Kittredge Cherry

Kittredge Cherry (born 1957 in Iowa) is an American author and a priest of Metropolitan Community Church.

Biography Cherry studied journalism and art history at the University of Iowa. After graduation, she worked as a newspaper journalist and studied in Japan on a Rotary International Journalism Scholarship.

She later studied Christian theology at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), an international denomination that ministers primarily in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. She worked at MCC San Francisco, and then moved to Los Angeles to serve as MCC's national ecumenical officer. One of her main duties was promoting dialogue on homosexuality at the National Council of Churches (USA) and the World Council of Churches.

As part of her ecumenical work, Cherry organized demonstrations for justice in the church, including Hands Around the God-Box at the New York offices of the National Council of Churches in June 1994. She received the Distinguished Service Award, one of MCC’s highest honors, in 1995 “for her work in International Ecumenical Relations and for planning and executing the "Hands Around the God-Box" demonstration at Stonewall 25.” The Washington National Cathedral included one of her prayers in 2021–23 services honoring Matthew Shepard, whose murder led to laws against anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.

Cherry is the author of seven books, including Art That Dares, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for 2007 and the Jesus in Love series of novels. The New York Times Book Review praised her book Womansword as “a very graceful, erudite job.” Her books have been translated into German, Polish, Chinese and Japanese. She lives as an open lesbian with her life partner Audrey in Los Angeles and their papers are held at the University of Iowa's Iowa Women's Archives.

Works 2014: The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision (Apocryphile Press) 2008: Jesus in Love: At the Cross (AndroGyne Press) . 2007: Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ and More (AndroGyne Press) . 2006: Jesus in Love: A Novel (AndroGyne Press) German translation . 2006: Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide (AndroGyne Press reprint of original 1991 HarperSanFrancisco edition) Harper . AndroGyne . Polish translation . Chinese translation . 2002: Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women (Kodansha International) . Japanese translation . 30th-anniversary edition, 2017, from Stone Bridge Press . 1995: Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies and Celebrations (Westminster John Knox Press) . 1988: “We Are the Church Alive, the Church with AIDS” by Kittredge Cherry and James Mitulski, The Christian Century magazine, January 27, 1988, p. 85. Republished as a chapter in The Church with AIDS: Renewal in the Midst of Crisis by Letty M. Russell (editor), Westminster John Knox Press, 1990. ISBN 978-0664251116.