The Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng is a theologian, seminary professor, and ordained minister with the Metropolitan Community Church. He is also the founder and coordinator of Queer Asian Spirit, http://www.queerasianspirit.org, an organization dedicated to supporting the lives of LGBT Asians everywhere who are interested in spiritual, theological, and religious issues.
Patrick S. Cheng was born in Hong Kong and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Baptized and confirmed as a Roman Catholic, Patrick moved to the East Coast to attend college at Yale University, where he received his B.A. summa cum laude in English Language and Literature (1990) and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he received his J.D. magna cum laude (1993) and served as an executive editor of the Harvard Law Review.
After clerking for a federal appellate judge in Los Angeles, California, and practicing at two New York City law firms, Patrick received his M.A. (2001), M.Phil. (2009), and Ph.D. (2010) in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York under the direction of Dr. James H. Cone. He successfully defended his dissertation, "Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People Today: Four Christological Models," in December 2009 before Dr. Cone, Dr. Mark D. Jordan of Harvard Divinity School, Dr. Kwok Pui-lan of Episcopal Divinity School, and Dr. Christopher L. Morse of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. While working on his theology degrees, Patrick served as an in-house lawyer for a national agency of the Episcopal Church.
In 1998, Patrick was received into the Episcopal Church. In 2000, Patrick created an email listserv that would eventually become Queer Asian Spirit, an organization dedicated to supporting the lives of LGBT Asians everywhere who are interested in spiritual, theological, and religious issues. In January 2001, Patrick was ordained a minister in the Metropolitan Community Church. He has served as Assistant Pastor for Congregational Life at MCC New York, as staff clergy at MCC Boston, and as regional staff for the Rev. Elder Diane Fisher.
Patrick has spoken and preached at numerous events about LGBT Asian spirituality. He has led a workshop and an interfaith service at the national LGBT Asian conferences in New York City (2004) and Seattle (2009). In January 2010, he was the plenary speaker for an LGBT Asian retreat in the San Francisco Bay Area sponsored by the Network on Religion and Justice. Also in January 2010, Patrick spoke at the press conference about Lunar New Year For All, the first-ever LGBT contingent to march in the New York City Chinatown Lunar New Year parade.
Starting in July 2010, Patrick will serve as Assistant Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Patrick has published a number of journal articles and book chapters on LGBT Asian spirituality, biblical studies, and theology. For a bibliography his works, see his website at http://www.patrickcheng.net. Patrick can also be reached via his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/patrick.s.cheng.
(This biographical statement provided by Patrick Cheng.)