Memories: Matt Shepard’s Portrait

In case you are not familiar with his story, Matt was a cradle Episcopalian, active in his home parish in Wyoming, where he attended Sunday school and served as an acolyte. As his parents have said, he loved his church and his church loved him back.

Matt became known throughout the world as the victim of a hate crime. He was beaten and tied to a fence post and left to die—because he was gay.

Twenty years after his death, Washington National Cathedral hosted Matt’s memorial service, led by Episcopal Bishops Gene Robinson and Mariann Budde and attended by a packed cathedral congregation, including yours truly. Matt’s physical remains are now interred in a chapel beneath the cathedral’s nave.

A large portrait of Matt is also housed at the cathedral, and a photo of that painting hangs on the blue wall behind the bass section of our St. Ambrose Choir. The photo was placed there by the Rev. Chris Thompson when he was our interim rector and has become a permanent memorial to Matt, a fellow Episcopalian.