Last Updated on April 17, 2022 by Kittredge Cherry
Happy Easter! Christ is risen! Rejoice!
May the Risen Rainbow Christ light up your life!
Christ rises with a rainbow halo in this year’s Easter image: “The Resurrection of the Rainbow Christ-Sophia” by queer North Carolina artist Jeremy Whitner.
Please give now to the 2022 Easter offering at my GoFundMe page — or click the donate button below. The Easter offering supports my work at Q Spirit / Jesus in Love for LGBTQ spirituality and the arts. You can also sign up to give monthly.
Rainbow Christ-Sophia rises on Easter
Today’s Easter image is the culmination of Whitner’s 2022 series on Jesus as “Rainbow Christ-Sophia.” The name evokes Christ’s solidarity with women and the LGBTQ community, whose symbol is the rainbow flag. Sophia is Greek for “wisdom” and represents the female incarnation of Wisdom in the Bible (Proverbs 8:22-31). Sophia has been interpreted as a Christ figure since the early church, and she has appeared in Byzantine churches and icons at least since the Middle Ages.
Rainbows symbolize the LGBTQ community. They also show the full spectrum of light and stand for God’s promise to support all life on earth. The Rainbow Christ Prayer by Kittredge Cherry and Patrick Cheng inspired Whitner when he began painting the Rainbow Christ-Sophia in 2022. The series also includes a Last Supper, two different styles of crucifixion, and a Pieta. They can all be seen in the Q Spirit article “Black Jesus, Latinx Jesus and other liberating visions join the gay Passion of Christ.” He has also painted many icons for the LGBTQ Saints series at Q Spirit. Prints and other items with his artwork are available through his shops at Fine Art America and Pixels.
Whitner is a queer Christian iconographer in process for ministry with the Disciples of Christ while attending Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte.
Thank you for the many ways you show support.
For the true meaning of Easter, commentary by Kittredge Cherry on The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision paintings by Douglas Blanchard.
Eager for even more LGBTQ Easter images? Click on the years to check out my previous Easter greetings from 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Many thanks to the 23 people who contributed to my 2022 Holy Week offering!
Christ is risen indeed! Happy Easter!
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Top image credit:
“The Resurrection of the Rainbow Christ-Sophia” by Jeremy Whitner
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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.
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