Last Updated on February 11, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
LGBTQIA+ heroes of faith include Q Spirit founder Kittredge Cherry in an image created by and for a Derby Inclusive Fellowship gathering in Derby, United Kingdom on Feb. 3, 2024.
“In the picture are some of the amazing LGBTQIA people who are ministers. To me they are my heroes showing that God’s radical love calls us all no matter who we are, who we love or how we identify,” wrote Terry Nash, minister at Derby Inclusive Fellowship, when he shared it in a Facebook post.
Cherry, wearing her signature rainbow scarf. has a central place in the collage of photos. To her right is Troy Perry, who founded Metropolitan Community Churches as an LGBTQ-affirming denomination in 1968. He was succeeded as MCC moderator by Nancy Wilson, who appears on her left. Others pictured include Paul Whiting, co-founder of Derby Inclusive Fellowship; queer theologian Patrick Cheng; pastors Deana Dudley and Junia Joplin; and the MCC Council of Elders. It was projected on the wall during an event for the British LGBTQIA+ History Month.
“LGBTQIA+ Heroes of Faith” projected on the wall for an event at Derby Inclusive Fellowship
“I am profoundly grateful to see my photo on the wall as one of the ‘LGBTQIA+ heroes of faith,’” Cherry said. “It is a great honor to be shown with some of my own spiritual mentors, such as MCC leaders Troy Perry and Nancy Wilson, as well as Patrick Cheng, a colleague and co-author of the Rainbow Christ Prayer.”
Nash noted that he is appreciates many other LGBTQIA heroes who are not in the picture. “May God continue to bless their ministries that they may inspire many more of us in the LGBTQ+ community,” he concluded in his follow-up post.
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Top image credit:
“LGBTQIA+ Heroes of Faith” by Terry Nash, minister of Derby Inclusive Fellowship
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
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