The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, author of the...

The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, author of the autobiographical “Gay Priest” and 21 other books, said he is forming the Institute of Gay Spirituality and Theology with the backing of some well-known liberal religious thinkers.

Episcopal Church Bishop Paul Moore Jr. of New York is co-chairman of the still-incomplete advisory committee that also includes United Methodist Church theologian John B. Cobb Jr. of the School of Theology at Claremont, John C. Bennett of Claremont, who is president emeritus of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and Christian ethicist James Nelson of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, New Brighton, Minn.

John J. McNeill of New York, ordered to leave the Jesuit order last fall for writings contradicting Roman Catholic teaching on homosexual behavior, has also joined the committee, Boyd said. Boyd is writer-priest in residence at St. Augustine-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Monica.

Observing that the women’s movement in organized religion draws vitality from feminist theologies, Boyd said an immediate goal of the institute is to contact graduate students, scholars and writers across North America “who have given serious thought to articulating a gay theology.”

Boyd said his institute wants to create “a mutually honest dialogue” between religious homosexuals and receptive leaders in institutional religion.

“The problem has been that an enormous number of gay people are separated from organized religion,” he said. “We permitted a stereotype that gay people are only interested in a libertine, self-seeking existence. . . . But there is as much awareness of God and morality among gay people as among anyone else, though many have low self-esteem.”

Some “natural links” exist with liberation and feminist theologies and with the metaphysical “process thought” espoused by John Cobb and others. “We will also be plugging into New Age consciousness,” Boyd said.

CONVENTIONS

The Christian Booksellers Assn.’s annual convention, a showy display featuring booths sponsored by 340 companies, will admit the public for the first time on July 12, from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Anaheim Convention Center. Admission is $2. The six-day trade show opens next Saturday for an expected 10,000 retailers and executives from the book publishing, music and related industries.

DATES

Santa Monica Mayor James P. Conn, who is also an active United Methodist pastor, will talk on “Blending Politics and Religion for the Common Good” at 8:15 p.m. Friday at University Synagogue in Brentwood. Conn is pastor of the unconventional The Church in Ocean Park and has founded several service projects, notably a halfway house for youths and a shelter for battered women.