The John J. McNeill and Charles Chiarelli
Gay and Lesbian Liberation Archives

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) is the proud recipient of the John J. McNeill and Charles Chiarelli Gay and Lesbian Liberation Archives.

McNeill was an early and prophetic voice in the LGBT religious movement, and his 1976 book, The Church and the Homosexual, was a pioneering work which argues that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. In this book, McNeill also called upon leaders within the Roman Catholic Church to dialogue with its lesbian and gay members.

The Archives, which will be owned by the Pacific School of Religion and managed by the Archives Division of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) Library, includes the following items:

• Original correspondence dealing with the founding of Dignity/NYC.
• Original manuscripts of McNeill's four books on gay issues: The Church and the Homosexual; Taking a Chance on God; Freedom, Glorious Freedom; and McNeill's autobiography, Both Feet Firmly Planted in Midair: My Spiritual Journey.
• Copies of lectures, workshops, retreats, and articles.
• Materials from publicity tours including photographs, pictures, newspaper articles, reviews, and interviews.
• Official correspondence dealing with the Vatican and the Society of Jesus.
• Lectures, sermons, published and unpublished articles, including a collection of articles and talks on the integration of spirituality with psychotherapy.
• John McNeill's collection of Maurice Blondel manuscripts and McNeill's own articles on Blondel.

Access to the Archives:

Visit the GTU Library website: www.gtu.edu/library/archives to find out about access to the archives, or if you would like information on how to donate materials to the GTU Library Archives.

Explore more:

• Press Release
• Summer 2002 CLGS Outlook Newsletter [PDF format]

Some of the above literature is available for download in Adobe's Portable Document Format [PDF]. Click here to download Adobe's PDF Reader.

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