# Kelly Latimore **Summary.** Kelly Latimore is an American Catholic iconographer whose work centers the faces of the marginalized — LGBTQ+ martyrs, civil rights figures, immigrants, the disabled, and the diverse global church — in the historic form of Byzantine-influenced iconography. His icons are widely used in progressive Catholic and mainline Protestant communities, including St. John's UCC Chambersburg, which used his Pentecost icon as the cover art for the May 24, 2026 worship bulletin. --- ## Background Latimore studied fine arts and theology and developed an approach to icon-writing that draws on the traditional Byzantine aesthetic while expanding who is depicted as holy. He operates through **Kelly Latimore Icons** (kellylatimoreicons.com) and sells both prints and original icons. His work is explicitly contextual and incarnational — he depicts contemporary people, not only biblical figures, as icons of the holy. This approach sits within a tradition of liberationist iconography (the Black Madonna, the Christ of Maryknoll, Latin American devotional art) while extending it into new contexts. --- ## Theological Significance Latimore's iconography embodies several overlapping theological claims: **Incarnational diversity.** Icons are, in their traditional function, "windows to the holy." Whose face appears in the window is a theological claim. Latimore's choice to include wheelchair users, Black and Brown figures, LGBTQ+ martyrs, and women in central roles declares that holiness is not the property of any single ethnicity, body type, or identity category. **Marian presence.** His Pentecost icon places **Mary** at the center of the gathered community — an unusual choice in Protestant and especially Reformed/Congregationalist traditions. The Catholic iconographic tradition places Mary in the Acts 2 upper room (Acts 1:14 names her among the gathered community). Latimore's use of this placement in a UCC context signals ecumenical and embodied pneumatology: the Spirit descends on the whole community, including female leadership. **Disability and access.** His icons frequently include figures using wheelchairs or mobility aids. This is a deliberate DEIB claim: the Spirit is poured out on bodies the church has historically excluded from full liturgical participation. (Source: [[2026-05-24 St Johns UCC Pentecost]]) **Youth and age.** The Pentecost icon includes children and elders together — a visual citation of Joel 2:28 ("your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions"), the text quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17. --- ## Use at St. John's UCC Chambersburg The bulletin for Pentecost Sunday, May 24, 2026, used Latimore's Pentecost icon as its cover image. The bulletin credit line reads: "Pentecost © Kelly Latimore, from Kelly Latimore icons." (Source: [[2026-05-24 St Johns UCC Pentecost]]) The icon choice reinforces the worship-theology themes present in the Illustrated Ministry liturgical texts for that service: the Spirit poured out on "all flesh" (Joel 2 / Acts 2), boundary-crossing, and the Acts 2 vision as an inclusive ecclesiology. > [!question] **Iconographic tradition and Reformed polity.** UCC congregational polity inherits from the Reformed tradition, which is historically suspicious of images in worship (the Regulative Principle). Latimore's icons appear in Reformed-adjacent mainline spaces without controversy, suggesting that the progressive mainline has largely set aside that historical iconoclasm in favor of an incarnational theology of visual art. Worth tracking as the worship-theology standards conversation develops. --- ## Works Notable to This Wiki - **Pentecost icon** — Mary-centered; diverse community including wheelchair user, child, and people of varied ages and ethnicities; dove descending (Source: [[2026-05-24 St Johns UCC Pentecost]]) - **"Mama" (Black Madonna)** — widely circulated image depicting Mary as a Black woman; cited in discussions of inclusive Marian devotion - **Contemporary saints series** — icons of LGBTQ+ martyrs, civil rights figures, and others not traditionally depicted in Christian iconography --- ## Connections Within This Wiki - [[2026-05-24 St Johns UCC Pentecost]] — bulletin cover; visual expression of Joel 2 egalitarianism - [[Progressive Christianity]] — contextual iconography as a form of progressive theological expression - [[Inclusive Language Hymnody]] — parallel move: inclusive *language* in hymnody, inclusive *faces* in iconography - [[St. John's UCC Chambersburg]] — congregation actively using Latimore icons in worship materials --- ## Source Coverage **Limited.** This entry is constructed from the bulletin credit and contextual knowledge of Latimore's publicly available work. No direct Readwise highlights or primary texts from Latimore in vault. Full entity development would benefit from: - A dedicated source page reviewing his iconographic theology - Primary sources: Latimore's own statements on his practice - Secondary sources: any theological commentary on his work in progressive mainline contexts