Media
IMAGO DEI 2024 Theme: Let's Go!
2023 was a year of looking back. 2024 will be a year of looking forward. IMAGO DEI has an amazing history, but it has an even more glorious future. This 4" x 6" refrigerator magnet incorporates two of the most memorable images from the IMAGO DEI video. Let them remind you of our 2024 theme: LET'S GO!
Released: 01/05/2024Length: 4" x 6"Status: NEW! Order now!
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The IMAGO DEI Soloists
Their names were Dennis Mills Heath, Mary Greer, and Vince Acosta. Their voices set the tone for IMAGO DEI from the very beginning to the very end. This touching tribute remembers them.
Released: 12/24/2023
Length: 3:19
Status: NEW! Online only
We Are Everywhere GMCLA Edition
The October 1979 March on Washington was a formative moment for both the 3-month old Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles and the 25-year old LeRoy Dysart. They did not meet during the March, but their paths would finally cross in 1982. This is the second video about "We Are Everywhere." The first (below) was from LeRoy's perspective; this second video is from GMCLA's perspective. The first used an audio track from LeRoy's album as background music; the second uses a live GMCLA performance.
Released: 12/15/2023Length: 8:26Status: NEW! Online only
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Director's Cut: IMAGO DEI
David Ranck is the digital designer of the multimedia version of IMAGO DEI, a process that involved selecting 373 images from the thousands reviewed, and arranging them to match the audio recording from 1985. During the last half of 2023, David wrote an inspirational essay for each of the 13 movements of the IMAGO DEI mass and posted them on the IMAGE DEI Facebook page. In his own words: "This is one in a series of posts where I hope to provide deeper insight into how and why I selected certain images to represent IMAGO DEI. I encourage you, after reading each essay, to watch the corresponsing movement again, looking for new understanding and new insight." Those essays have been assembled into this 112 companion booklet. Online e-book coming soon!
Released: 12/03/2023Length: 112 pagesStatus: NEW! Order now!
e-book coning soon!
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IMAGO DEI: Holy Wonder Edition
This latest -- and likely final -- edition of the IMAGO DEI DVD has updated graphics and some slight revisions to the audio/video. It also includes an introduction by Rev. Elder Ken Martin where he says this about Rev. Yolanda Vierra-Allen's concept of the Holy Wonder: "I also want to acknowledge my gratitude to Loni Allen, for her contribution. Loni joined me in writing the ninth movement of this mass, the Credo, and I encourage you to listen especially to the way that she augments the traditional theology of the Christian Trinity by adding a fourth way in which the divine being is made manifest in this world in these words, '…and I believe in the Holy Wonder, you and I, God’s good creation.' That alone is a brilliant synthesis of the theology that makes this mass unique." If you already have the Special Edition DVD, feel free to request this new version, but please give your old DVD to a friend.
Released: 12/03/2023Length: 55:54 including IntroStatus: NEW! DVD, USB drive,
or streaming now available!
IMAGO DEI: Holy Wonder Edition No Introduction
This online-only version is identical to the DVD above but does not contain the Introduction by Rev. Elder Ken Martin.
Released: 12/03/2023Length: 44:44Status: Online only
I Love a Man
The second song on LeRoy's album We Are Everywhere is “I Love a Man.” It is perhaps the most moving love song I have ever heard, and the reason, no doubt, is because I know for whom LeRoy was singing. If you have listened to the entire interview that J. D. Doyle did with LeRoy on Queer Music Heritage in 2003 and watched the introductions to the IMAGO DEI Premiere video, you likely will put two and two together and figured it out as well.
Released: 8/11/2023Length: 4:03Status: Online only
We Are Everywhere, QMH Edition
JD Doyle is the creator of Queer Music Heritage. His life’s passion has been to interview every gay and lesbian composer he can find, and to archive those interviews for everyone’s benefit. JD had heard of LeRoy’s work in the 1980s but was never able to connect with him for an interview. Finally, in 2003, JD and LeRoy got together. Part of the interview involves the story of LeRoy writing “We Are Everywhere,” the de facto anthem of the gay and lesbian rights movement, inspired by The March of Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979. With thanks to Russ Bickers for some of the photos, I was able to reconstruct the events of LeRoy’s life that led up to the inspiration for “We Are Everywhere” and thanks to JD Doyle, the introduction is narrated by LeRoy himself, in his own words, in his own voice, from 20 years ago.
Released: 8/11/2023Length: 7:31Status: Online only
IMAGO DEI: Special Edition
For the premiere of the multimedia version of IMAGO DEI on April 16, 2023 (see below), Dr. Richard Follett prepared an introduction to LeRoy Dysart's memorial video, and Rev. Elder Ken Martin prepared an introduction to IMAGO DEI. Both introductions were so moving that they had to be preserveds for posterity. For an explanation of Creation-Centered Theology, Ken Martin's introduction is a must-see. This "Special Edition" was published immediately after the premiere and contains both introductions. The DVD is no longer available, but both introductions are available for streaming here.
Dysart Memorial Introduction
Dr. Richard Follett
Released: 4/16/2023Length: 7:31Status: Online only
IMAGO DEI Introduction
Rev. Elder Ken Martin
Released: 4/16/2023Length: 11:12Status: Online only
IMAGO DEI Premiere Party
In January of 2023, David Ranck began the task of matching the music of IMAGO DEI with visual images that would enhance the message of Creation-Centered Theology. After 200 hours of development, the original audio CD of IMAGO DEI had been enhanced with 373 images and assembled into the multimedia DVD that is available today. April 16, 2023, marked the premiere of the video to an in-person and on-line audience of 25 including six of the original 1985 participants, many other friends and members of MCCV, and a variety of new faces and names who had never heard of IMAGO DEI. See some images from that party here.
Released: 4/16/2023Length: 3:00Status: Online only
IMAGO DEI: First Edition DVD
This was the first DVD of the multimedia version of IMAGO DEI. It was distributed to a limited audience prior to the premiere on April 16, 2023, but was soon superseded by the Special Edition DVD above, which was then superseded by the Holy Wonder edition.
Released: 4/16/2023Length: 43:05Status: Discontinued
LeRoy Dysart Memorial Video
Composer, Arranger, Orchestrator, and Director of the 1985 performance of IMAGO DEI, Byron LeRoy Dysart was a man of many talents. Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson, upon learning of his passing, said simply, "He was a genius." Rev. Elder Ken Martin, in his introduction to IMAGO DEI, said it best: "I’ve pastored churches for over 50 years in five different states. You can just imagine the number of music directors and ministers of music that I’ve worked with in my career. I can say without question, LyRoy Dysart was the most brilliant and the most creative of them all." In this video, we remember "The Dysart Era" when LeRoy was Music Director at Metropolitan Community Church in the Valley, North Hollywood, CA.
Released: 4/16/2023Length: 8:09Status: Online Only
IMAGO DEI: Audio CD
Although “The Lord’s Prayer” became a part of every MCCV worship service, by 2005 many members didn’t even know that this moving version was a part of a much larger and equally moving work. Thankfully, Jack Becker and Lyle Swallow decided to convert one of the few remaining cassettes to CD. Although the cassette was, by 2005, twenty years old, the quality of the conversion was excellent. In addition, Jack created a comprehensive CD insert booklet with the complete text of the mass and a listing of all of the choir and orchestra members. Copies of the CD were distributed to those who had been part of the original 1985 performance and to others who were interested in the mass. Copies of the CD are still available.
Released: August 2005Length: 43:05Status: Available
IMAGO DEI: Audio Cassette
The cassette that started it all! The one and only performance on December 15th, 1985, was recorded on 1/4" tqpe from which cassette copies were made and distribured. 20 years later, one of the few remaining cassettes was digitized and placed on CD.