gain strength for today’s challenges by remembering our past and honoring those who helped us get this far.

More than 500 people from 15 lesbian and gay religious groups joined hands and were linked by a rainbow ribbon that completely encircled the Interchurch Center at 475 Riverside Drive. The box-shaped building housed the headquarters of the National Council of Churches (NCC) and many other religious agencies. We are highlighting this historic event here as part of our celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month.

I will never forget the solemn power of our combined prayers as LGBT Christians and our allies joined hands at the God Box. The building is huge, covering an entire city block, and our group of 500 barely managed to surround it -- with help from a super-long rainbow ribbon. The need for churches to accept LGBT people is just as true now as in 1994. Our prayers for full inclusion continue.

The peaceful demonstration began at noon Fri., June 24, with a short worship service. “We are here to open people’s minds and hearts and let God out of the Box,” I told the crowd in opening remarks as one of the organizers of the event.

Another speaker was Rev. Nancy Wilson, chief ecumenical officer (and now moderator) of Metropolitan Community Churches. “Today 475 Riverside Drive is our Stonewall Inn. We need to turn the tables on the religious ‘police’ of our day, and fight back,” she said.

Demonstrators then joined hands around the building in silent prayer for full inclusion of lesbians and gays in religious life. NCC General Secretary Joan Campbell and many NCC staff members joined the demonstration, even through the NCC refused to grant membership or even observer status to MCC, which ministers primarily in the LGBT community.

The event concluded with tying a rainbow ribbon around the God Box to symbolize continuing prayers for the church to honor the diversity God created.

Hands Around the God Box was coordinated by myself (Kittredge Cherry) as MCC national ecumenical officer and Kim Byham of Integrity. It was held as part of Stonewall 25, celebratingon the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion that launched the LGBT liberation movement.

The Washington Post covered Hands Around the God Box on June 25, 1994 with an article by Christopher Herlinger of the Religion News Service titled “Gays Returning to Religion, but Few Arms Open: Little Acceptance of Homosexuals 25 Years After Stonewall Uprising.” The article stated:

“A protest yesterday by a coalition of gay and lesbian Christians at the Interchurch Center here spotlighted what Wilson and other protesters called the ‘exclusion of lesbian and gay people from full participation in the life of the nation’s churches.’

The protest, a ‘human chain’ around the Interchurch Center, was called ‘Hands Around the God Box,’ -- a reference to the building’s popular nickname. The building, in upper Manhattan, is home to a number of denominational offices and the national headquarters of the National Council of Churches, the nation’s largest ecumenical organization.

The 32 member churches of the council are divided over the issue of homosexuality.”

The Christian Century magazine covered the event with an article titled “Gays and lesbians protest at church center” in the July 13-20, 1994 issue. They quoted NCC head Joan Campbell on why she attended the protest: “Our churches are very united on civil rights for gays and lesbians, and there are places we can be supportive. We don’t go as far as the MCC wants us to go, but there is a fair distance that we can go, and that needs to be made visible.”

Some said that Hands Around the God Box was the spiritual heart of the whole Stonewall 25 celebration in New York. Reaction to the God Box event was summed up later by Mary Hunt, cofounder of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and ritual, in her sermon the next day: “How about those Hands Around the God Box people? What a feat of religious athleticism: holding hands, singing, praying, protesting and talking to the press all at once ought to merit some sort of miraculous metal or actual grace!”

Hundreds of LGBT Christians circle New York’s Interchurch Center to protest religious exclusion in Hands Around the God Box. This photo was published in the Washington Post on June 25, 1994.

Demonstrators join hands around the God Box to pray for an end to religious homophobia. This photo by William Tom was published in the August 1994 issue of “Keeping in Touch: News and Notes from the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.”

The Washington Post covered Hands Around the God Box in an article titled “Gays Returning to Religion, but Few Arms Open” on June 25, 1994.

Online references:
More Light Update, a publication of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. March 1994.
http://www.mlp.org/news/update/03.94

Voice of Integrity: the quarterly publication of Integrity, Inc., the lesbian and gay justice ministry of the Episcopal Church. Summer 1994.
http://www.integrityusa.org/voice/1994/Summer1994.htm

The Christian Century magazine, July 13-20, 1994.
Gays and lesbians protest at church center

Rainbow cross lights the way for all

Reclaiming the cross is the theme of the following prayer from a spectacular Easter Eve service where rainbow lights were projected onto the 103-foot cross at Mt. Davidson, San Francisco’s highest point.

Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco sponsored the cross-lighting worship services there from 1997-99. Longtime MCC-SF member Lynn Jordan still remembers how poignant it was for the LGBT community to reclaim the cross at that time, when the AIDS death toll was finally being reduced by new drugs introduced in 1997. Thank you, Lynn, for providing the prayer and photos from the MCC-SF archives.

Litany for Lighting the Cross

By Rev. Karen Foster and MCC-SF staff

On this Easter Eve we gather to commemorate the suffering and crucifixion of the Holy One, and to celebrate the rising of new life and

We light the cross as a sign of hope for all people.

There are those who would tell us that we have no place in the realm of God and the cross is not ours, but we hear God’s voice calling us for us and

We light the cross as a sign of hope for all people.

We call upon those preaching a rhetoric of hate to stop the violence, and tonight for all who have been battered, rejected, and alienated by churches and in the name of religion

We light the cross as a sign of hope for all people.

We have died many deaths and we have lived in many tombs, but deaths could not hold us down and this night

We light the cross as a sign of hope for all people.

Bringing our bright and beautiful selves like the colors of the rainbow, different as we are, we come together as one, and

We light the cross as a sign of hope for all people.

We pray for the day when in freedom and in peace, people of all ages, all races, all nationalities, and all sexual orientations will stand together and proclaim

We light the cross as a sign of hope for all people.

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The prayer and picture come from the bulletin for the third annual Mount Davidson Easter Eve Service, held by MCC-SF on April 3, 1999.

Rainbow lights bathe the cross at the 1999 Easter Eve service at San Francisco’s Mt. Davidson. This vivid photo was reproduced on postcards sold by Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco.

White House appoints lesbian minister

Rev. Nancy Wilson

Rev. Nancy Wilson was appointed yesterday by President Barack Obama to the White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She is moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches and one of my role models as a lesbian minister. I worked closely with Nancy when I was national ecumenical officer for Metropolitan Community Churches.

Watch out, White House, here comes a powerful voice for LGBT rights!

Rev.Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, was appointed to the same council. She appeared on this blog before when she riled up conservatives by choosing gender-bending art for Christmas card. See our previous post "Conservatives blast inclusive Christmas card."

Click here to read the official White House news release announcing the appointments.

Cool workshop: Queer Christ and the Queen

Her Majesty looks down on a nude black Jesus as Axel Schwaigert teaches

Queen Elizabeth seemed to look down in disapproval when images of Jesus as black, gay or female were shown at a European church conference recently.

The alternative Christ figures were shown by Axel Schwaigert in his workshop “Art That Dares: Images of the Holy” at the European Conference of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) held in Manchester, England in November.

Schwaigert, pastor of MCC Stuttgart, Germany, says he was so busy presenting the Europakonferenz workshop that he didn’t notice the odd contrast between Her Majesty and the controversial art.

An especially funny photo (above) shows a prim and proper queen looking down her nose at a triumphant black Jesus in all his naked glory. The painting is “Triumph of the Light” by Becki Jayne Harrelson.

Much of the art in the workshop has offended conservative Christians, but Schwaigert said that it inspired the people at his workshop, adding “Somebody immediately drew a transgendered female to male christ!”

Schwaigert went on to report, “I already suspected that people would not be shocked. We Europeans deal differently with nudity than the average American. But it was so interesting to see how people started to think... I showed one of the female christs, very beautiful and naked on the cross and somebody asked: and where am I? where is the middle aged women, slightly out of shape, with hanging [breasts]...? And that is exactly the kind of thinking we need: Where am I in all of that...”

Schwaigert hopes to lead the workshop again for more conservative audiences. His workshop included many images from my book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.”

Axel Schwaigert discusses the female “Christ Sophia” icon by Robert Lentz

Banned photo shows gay Christ figure

Cross Currents Fall 1972 cover with photo by Damon de Winters

A church magazine with a nude cover photo of a gay Christ figure with his friend was banned in 1972, but you can see it now at the Jesus in Love Blog. Almost 40 years later the photo is still risqué -- and beautiful.

The photo by Damon de Winters appeared on the cover of the fall 1972 issue of “Cross Currents,” the quarterly magazine of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. The models, Todd and David Eric Charon, were positioned to discreetly hide any frontal nudity.

The photo seems to portray a gay Jesus with his Beloved Disciple. The bearded Christ figure offers a loving touch and a chalice of wine to his kneeling friend. Behind them stands a cross built from natural logs. The image echoes the Last Supper, when Jesus says, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:27-28).

The MCC-SF board of directors banned the magazine for release because they felt that the cover was “inappropriate for a church publication,” recalls Lynn Jordan, who served as editor-in-chief of Cross Currents. Jordan recently celebrated 40 years of membership at MCC-SF.

“Senior pastor Reverend Jim Sandmire received a lot of criticism over this issue of the magazine,” Jordan says.

In response to the uproar, Rev. Sandmire wrote an open letter dated Nov. 15, 1972. “While I do not think the cover or other pictures of nudes are in any way obscene, I believe the nudity does not enhance the religious message intended, and may detract from it,” Rev. Sandmire wrote at the time..

A headline on the cover also brings up another subject that remains surprisingly contemporary: “Gay marriage.”

Thank you, Lynn Jordan, for providing this Cross Currents cover image so it can finally reach its audience. It is historically, spiritually and artistically significant.
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P.S. I received this update today from Lynn Jordan: “I spoke with founding member Frank Howell (now 72) who said he thought the photo tried to convey that we bring with us both our sexuality and spirituality when we receive communion.”

See LGBT history in photos

Rev. Kittredge Cherry at the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Rights in April 1993. This photo was taken at the MCC worship service at the Lincoln Memorial on the morning of the March.

Photos from LGBT church history are posted here today for GLBT History Month and the anniversary of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC). It was founded on Oct. 6, 1968, to minister primarily in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

A new set of 18 LGBT church history photos is added to our image archive today too. It’s important to preserve our history. So I post these images as a tribute to all queer people of faith who dare to believe that God loves us just as we are.

The photos here show highlights from my own ministry in MCC during the 1980s and 1990s. I had the privilege of working closely with Rev. Troy Perry, the openly gay man who founded MCC. He was incredibly brave and visionary to create a church for GLBT people back in 1968, when homosexuality was still considered a sin, a sickness and a crime.

I joined MCC in 1985 and became an ordained minister. I served as program director at MCC San Francisco. Then I joined the denominational headquarters in Los Angeles, where I handled ecumenical and public relations, working with Troy and current MCC Moderator Rev. Nancy Wilson. As part of my job, I was part of many historic GLBT events. The following photos capture just a few moments from those memorable times.

Click here to see more photos in our new library of LGBT church history photos.

A million people at the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Rights listen to Rev. Troy Perry and his partner Phillip De Blieck on April 25, 1993. This photo was taken on the main stage looking toward the Washington Monument by Rev. Kittredge Cherry, who handled MCC’s media relations at the March.

Rev. Troy Perry, MCC founder, hugs Kittredge Cherry, right, at the National March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Rights in April 1993. She handled MCC’s ecumenical and public relations there.

The Wedding was a spectacular group blessing of 6,000 lesbian and gay couples at the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Rights in April 1993. Kittredge Cherry handled media relations for the event as ecumenical and public relations officer for MCC. She is pictured here at the Wedding. It was a prayer demonstration for equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

 

Rev. Kittredge Cherry presides over a communion service at MCC-SF in a photo from the front page of the San Francisco Examiner on April 16, 1990. It appeared with an article about the 20th anniversary of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco titled “Gay church thriving at 20.”



Protesters for gay and lesbian rights in the church picketed a National Council of Churches “Faith and Order” meeting in Berkeley, California, on March 19, 1993. The “Faith and Disorder” protest was led by Rev. Kittredge Cherry, MCC’s National Ecumenical Officer. Signs say: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re going to church,” “Ruth and Naomi, Jonathan and David, me and my girlfriend,” “Thank God I’m gay” and “We’re everywhere.” People in the photo are, from left, Brian Cross (New Life MCC Berkeley member), unknown protester, Bill Pugh of MCC-SF, Kittredge Cherry, Leslie Addison of MCC-SF, and Beth Downey.

“Sometimes faith in God’s order calls all Christians to act in ways that may seem disorderly because they disrupt the social order established by human society,” Rev. Cherry said in opening remarks at the Faith and Disorder worship service held afterward in the Pacific School of Religion chapel. About half the NCC members present, including NCC General Secretary Joan Campbell, attended the service. Nearly 150 people filled the chapel. Photo by Audrey.

Kittredge Cherry, left, shakes hands with Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning human rights activist from South Africa. They met at the World Council of Churches meeting in Johannesburg in 1994. She was part of the MCC delegation there advocating LGBT religious rights.


Kittredge Cherry speaks at Hands Around the God-Box, a prayer demonstration to end homophobia in the church. She organized it as MCC's national ecumenical director. It was held at the National Council of Churches headquarters in New York City in 1994 on the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. MCC founder Troy Perry is clearly visible in the crowd.

More photos are posted in our new library of LGBT church history photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesusinlove/sets/72157624977253771/

1974 Gay Freedom Day float celebrates God’s word

Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco’s 1974 Gay Freedom Day float

Pioneers of LGBT liberation are shown in this historic photo from the 1974 Gay Freedom Day march in San Francisco.

“The 1974 float is symbolic of MCC San Francisco - marching proud and strong, to ‘We are Not Afraid Anymore’ - as a Phoenix rising out of the ashes after an arson fire destroyed our worship location,” says Lynn Jordan, who submitted this rare photo.

Lynn designed the float with the late Rev. Bruce Hill (third from the right behind the banner). The book on the float presents two scriptures: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) and “The Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (II Corinthians 3:17). The book was made from panels of sheetrock. The parade that year was going down Polk Street - not Market Street.

Arsonists burned MCC’s worship home at Stewart Memorial Church on Guerrero Street, so the float lists their new location at Mission United Presbyterian Church, 3261 - 23rd St., where they worshipped until 1979.

Wood from the annex of the burned church was used to build a cross that was displayed on the float and at MCC-SF worship services for many years..