I posted this over at GLBT, but since it's about a remarkable Canadian,

who just received a prestigious international award, I'm also posting it here as a "local girl makes good" story. As I said in the other posting, I feel really privileged to know this woman.

The Rev Dr Cheri DiNovo, minister at the church where I sing here in Toronto, won the award for best book in the Spirituality category at Thursday night's Lambda Literary Awards in Washington, DC, and we're all extremely proud of her. As minister of Emmanuel-Howard Park United Church, she officiated the first lesbian wedding in Canada.

The Lambda Awards celebrated achievements in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) literature for books published in 2005. Cheri won for her book Que(e)rying Evangelism, which looks at how it is often the marginalized, such as LGBTs, who can awaken those in the mainstream to Christ's message of love and compassion. Cheri draws on her experiences at EHP for many of her examples.

and thanks for the reminder I've gotta start makin' to Church on Sunday mornings again.

...since she's the NDP candidate in our Parkdale-High Park byelection on 14 September (that's for those who don't know about it).