Tag Archives: transgender

More on the Anglican Church of Canada’s transgender liturgies

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Some clergy and lay delegates at synod spoke against adopting the liturgies, the majority spoke in favour.

This one in favour is interesting because it illustrates the delusion that has bedevilled the ACoC for decades: that doing more of what has brought it to the verge of extinction will, for some incomprehensible reason, reverse the decline. (my bold):

Alex McPhee, lay member from the diocese of Qu’Appelle, spoke in favour. McPhee described how in preparing to attend his first General Synod, he had sent the text of the pastoral liturgies to some transgender friends—all of whom, he said, “not by their own choice, have been hounded out of their birth church communities.”

He continued, “The response I got was, ‘This is so powerful … I can’t believe someone out there wrote something like this. I can’t believe there is a church somewhere in the world that is actually like this.’”

“In my life as an adult convert, I have seen very few documents that have such an immediate attractive power on the unchurched, with the sole exception of the gospels themselves,” McPhee added. “In my opinion, we are being asked to ratify something that is not just wise and discerning, but actually has the power to grow the body of Christ.”

According to Statistics Canada, in 2021 0.19% of the population were transgender. That’s 59,460 people.

If they are the candidates that will grow the church, they must all be latent Anglicans.

Queer Evensong at Holy Trinity Anglican Church Winnipeg

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The Queer Evensong is being organised by Pastor Theo Robinson, who is transgender and Rev Andrew Rampton, a homosexual.

During the COVID panic we were introduced to a new expression – which I rapidly came to loath – The New Normal. The New Normal for ACoC parishes is a Queer Evensong run by a transgender and a homosexual.

From here:

Creating a safe place to worship for LGBTTQ+ people is the goal of a service Sunday in downtown Winnipeg.

The service — possibly the first of its kind in the province — is being organized by Theo Robinson, a transgender male and regional pastor for the Interlake Shared Ministry, and Andrew Rampton, rector at Holy Trinity Anglican Church.

Queer Evensong starts at 5 p.m. at Holy Trinity (256 Smith St.).

Robinson serves churches in Selkirk, Teulon, Arborg, Lundar and Riverton through the ministry, which is operated jointly by the Anglican Diocese of Rupert’s Land and the Manitoba and Northwest Ontario Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. He came up with the idea because queer people often “don’t feel safe” in a church context.

For those of you whose wokeness remains unsated by a Queer Evensong, Holy Trinity is also offering “From the Religion of Whiteness to Religion Otherwise”, a balm to sooth the nerves of all who wallow in guilty whiteness. In case you didn’t know, whiteness is a religion:

This Newcombe Lecture (presented by the department of Religion and Culture at the University of Winnipeg) engages cultural theorist W.E.B. Du Bois’ idea that Whiteness (another word for which is “settlerism”) is a religion–indeed, that it is apocalyptic cosmology. Du Bois’ creative writing will be considered for the understanding it advances of Blackness as postapocalyptic poetic living–an alternate, even fugitive way of being with the earth that hosts new relationalities, new socialities after Whiteness, or religion otherwise.

Why, I wonder, is the Anglican Church of Canada headed for extinction by 2040? It’s a mystery.

Safe spaces then and now

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A few years ago when I visited the Monasteries of Metéora, I was fascinated by the murals on the walls of the narthex where new Christians had to wait before being baptised. They were graphic images of what early – and possibly prospective – Christians had to endure for their faith: dismemberment, crucifixion, crushing, flaying and disembowelling.

If 14th century proselytes were undeterred by the sights in this safe space, they were led into the baptistry for baptism.

The Diocese of Toronto has a safe space too, where transgender youth can escape homophobic slurs and other horrors of the modern world.

Could this have something to do with how we have ended up with a generation of such feeble, enervated, impotent, milquetoast Anglican Christians?

From here:

In a conversation with his mother and aunt in 2015, Mylo Woods talked about how difficult it was to be a trans youth. “Everyone was bullying me, using homophobic slurs, making me feel angry and depressed, even suicidal,” he recalls telling them.

During the conversation, Mylo said he wished he had a place to get away from it all. “I just wanted something for me and other kids where we could be ourselves and forget worrying about those things anymore,” he says.

His comment struck a chord. “In my world, if a child asks you if you can build a safe space for them, you say yes,” says his aunt, the Rev. Erin Martin, the incumbent of St. James the Apostle, Sharon, located about 50 km north of Toronto.

Ms. Martin and Mylo’s mother, Kit Woods, had an idea. What about creating a safe place for LGBTQ youth and their friends at the church? The women, who are sisters, asked some parishioners if they would like to help. They said yes, and in 2016 A Safe Place was born.

Held in the parish hall, the twice-monthly gathering gives LGBTQ youth and their friends an opportunity to hang out together and be themselves. There is no structured program. Sometimes they simply shout out “I’m gay!” or “I’m trans!” or “I don’t know what I am!” It is a release for some of the kids because they can’t say it at home. Often they share stories about their lives such as being misgendered or rejected because they are gay. Then they rally around each other for support. It isn’t all serious – they have a lot of fun as well.

In case anyone thinks I am being callous and unfeeling – well, perhaps I am a little, but not as much as those who are encouraging children to celebrate their mental disorder rather than help them cure it.

Looking on the bright side of the U.S. military cuts

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From here:

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are lining up to decry an US Army plan to cut 40,000 and shrink the size of the force from 490,000 to 450,000 by 2018.

[……]

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Army’s plan a “dangerous consequence of budget-driven strategy.”

“With global instability only increasing, and with just 33 percent of the Army’s brigade combat teams ready for deployment and decisive operations, there is simply no strategic basis to cut Army force structure below the pre-9/11 level of 490,000,” McCain said.

The bright side is that, although 40,000 soldiers will be fired, none of them will be transsexuals, since the military is lifting the ban on them. So all will be well: the enemy will be laughing so hard, they’ll be much easier to shoot. And think of the financial savings in having shared toilets.

WASHINGTON — Pentagon leaders are finalizing plans aimed at lifting the ban on transgender individuals in the military, with the goal of formally ending one of the last gender- or sexuality-based barriers to military service, senior U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

Ontario Human Rights Tribunal rules that a person’s sex is entirely subjective

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All a man has to do is declare himself a woman and, hey presto, he is one – in Ontario at least.

The worrying thing about this is that when there is a long queue for the ladies toilets, enterprising females can, by fiat, become temporary men and use the men’s toilets.

From here:

Genital surgery isn’t required for a man to be legally recognized as a woman, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal says.

Under current law, anyone who wants a change in sex designation on his or her birth certificate must first produce a certificate signed by two medical practitioners affirming that “transsexual surgery” was carried out.

In a decision issued on April 11, the human rights tribunal said the Ontario government must now drop that requirement.

All Saints' Anglican Church, Windsor has transgender clothing cupboard

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From here:

The Clothing Cupboard at All Saints’ Anglican Church is open every Tuesday morning from 9:00 a.m. until 12 noon.  It is located in the basement of the church house on the City Square, beside City Hall.  Coffee and refreshments are available to everyone prior to going down to the Clothing Cupboard.  There is no charge for any of the clothing or for the refreshments.

Under the leadership of Archdeacon Kim Van Allen, the church has initiated a program to make their Clothing Cupboard available to those in the Transgender community who feel uncomfortable attending the public opening on Tuesdays.  One of their volunteers, Henry Johnson, is willing to arrange access to those who would like private access to the Cupboard.  He may be contacted through the church office.

This is a worthwhile service which is open to all members of our city and county, including the LGBT community.

Donations to the Clothing Cupboard can be dropped off at the church office.  The Church’s telephone number is 519-253-8001.

Tonight there will be a special on matching gentlemen’s bras and maniples.

What next after DADT?

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Transgender recognition, of course.

From here:

Transgender vets want military access for own

SAN FRANCISCO — Before handcuffing herself to the White House fence, former Petty Officer First Class Autumn Sandeen carefully pinned three rows of Navy ribbons to her chest. Her regulation dress blue skirt, fitted jacket, hat and black pumps were new — fitting for a woman who spent two decades serving her country as a man.

Sandeen was the only transgender person among the six veterans arrested in April while protesting the military’s ban on openly gay troops. But when she watched President Obama last month sign the hard-fought bill allowing for the ban’s repeal, melancholy tinged her satisfaction.

“This is another bridesmaid moment for the transgender community,” the 51-year-old San Diego resident said.

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy now heading toward history does not apply to transgender recruits, who are automatically disqualified as unfit for service. But the military’s long-standing posture on gender-identity has not prevented transgender citizens from signing up before they come out, or from obtaining psychological counseling, hormones and routine health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs once they return to civilian life.

So as the Pentagon prepares to welcome openly gay, lesbian and bisexual service members for the first time, Sandeen is not alone in hoping the U.S. will one day join the seven other nations — Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, the Czech Republic, Thailand and Australia — that allow transgender troops.

“There is really no question, it’s just a matter of when,” said former Army Capt. Allyson Robinson, 40, a 1994 West Point graduate who has spoken to sociology classes at the alma mater she attended as a male cadet. “There are active-duty, as well as reserve and national guard transgender service members, serving today.”

And why not? After all, that’s what the modern army is all about: psychological counselling, hormone treatment, gender re-assignment, bridesmaid moments and a spot of wrinkle removing cosmetic surgery thrown in for good measure.

Make women, not war.