The Episcopal Church has a long and complicated history of wrestling with and discerning the full inclusion of out gay and lesbian persons fully into our life and ministry. We have come, haltingly over time, to be a church that understands same-gender attraction as one of the diverse manifestations of God’s creation, and that people who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual are just as God intended them to be and that God loves them and each of us as we are and for who we are.
As our understanding has grown, many have come to believe that people exist on a spectrum of sexuality and gender, as well as married, single, partnered, and celibate. Moreover, this spectrum manifests a great diversity of gender expressions. We know there are some who identify as transgender: those whose experience of their gender assigned at birth does not match their understanding of their own gender. The Episcopal Church has begun to evolve our polity and teaching to be inclusive of transgender, non-binary, gender-nonconforming, and genderfluid persons at all levels of ministry and life.
My colleague, the Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge, himself a trans man and Episcopal priest writes,
We can view human beings as both a ‘bond’ of a wonderfully variegated creation and an agent, or workshop, of creation’s transformation into the heart of God. Humans were created last, reasoned the patristic theologians, and we were given the gift of gathering the whole together and lifting it up so that all creation might be transfigured by the Creator….When we stumbled in our feeble attempts to fulfill that vocation, Christ came into our midst and became the ‘fresh institution’ of creation, transfigured us in his image, and bound creation to himself—even the parts of creation that we do not always understand and that sometimes make us uneasy. It is through this transforming power of Christ that I, and many transgender people like me, find our true identity as children of God.
This spring, the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music made available, through our Book of Occasional Services, a liturgy that acknowledges and blesses as holy the process of name change.
As the introduction to that rite reads, “When an event or experience leads a baptized person to take or to be given a new name, the following may be used to mark this transition in the parish community…This new beginning is distinct from the new life begun in Holy Baptism, which conveys regeneration and the responsibilities of Christian discipleship.” We recognize that there are many reasons a person might need to change their name. And, in the case of transgender persons, the process of transitioning from one gender expression to another very likely includes the process of changing one’s name. I am grateful then for this liturgy making possible for ours and other faith communities, to come around a person in transition, to bless and give thanks for the renewing and reclaiming of their truest God-given identities.
At St. John’s we have come to know trans and gender-nonconforming individuals as integral members in our life as a faith community. On June 30, I am delighted we will be able to use this service for one such member, Jennifer, as she makes the courageous step of changing her name and affirming her identity as a woman before God and us her faith community. I hope you will experience the same gratitude and wonder I felt at Jennifer’s vulnerability and authenticity in sharing this part of herself with us, as together we honor what God is up to in her life.
Again, as my colleague, the Reverend Dr. Cameron Partridge writes, such a moment “can be a part of our rebirth and new life that accompanies our membership in Christ’s body…I have many times encountered transgender people who tell their own lives as stories of salvation history. Many, including myself, are people for whom the mystery of faith finally helped us claim our selves, our souls and bodies, as vessels of reconciliation.”
—Jered Weber-Johnson
Originally published in the May/June Evangelist.
