#malcolm boyd

[yourdailyqueer]

Malcolm Boyd (deceased)

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: 8 June 1923  

RIP: 27 February 2015

Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish 

Occupation: Episcopal priest, writer, activist

[oldshowbiz]

1966 - Reverend Malcolm Boyd was known as the Espresso Priest. He did weird and graphic religious themed poetry readings at the Hungry i and other bohemian venues. A former business partner of Mary Pickford, he became a socialist priest in the 1950s and rode with the Freedom Riders in the era of SNCC, CORE, and the SCLC. 

[mypeoplemygod]

I'm crying and shouting inside, Lord, and I'm feeling completely alone

All the roots I thought I had are gone. Everything in my life is in an upheaval. I am amazed that I can maintain any composure when I'm feeling like this.

The moment is all that matters; the present moment is of supreme importance. I know this. Yet in the present I feel dead. I want to anchor myself in the past and shed tears of self-pity. When I look ahead tonight I can see only futility, pain, and death. I am only a rotting body, a vessel of disease, potentially a handful of ashes after I am burned.

But you call me tonight to love and responsibility. You have a job for me to do. You make me look at other persons whose needs make my self-pity a mockery and a disgrace.

Lord, I hear you. I know you. I feel your presence strongly in this awful moment, and I thank you. Help me onto my feet. Help me to get up.

Father Malcolm Boyd

[oldshowbiz]

Reverend Malcolm Boyd: The Beatnik Priest

[edrudiger]

Quote for the Day

American Episcopal priest and author, Malcolm Boyd wrote, "I find Jesus my confidant and companion, brother and savior; our relationship is intimate, vulnerable, demanding yet comfortable and reassuring." 

[runwithmejesus]

I know I don’t have any followers on this blog, but if anyone sees this I’d really like to recommend Are You Running With Me, Jesus?. It’s written by Malcolm Boyd (a gay pastor and an activist in the Civil Rights struggle) and it’s a very interesting look at prayer.

[nelliendm]

He was one of the first openly gay priests in The Episcopal Church

[allysdelta]

disturber of the peace

It seems to be a day for losing important people. Today, the world mourns the passing of Leonard Nimoy, and while he will indeed be deeply and sorely missed, another influential figure, while not as well known, has also been lost today.

The Reverend Canon Malcolm Boyd was an Episcopal priest, civil rights activist, anti-war protester, poet, and award-winning author, most famous for his collection of prayers Are You Running With Me, Jesus? and his work in both the civil rights movement of the 1960s and his advocacy for MOGAI rights in more recent years.

He was also a dear friend of mine.

A successful producer in 1940s Hollywood, Malcolm made newspaper headlines when he gave it all up to enter the clergy. A couple of decades later, he would become known as the "Espresso Priest" for his radical tendency to engage dialogue about spiritualism in public spaces like coffee houses, far away from the trappings and ritual of the traditional church. He had a wealth of stories to tell: how he was best friends with film star Mary Pickford in his youth, how the Klan once chased him and a group of other marchers down a dirt road in the middle of lynch territory, the uproar that ensued when he came out publicly as gay.

Malcolm's death did not come as a surprise-- he was almost 92, and had been in the hospital for about a month before he died today-- but it makes me sad to think that I will never hear him tell those stories anymore, that I'll never see him come through our office door with new writings to go over. Sadder is the thought that he couldn't have stayed around just a little longer, to see the documentary about his life, Disturber of the Peace, completed and released.

He was so sweet and funny and passionate, and he got such a kick out of shaking things up.

I'm going to miss him terribly. I think I'll go have a martini in his honor. He loved those.