Motorcycle blessing at 1980s gay leather bar remembered

Jim Mitulski, left, and Kittredge Cherry bless a motorcycle in 1988 (Photo by Mister Marcus)

Motorcycle blessings at a gay leather bar in San Francisco brought together spirituality and LGBT culture in the 1980s.

I was one of the worship leaders at the 1988 “Bike Blessing” at the Eagle Tavern. Recently I dug out photos of the event -- prompted by news that a friend led a “blessing of the bicycles” at his church for AIDS/Lifecycle.

Worship leaders at the Seventh Annual Bike Blessing on July 17, 1988 were all clergy from Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), a denomination that ministers in the LGBT community. They included Rev. Jim Sandmire, pastor of Golden Gate MCC and his assistant; Rev. Jim Mitulski, pastor of MCC-SF, and me. At the time I was a student clergy, serving as MCC-SF women’s programming coordinator.

1988 Bike Blessing worship leaders at the Eagle were, from left, Kittredge Cherry, Golden Gate MCC student clergy (or deacon?) Paul Steindal, Jim Mitulski and Jim Sandmire. (Photo by Mister Marcus)

Times have changed in the 27 years since I blessed bikes at the San Francisco Eagle. We were in the midst of the AIDS pandemic then, with a lot of people dying and no cure in sight. We got through it on faith -- a strong faith that we took to the streets and to the people in unusual LGBT events like the Bike Blessing. Now AIDS has effective treatments and to most people today “blessing of the bikes” means the AIDS/Lifecyle fundraiser, which just ended its 14th annual ride last week.

I remember feeling nervous as I arrived and carried my clergy robe on a hanger through the unfamiliar bar crowded with men in black leather. But their warm welcome quickly put me at ease.  I probably shouldn't have been surprised to find out that the leather bar had its own dressing room. “You can put your drag on over here,” one man said as he led me to it.

I was startled to hear my clerical robes referred to as “drag,” but then I realized that the leather community understood the value of dressing for a role. They wore leather drag and I wore clergy drag, but we all felt a need to look to the part.

After a short opening ceremony, we spent most of the time saying personal prayers over individual bikers and their bikes. My prayer partner was my supervising pastor. He began each encounter with a question that I never expected: “What is the name of your bike?”

Sure enough, all the bikes had names. Soon I got the hang of it and joined in asking God’s blessing upon each rider and bike by name, with a special request for safely on the road.

Praying over each individual bike are Jim Mitulski, left, and Kittredge Cherry (Photo by Mister Marcus)

Jim Mitulski, left, and Kittredge Cherry lay hands of blessing on a motorcycle at the Eagle leather bar (Photo by Mister Marcus)

The Bike Blessings at the Eagle were an annual summer event founded in the early 1980s by Harry Harkness, a leatherman and longtime organist at MCC-SF. A full description and liturgy is provided in a chapter by Steve Carson in the book “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations,” which I edited with Zalmon Sherwood.

Almost 30 years have passed since I first blessed bikes at a leather bar. Harry Harkness died in 2010 at age 85. Marcus Hernandez, who photographed the event as the Bay Area Reporter's longtime leather columnist under the pen name “Mister Marcus,” died in 2009 at age 77. The Eagle closed and reopened, but they don’t seem to sponsor Bike Blessings anymore.

My experience at the 1988 Bike Blessing was expressed well by Steve Carson in “Equal Rites”:

This can be a peculiarly moving event. Bikers form a genuine community in which people know and respect each other…. This group is ignored, misunderstood, or condemned by many religious bodies, yet I have found it to be a deeply spiritual community. Worship leaders will be genuinely welcomed and appreciated, and may find among the leather and the varooms of the motorcycles a spiritual event more real than many they have been in before.

Worship leaders at the 1988 Bike Blessing were, from left, Kittredge Cherry, Jim Mitulski, Golden Gate MCC student clergy (or deacon?) Paul Steindal and Jim Sandmire. (Photo by Mister Marcus)

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

We are the body of Christ and we have AIDS

A brick saying, “We are the body of Christ and we have AIDS” is on my desk every day-- right next to my First Amendment mug. But I decided to take a photo of it to share today for World AIDS Day.

It is a treasured gift from Lynn Jordan in memory of Rev. Ron Russell-Coons, an amazing MCC pastor and guardian angel who preached an unforgettable sermon with this title.

Every day is World AIDS Day for me and those who survived the ravages of the AIDS pandemic.

“We are the Church Alive, the Church with AIDS” is the name of the article that I wrote about it in 1988 for Christian Century with Jim Mitulski. It’s still online at:
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=926

A larger version of the brick was installed last year in the sidewalk at the church where we all ministered together during the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s: Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco.

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!

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.

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.”

“Fight fundamentalists - with your love”

Sally Gearhart

(Photo by Peter Carni)

“I call you to fight the fundamentalists -- with your love,” said lesbian activist professor Sally Gearhart in a powerful 1990 sermon in San Francisco. Her words still ring true today as they did 20 years ago.

The same conflict between the Christian right and the LGBT community continues to rage two decades later. Only a few of the names have changed.

I was clapping along with the rest of the crowd when Gearhart preached the sermon on Aug. 19, 1990 at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. We kept bursting into applause as she talked about how to counteract the Christian right while rethinking our own beliefs.

I never forgot her sermon, so I decided to listen to it again recently while duplicating tapes of worship services. I was amazed by how contemporary it seemed. She could have preached it yesterday! I wrote the following summary of Gearhart’s sermon so that we can keep on learning from her wisdom.

Gearhart taught speech and women’s studies at San Francisco State University, where she was the world’s first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position (in 1973). Her books include the lesbian utopian novel “The Wanderground” and “Loving Women/Loving Men: Gay Liberation and the Church.” She lives in California.
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Gearhart opened her sermon with a friendly question to the congregation of MCC, which affirms the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as people of God. “Who else could better confront the people who CALL themselves Christians than a church that I think understands Christianity far better than they do?” Gearhart asked.

She described her recent visit to a conference sponsored by the Traditional Values Coalition, a Christian right group founded by Lou Sheldon.  The theme of the conference was “eradicating homosexuality.” This evoked lots of laughter -- she called the congregation “rowdy.”

Gearhart was surprised to some shared concerns with the right-wing activists. They discussed common issues such as, “What do you do when you’re getting ready for a demonstration?” It turns out there were other proudly gay and lesbian people there to check it out, too.

Then she posed the question: Why should we concern ourselves with the Traditional Values Coalition? When we do, “we’re right at the heart of the storm… at the fire’s center” “They’ve got us on their hit list. We are second only to abortion.”

She pointed out that conservative Christians are effective and control a lot of media. She said that televangelism scares her, especially the hypocrisy of preachers involved in sex scandals such as Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker.

“The mindset underlying fundamentalism is the thing that’s doing most of the damage to the world. Christian ideology is supplying a lot of the rationale for the destruction of the earth and for the oppression of women and for the oppression of people of color, etc. etc. etc.,” Gearhart declared.

In her view, the root of capitalism is greed. It comes from the feeling of not having enough, not feeling loved. She described how the oppression of women leads to overpopulation and more unloved people. Lack of love also manifests as theology that condemns sex is sin, dating back to St. Augustine in the 4th century..

“St. Augustine hated his penis,” Gearhart joked, provoking HUGE laughter and squeals!

The contrasted “God the Father” as an outside authority versus God inside each individual. She critiqued the exclusivity of the fundamentalist approach. “‘No one comes to the Father but by me’ leads to nothing short of judging other people,” she said.

Gearhart advocated pluralism. “The more ways we see to salvation… the better off we actually are,” she said.

She admitted that she used to espouse a kind of lesbian fundamentalism. She recalled telling her classes that all women are lesbians and all women are superior. “Now I’m a lot less certain, but a lot more secure,” she confessed.

She urged the crowd to rethink the concept of salvation, asking, “What is it that we need to be saved from?”

Gearhart identified the root of the problem as the concept of original sin. “We’ve got to stop believing that we’re bad…. Original sin is the source of a lot of self-hatred,” she said.

She got HUGE applause when she stated, “The only bad we have in the world is the bad of serving someone else at the expense of ourselves.”

Finally Gearhart issued a call to action: “I call you to fight the fundamentalists -- with your love.”

She recommended the following tactics:

• Education (not persuasion because “persuasion is violence”)
• Living our lives as an example
• Telling our own stories
• Listening. She emphasized the importance of listening by quoting feminist theologian Nelle Morton’s vision of God as “a great ear at the heart of the universe.”

Gearhart concluded by listing the particular strengths of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. (“Transgender” was not yet part of the common vocabulary in 1990 when she gave this sermon.)

1. We have a special capacity to perceive, understand and affirm variety and difference.

2. We have some growing understanding of death and dying. (This evoked BIG “amens” from the crowd, which included many people with AIDS at a time when there was no effective treatment and a lot of people were dying.)

3. We know something as a community about feminism, which Gearhart called “the transformative philosophy of our time.”

4. We know something about love.

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Immediately after Gearhart’s sermon, the MCC-SF choir sang the anti-apartheid anthem “Something Inside So Strong” by Labi Siffre. Their voices rose with such power that the whole church seemed to shake. The soloist was the wonderful Scott Galuteria, who later died of AIDS. The audience clapped in time with the music. The energy level built to a feverish pitch, especially during these lines:

When they insist that we’re not good enough,
What am I gonna do?
Look ‘em in the eye and say,
I’m gonna do it anyway!

Scott got the congregation to sing that line over and over, louder and louder:


I’m gonna do it anyway!
Sing!
I’m gonna do it anyway!
Sing!
I’’M GONNA DO IT ANYWAY!

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Here’s a video of the song performed by its composer, Labi Siffre. His version sounds mild compared to the boisterous way that MCC-SF belted it out on the night that Sally Gearhart shook our souls.

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..

LGBT Pride Prayer: We Recommit Ourselves to God

“GLBT Heritage” stained glass window at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. Designed by Ken Scott, 1993

The triangle made of fabric serves as a visual and tactile symbol of our brokenness and connectedness as a church. World War II concentration camp prisoners identified as homosexuals, the “third sex,” were forced to wear the triangle. Like the cross, the triangle once symbolized oppression and now symbolizes liberation. Today we recommit ourselves to liberating our church to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people everywhere.
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This prayer appears in “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations. It comes from “A Service of Worship and Empowerment,” a collaborative liturgy that was celebrated in more than 50 communities across the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1993 in solidarity with the commissioning as evangelist of lesbian minister Rev. Jane Spahr by Downtown United Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY.
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June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. A new LGBT pride prayer will be posted here every Sunday in June. Click here for the whole series.
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About the image: A pink triangle with two incomplete overlapping circles represents a couple whose relationship is not restricted by gender in “GLBT Heritage,” one of 12 stained glass windows designed by Honolulu artist Ken Scott for MCC San Francisco. This window was donated by Lloyd Burton and Michael Berry in memory of our gay brothers and lesbian sisters who have gone before us.

The 12-window project is called “Heavenly Wind” and is an abstraction representing God's breath flowing through the sanctuary and congregation. Each pair of windows incorporates a color from the rainbow which is a symbol of pride, unity, and celebration in the LGBT Communities. A service of dedication was held in the MCC-SF sanctuary on Nov. 21, 1993. Click here for an online gallery of MCC-SF’s stained glass windows. Special thanks to Lynn Jordan of MCC-SF for background info on the windows.

Great sermon: Never lose sight of goodness

Cleve Jones at Vancouver Pride 2009 by Pipistrula

Gay rights activist Cleve Jones spoke at one of the most powerful worship services that I ever experienced -- on Gay Freedom Day 1989 at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco.

“There’s a huge struggle ahead of us, but we must never, ever lose sight of the reservoir of goodness that exists out there, and most especially of our own power as individuals to reach people and find that goodness and DRAG it out of them,” Jones said.

I listened to the whole service again recently while duplicating MCC-SF worship tapes for a history project. Exactly 21 years later, it’s still inspiring -- perhaps even more so because the emotions of the AIDS epidemic seem so raw in retrospect. It was especially eerie to hear the prayers spoken by friends who died two decades ago. I am sharing highlights from that service here to celebrate this year’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.

A packed audience sang enthusiastic praise songs, even though most of the church faced many obstacles. Most of the congregation was HIV-positive, there was no effective treatment for AIDS, and many were dying. More than 500 MCC-SF members died of AIDS from 1982-97. Maybe those obstacles actually gave us a reason to sing our hearts out.

Jones spoke in detail about how he founded the Names Project and built the AIDS Memorial Quilt. He got the idea after being beaten in a gay bashing, diagnosed as HIV positive, and grief-striken by a friend’s death from AIDS. Inspired by a quilt that his grandmother made, he created the first panel in 1987. The quilt was an immediate sensation. It was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and has been seen by more than 14 million people worldwide.

The service sticks in my memory not only because of the sermon, but because it was probably the biggest and most enthusiastic crowd that I ever experienced in my years at MCC-SF. The sanctuary was packed with hundreds of LGBT people who were exhilarated from a day at the Gay Freedom march and festival.

I was on the clergy staff as program director at the time. I felt honored at the chance to meet Jones in the pastor’s office right before the service began. Pastor Jim Mitulski invited Jones to choose a reading to accompany his sermon. I was surprised by Jones’ Bible literacy as he immediately chose this scripture:

“Some of them have left behind a name and people recount their praiseworthy deeds; but of others there is no memory, for when they ceased, they ceased…Yet these also were godly people whose virtues have not been forgotten.”

The pastor knew right away that the quote came from Sirach 44. I had the privilege of reading this scripture aloud and introducing Jones at the service.

Music is another highlight of the tape. Music director Jack Hoggatt-St. John leads the congregation in rousing praise songs, including “Great Are You God,” “Bless Our God” and “We Are Standing on Holy Ground.” We used to sing these every week. Listening to them again 21 years later, I thought, “No wonder we loved these songs!”

There’s also a powerful version of “We Are the Church Alive,” a hymn that St. John wrote with David Pelletier. There’s nothing like hearing a church full of men with AIDS, back when there was no effective treatment, sing out,

We are the church alive, Our faith has set us free;
No more enslaved by guilt and shame, We live our liberty.

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This post is part of an occasional series on great sermons from Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. Click here for the whole MCC-SF history series.

LGBT Pride Prayer: We stand inside your church

“Diversity” stained glass window at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. Designed by Ken Scott, 1993

By Malcolm Boyd

Christ, as lesbians and gay men we stand inside your church and know a wholeness that can benefit it. We learned long ago that we must regard the lilies of the field, putting our trust in you.

Pressured to hide our identities and gifts, we have served you with an unyielding, fierce, vulnerable love inside the same church that condemned us.

Carefully taught that we must feel self-loathing, nevertheless we learned integrity and dignity and how to look into your face and laugh with grateful joy, Jesus.

Although we have suffered a long and continuing torture, we assert a stubborn, unshakable faith in your holy justice.

Negativism was drummed into us as thoroughly as if we were sheet metal. We learned what it is to be misunderstood, perceived as alien, even sometimes hated. Yet, because of your grace and love, we witness to the fullness and beauty of all human creation, including ours, in your image.

We are alive and well and stand inside your church. Bless us, Christ, to your service.


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Malcolm Boyd is a bestselling author and gay elder who has been an Episcopal priest for more than 50 years. His books include “Are You Running with Me, Jesus?” This prayer appears in the interdenominational collection “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations.
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A rainbow symbolizes acceptance of all people and LGBT pride in “Diversity,” one of 12 stained glass windows designed by Honolulu artist Ken Scott for MCC San Francisco. This is a memorial window for Daven Balcomb, Troy Naranjo, and Sweet Pea.

The 12-window project is called “Heavenly Wind” and is an abstraction representing God's breath flowing through the sanctuary and congregation. Each pair of windows incorporates a color from the rainbow which is a symbol of pride, unity, and celebration in the LGBT Communities. A service of dedication was held in the MCC-SF sanctuary on Nov. 21, 1993. Click here for an online gallery of MCC-SF’s stained glass windows. Special thanks to Lynn Jordan of MCC-SF for background info on the windows.
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June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. A new LGBT pride prayer will be posted here every Sunday in June. Click here for the whole series.

LGBT Pride Prayer: O wildly inclusive God

“Peace” stained glass window at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. Designed by Ken Scott, 1993

O wildly inclusive God, who loves all of the beautiful rainbow of human sexual orientation, remind us that we have a very practical Trinity--one who gives life, one who redeems life, one who stays with us forever. Hear our groans, Holy Spirit, particularly to make a home in all churches that call themselves the body of Christ: for bisexuals, gay man, heterosexuals, lesbian women, and transgendered persons. At times we are overwhelmed and hurt by this angry exclusion. At these times let us realize how much more hurt you are. (Pause for silent prayer.) Come,Holy Spirit, come! Free your people Alleluia! Amen.
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This prayer appears in “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations. It comes from “A Service of Worship and Empowerment,” a collaborative liturgy that was celebrated in more than 50 communities across the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1993 in solidarity with the commissioning as evangelist of lesbian minister Rev. Jane Spahr by Downtown United Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY.
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June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. A new LGBT pride prayer will be posted here every Sunday in June. Click here for the whole series.
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About the image: A descending dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit in “Peace,” one of 12 stained glass windows designed by Honolulu artist Ken Scott for MCC San Francisco. It was commissioned by Kevin Larrabee.

The 12-window project is called “Heavenly Wind” and is an abstraction representing God's breath flowing through the sanctuary and congregation. Each pair of windows incorporates a color from the rainbow which is a symbol of pride, unity, and celebration in the LGBT Communities. A service of dedication was held in the MCC-SF sanctuary on Nov. 21, 1993. Click here for an online gallery of MCC-SF’s stained glass windows. Special thanks to Lynn Jordan of MCC-SF for background info on the windows.

What’s your favorite LGBT hymn?

“Joy” stained glass window at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. Designed by Ken Scott, 1993

A festival of sacred music and texts by gays and lesbians held in 2010 for LGBT Pride Month  inspired me to make a list of my own favorites in the genre of queer hymns:

“Singing for Our Lives” by Holly Near, 1979
It seemed like we sang this song at every single LGBT Christian worship service held in the 1980s. It was our anthem, like “We Shall Overcome” was the anthem of the civil rights movement. But now one has to search hard on the Internet to find the lyrics that inspired a generation of LGBT-rights activists:

We are a gentle, angry people
And we are singing, singing for our lives.

The full text is online at HollyNear.com

Hear Holly sing it on YouTube:




”For Those Tears I Died (Come to the Water)” by Marsha Stevens, 1969.
Marsha wrote this famous contemporary Christian song when she was 16, long before she came out as a lesbian. It became one of the best known Christian folk songs of the decade, appearing in almost every evangelical songbook in the country. Her lyrics have universal appeal, but they come from lesbian teen angst:

I felt every teardrop
When in darkness you cried.
And I strove to remind you,
For those tears I died.

Hear Marsha sing it on YouTube in 1971 with her group Children of the Day





“We are the Church Alive” by David Pelletier and Jack Hoggatt-St. John, 1980.
This powerful hymn was a congregational favorite when I was on the clergy staff of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco (MCC-SF) in the 1980s. I’ll never forget hearing a church full of men with AIDS, back when there was no effective treatment, sing out,

We are the church alive,
Our faith has set us free;
No more enslaved by guilt and shame,
We live our liberty.

The full text is online at the Conjubilant with Song Blog.


“I'm Not Afraid Anymore” by Michael Mank, 1972.
This early MCC hymn made a big impression on me as a young lesbian fresh out of the closet. I was still recovering from the fears that had made me hide my sexual orientation. I got stronger every time I joined the congregation in singing:

One time my soul was grieved, Grace was denied to me,
But then Christ’s message of love I heard, now I have been set free.
I’m not afraid anymore!
I’m not afraid anymore!
God’s message is for all the world,
Salvation is for everyone,
What’s bound on earth is bound in heav’n.
Praise to God! I’m not afraid anymore!

The full text appears in my book “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies and Celebrations.”


“Our God is Like an Eagle (When Israel camped in Sinai)” (Music: WEBB) Words by Lawrence Bernier, 1974.


Women and men alike love this early MCC hymn that breaks gender stereotypes about God. Many people can still recall the impact they felt when they first heard the liberating words:

Our God is not a woman;
our God is not a man.
Our God is both and neither;
our God is I WHO AM.

Click here for all the lyrics.

“Once We Were Not A People” (traditional English tune KING'S LYNN) Words by J. Thomas Sopko, 1987.

Unlike most of the songs I’ve listed, this hymn actually dares to use the words “gay and lesbian.” Of course, nowadays we’d have to add “bisexual and transgender” or go with “LGBT.” These inspiring lyrics came true when I stood with hundreds during worship and sang,

Once we were not a people,
God’s people now are we.
A gay and lesbian people,
A new community…
A gentle, loving people
With justice as our aim;
A gay and lesbian people
United in Christ’s name.

Postscript: While researching this post, I discovered that the patriotic hymn “America the Beautiful” was written by a lesbian! Her name is Katherine Lee Bates. I wish I had known about her when I was forced to sing her song every day while growing up in the Iowa public schools!

So what’s YOUR favorite GLBT hymn? Please leave a comment.



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About the image: Musical notes represent the uplifting spirit of music in “Joy,” one of 12 stained glass windows designed by Honolulu artist Ken Scott for MCC San Francisco. It was donated by Laura Kinley in honor of Alison Salter, who said “Just go for the music!” and Bob Crocker who said, “Let’s stand up and sing like we know what we’re doing!”

The 12-window project is called “Heavenly Wind” and is an abstraction representing God's breath flowing through the sanctuary and congregation. Click here for an online gallery of MCC-SF’s stained glass windows. Special thanks to Lynn Jordan of MCC-SF for background info on the windows.

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“A Heart to Praise Our God,” a festival of sacred music and texts by gays and lesbians, was held June 13, 2010 in Berkeley, California.  It was sponsored by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion, Epworth United Methodist Church, New Spirit Community Church, and the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

 

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UFMCC Trial Hymnal 1981

This influential hymnal includes original and adapted music that addresses LGBTQ liberation and feminism for a church context,  

LGBT Pride Prayer: We have always been, and we will always be

“House of Prayer for All People”

Stained glass window at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco.
Created by Little/Raidl Design Studios

Gathering Words

by Rev. Lea Brown

All: In every time, in every place, among every people on Earth, we have always been, and we will always be.

One: We are mariposa and marimacha in Spanish, Finnochio in Italian, Mahu in Tahitian, Vom Anderen Ufer in German, Nadle in Navajo, Winkte in Sioux, Agokwa in Chippewa, and the deity Ardhanaarishvara in Hindi.

All: In every time, in every place, among every people on Earth, we have always been, and we will always be.

One: We are the queers and the fairies, the bulldykes and bulldaggers, all names of derision we have reclaimed by our power. We are the priests and priestesses, the shamans and witches, the sorcerers of Spirit who bridge many worlds.

All: In every time, in every place, among every people on Earth, we have always been, and we will always be.

One: We are the word-bearers and word-sculptors, creators of beauty and bearers of justice. We are Sappho and Apollo, Queen Christina and Joan of Arc. We are Michelangelo and Audre Lorde, David and Jonathan, Leslie Feinberg and Oscar Wilde. We are Walt Whitman and Bayard Rustin, Judy Grahn and Adrienne Rich, we are each and every person at MCC-SF.

All: In every time, in every place, among every people on Earth, we have always been, and we will always be.

One: We are the people of purple, drag queens and drag kings, transfolks and genderqueers, amazons and eunuchs. We are Femmes who wear leather and proud faggots who wear lace, we are the friends of Dorothy, and the flaming friends of God.

All: In every time, in every place, among every people on Earth, we have always been, and we will always be.


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Rev. Lea Brown is pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, a home for queer spirituality. In May 2010 she received her Doctor of Ministry degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA.
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The “House of Prayer for All People” window pictured above was created by Roy E. Little and Jim Raidl of Little/Raidl Design Studios in Cazadero, CA.

“The skylight consists of 25 glass panes incorporating symbols from world religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Latin and Native American spiritual traditions, and African tribal religions, along with LGBT spirituality,” noted Michael Haigler, who coordinated the design and installation of all the stained windows in the church.

The center section symbolizes MCC's Christian tradition in different textures of clear glass with symbols of the Coptic Cross, Taoism, Islam and Judaism. The four corners are inspired by Tibetan designs and symbols of woman and man, updated with the GLBT symbols of a pink triangle and a Lambda.

The window is located at the front of the church at 150 Eureka St. in San Francisco. Click here for an online gallery of MCC-SF’s stained glass windows. Special thanks to Lynn Jordan of MCC-SF for background info on the windows.
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June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. A new LGBT pride prayer will be posted here every Sunday in June. Click here for the whole series.

Great sermon: We ARE light, all of us

Rev. Karen Ziegler preached an unforgettable sermon on AIDS, grief, sexism, friendship between gay men and lesbians, and the parable of the “wise and foolish virgins” during the height of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco.

I listened to the sermon again recently while duplicating tapes of worship services. More than 20 years later, it is still just as powerful and inspiring!

I have never forgotten the sermon that Ziegler delivered on Nov. 8, 1987 at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, where most of the congregation was HIV positive, there was no effective treatment for AIDS, and many people were dying. I had just joined the staff as student clergy and women’s programming coordinator. More than 500 MCC-SF members died of AIDS between 1982 and 1997.

Like me, Ziegler was a lesbian whose primary relationships were with women, but she unexpectedly grew much closer to gay men as they faced death. She never stopped challenging sexism in the church, but a “transformation” happened. “My heart has been opened in a way it never has before,” Ziegler said in her sermon. She was pastor of MCC New York at the time.

She urged us to think of ourselves in an empowering new way. Decades later I still remembered this part of her sermon, and now I transcribe it here:

“Keep your light burning. We ARE light, all of us. The light of the world, each of us. We’re all like little lights, like in space suits, you know. That’s all our bodies are, like these space suits. Men’s suits, women’s suits, gay suits, straight suits, different color suits, differently abled suits. They’re just SUITS! We are lights really, that’s what we are. Lights that nothing can quench. But the world needs us, and we need each other to keep our lights burning brightly and clearly.”

Ziegler interacted with the congregation and spoke eloquently about the importance of loving oneself in the midst of the AIDS crisis -- especially because we have been wounded by the homophobia of the church. “Growing up in the church, we learned that our very capacity to love was the thing that God hates,” she said.

Ziegler’s life partner, blues singer Randa McNamara, gave a powerful performance of “Old Devil Time” at the same worship service. The Pete Seeger song brought everyone to tears and we all talked about it for weeks. It still made me cry when I listened to it again recently. If you have never heard this song, it’s a definite MUST, and nobody sings it better than McNamara. You can hear it on Randa’s album “Living in My Heart.”

Ziegler went on to become a nurse practitioner who teaches at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. A preaching prize was established in her honor at New York’s Union Theological Seminary. It is awarded annually to the student who “represents the highest ideals of feminism and liberation theology in the present day by articulating anew a vision for a more just church and world for all God’s people.”

Thank you, Karen and Randa, for helping our light shine.
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This post launches a series on great sermons from Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. Click here for the whole MCC-SF history series.

Photos: Karen Ziegler (above) and Randa McNamara (below)