Artist Tony O'Connell challenges us to notice the holiness of LGBT people living around us, while saints from history can inspire us to get in touch with our own goodness. Read more in this issue.

British artist Tony O'Connell documents the sacred side of queer people and places. He takes photos of saintly moments among ordinary LGBT people and records his own pilgrimages to LGBT historical sites.

 

Since 1998 he has been photographing people with haloes formed by round objects from daily life. "The intention was to democratize the notion of sacredness and the process of canonization. We do not need the permission of anyone else to see perfection in each other," he explains. More info

 

(Credit: "Saint Ryan, Patron of Learning the Arts" by Tony O'Connell)

Christian and LGBT values clash in a new cartoon for the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) by Brazilian artist Carlos Latuff. IDAHO on May 17 raises awareness of LGBT rights violations and includes a "multi-faith global prayer initiative." More info

A new Dignity Litany of the Saints by Dr. Rachel Waltz puts LGBT saints into a traditional prayer format. It begins:

Harvey Milk; Pray for us

St. Joan of Arc; Pray for us

Our brothers and sisters who died at the hands of strangers; Pray for us

Matthew Shepard; Pray for us...

More info

 

(Credit: "Harvey Milk of San Francisco" by Brother Robert Lentz)

 

Christina Rossetti was a 19th-century English poet whose work ranged from Christmas carols to sensuous lesbian love poetry. A devout Christian who never married, she has been called a "queer virgin" and "gay mystic." Her best-known works are the carol "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Goblin Market," a poem with a lesbian Christ figure  More info 

 

(Credit: Cover image for Rossetti's "Goblin Market and Other Poems," 1862, by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti)  

 

Spring brings a fresh crop of LGBT Christian books, including:

 

"Queering Christianity: Finding a Place at the Table for LGBTQI Christians" by Robert Shore-Goss, Thomas Bohache, Patrick S. Cheng and, Ramona Faye West. (Praeger)

"The Gendered Pulpit" by Angela Yarber (Parson's Porch Books). A lesbian Baptist minister-artist-scholar uses her own experience to discuss ways to include LGBTQ people and women in worship and preaching.
 

"Rainbow Theology: Bridging Race, Sexuality, and Spirit" by Patrick Cheng (Seabury Books) is the first book to explore theologies by LGBT people of color. 

 

"Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America" by Jeff Chu (Harper). A gay Chinese American raised fundamentalist mixes investigative journalism with personal memoir as he visits hot spots in the debate over homosexuality and the church.

 

"Thorn in the Flesh: How Gay Sexuality is Changing the Episcopal Church" by Caroline J. Addington Hall (Rowman & Littlefield). The history is told by a lesbian Episcopal priest who works for full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church. 

Sor Juana In�s de la Cruz was a 17th-century Mexican nun whose writings include lesbian love poetry.  She is considered one of the greatest Latin American poets and an early advocate of women's rights.

Sor Juana's convent cell was Mexico City's intellectual hub and the largest library in Mexico.  She was visited by the city's elite, including the countess who became her passionate friend.  More info

 

Click to give financial support to Kittredge Cherry for Jesus in Love. More info

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See A GAY FAIRY TALE now. What happens when a Prince truly loves another Prince?

Looking for a new way to highlight the interactions of Jesus with women?  Trudie Barreras has written a series of dramatic monologues including 'The Woman at the Well Witnesses', 'Rescued by Jesus', 'Martha's Story' and more.  For more information, contact tbarreras@bellsouth.net. Photo by Shirley Cooper.

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