TRANS SPIRIT FLOURISHING
  • Home
  • About
    • about this site
    • about the author
    • about transgender
  • Blog
  • Theology
    • Genesis and Creation
    • Freedom and Order
    • Gnosticism and heresy
    • Healing and Hope
    • Resurrection and the Body
    • sharing in New Creation
  • Scriptures
    • Christian love & identity
    • gender variant people in scripture
    • crossdressing
    • marriage and family
    • suffering and transformation
    • all one in Christ Jesus
  • Spirituality
    • Kaleidoscope people
    • trans experiences and reflections
    • spiritual practices
    • seeking justice and shalom
    • trans history
    • pioneer priests & inspirations
  • Resources
    • Trans Awareness Days
    • Celebrating Gender Diversity
    • Australian Trans Christian Stories
    • information & support
    • affirming religious groups
    • prayers & worship
    • trans affirmation in many faiths
    • online video clips
    • further reading
  • Contact

A Response to the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania on its 'Biological Sex' resolution

8/19/2023

1 Comment

 
As both a transgender woman and an experienced Anglican priest, it is highly disappointing to hear of the recent resolution of the Anglican Synod of Tasmania about what it calls ‘Biological Sex’. This betrays all the faults of what was a very late ‘motion without notice’: being ill-considered, under-informed and divisive, especially in its lack of attention to Anglican and other transgender people’s own well-substantiated experiences of faith and identity. For both Tasmania and the Anglican Communion are blessed with many wonderful transgender people who continue to enrich our communities and bring new life to others. What a difference it then makes when we are listened to and engaged constructively. For my own experience is that, in affirming rather than denying our authentic God-given (not human labelled) gender, transgender people are indeed so much more fully incarnate, at peace and flourishing in our skins, biology and divine purpose. Denying this not only helps maintain unnecessary suffering but restricts the love and joy we have to share within the Church and wider world. After all, St Paul (in 1 Corinthians 12) encouraged the Church, as the Body of Christ, to value its members that are weaker and shamed. This kind of action however feels more like being freshly beaten up and an attempt to cut off transgender members, our families and friends. That is not the message of God’s love that Christians have to offer the world.

The resolution also seems to reflect a recently constructed approach to the Bible which narrows God’s colourful and dynamic kaleidoscope of creation to simplistic black and white binary categories. This does not do justice to how mainstream Anglican theology has typically sought to value the rich and varied textures of the scriptures and the best of evolving human reason. Nor does it sit well with increasingly trans affirming developments in many Anglican dioceses, and other Christian congregations, schools, and agencies across Australia. I hope therefore that Anglican leaders in Tasmania will think again and not encourage their parishes, schools, and other agencies to take such an unhelpful path. The same Synod passed other resolutions making a continuing welcome commitment to addressing environmental challenges and supporting people with disabilities. These are just two of many ways in which Tasmanian Anglicans contribute positively to their communities. What a shame transgender people are not yet regarded as worthy of similar full respect and engagement. For neither trans people nor people of faith benefit from perpetuating today’s unnecessary culture wars, especially those of us who are both. Human beings have genuine differences but, as St Paul also put it, we are called to be one in Christ, in whom ‘there is no longer male and female’. We can be, and do, so much more together.
 
The Revd Dr Josephine Inkpin was ordained in the Church of England in 1986 and has served in many capacities in Anglican dioceses in England and, since 2001, in Australia, as well as an officer of the National Council of Churches in Australia for several years. She is an associate lecturer in the University of Divinity, a member of the global network of Trans and Non-Binary Clergy of the Anglican Communion, and the current Minister of Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney.

1 Comment

the Ethiopian eunuch and the Gospel

4/19/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
I wonder how many sermons you’ve heard about eunuchs?  Not many I would guess. Yet is actually quite extraordinary how many eunuchs are mentioned in the Bible.  Perhaps the story from Acts of the Apostles (chapter 8 verses 26-end) might be one we do recognise.  Many others however are simply passed over.  Jesus for example spoke positively about eunuchs and his words are recorded in Matthew chapter 19.  Very little is ever said about that and some people do not even know those verses are there.  Even the story we hear today is also usually interpreted without too much attention to the specifics of the person baptised.  This is all very sad.  For it misses out some very powerful messages for us, for the Church, and for the world, not least those, like the Ethiopian eunuch, who are quite different kinds of people to many expected norms.  It is one of those very many ‘queer’ stories in the Bible which speak of a very ‘queer’ kind of God and mission…


Read More
0 Comments

on LGBT+ Christians not being 'impostors'

2/15/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
How often, I wonder, has a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender Christian been attacked as a religious, moral, or logical 'impossibility', 'a contradiction in terms', a living oxymoron?  Pretence and deceit are certainly themes which hover around gender diverse people and discussion of our lives and sense of being.  Spiritually speaking, such features are typically regarded as unhealthy.  Whilst, for instance, there are some positive stories of trickery in the Bible (notably in the case of the patriarch Jacob), these are usually the sign of a wayward, scheming, selfish or misdirected person.  Later transitioning religious people are thus frequently caught in certain traps as they become the more 'authentic' selves God calls them to be.  On the one hand, we may be called people of pretence and deceit  by those who refuse to  accept the realities of our identity.  On the other hand, we may be attacked for hitherto seemingly living lives that were not true or misleading.  At the very same time, we may also be dealing with our own shame, guilt, and confusions about what we may have 'pretended' to be.  Yet, as we are reminded in both the powerful scriptural text of 2 Corinthians 6, and a just published book Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Christians: Queer Christians, Authentic Selves (by Bronwyn Fielder & Douglas Ezzy, Bloomsbury Press 2018),, we may be 'treated as impostors but are true' (2 Cor 6.8b)...


Read More
0 Comments

    Author

    The Revd Dr Jo Inkpin:
    an Anglican priest, theologian, justice & peace activist, and trans woman in Australia

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    November 2024
    July 2024
    March 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    August 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017

    Categories

    All
    2 Corinthians
    ABBI
    ABC
    Abuse
    Acts
    Advent
    Affirmation
    Affirming
    Agency
    Alex Pittaway
    Amao Leota Lu
    Anglican
    Apology
    Archbishop Of Adelaide
    Art
    Assembly
    Audre Lorde
    Australia
    Authenticity
    Autogynephilia
    Awareness
    Baptism
    Benjamin Oh
    Bernie Taupin
    Bible
    Billy Bragg
    Birth
    Bishop
    Bishop Budde
    Blessing
    Body
    Breath
    Brisbane
    Candle In The Wind
    Carla Robinson
    Cathedral
    Celtic
    Chalise Van Wyngaardt
    Children
    Chris Dowd
    Christ
    Christa
    Christian
    Christian Lives Matter
    Christina Beardsley
    Christmas
    Church
    Commandment
    Covenant
    Covid 19
    Covid-19
    Creation
    Crucifixion
    Dangerous Women
    Discrimination
    Donald Trump
    Dragonfly
    Dress
    Easter
    Eddie Ayres
    Elizabeth 1
    Elton John
    England
    Episcopal Church
    Equality
    Equal Voices
    Eucharist
    Eunuch
    Eve
    Expansive
    Expansiveness
    Experience
    Faith
    Faithfully Me
    Fall
    Female
    Feminism
    Flourishing
    Forgiveness
    Freedom
    Future Church
    Garry Deverell
    Gender
    Gender Centre
    Gender Diversity
    Gender Expansive
    Gerard Manley Hopkins
    Gifts
    God
    Gospel
    Grace
    Guardian Australia
    Harry Potter
    Healing
    Health
    History
    Holly Zwalf
    Hope
    Hymn
    IDAHOBIT
    Inclusion
    Indecency
    Intersectionality
    Isaiah
    Jacob
    Janet Rice
    Jesus
    Jesus Queen Of Heaven
    J.K.Rowling
    J Mase III
    Jo Clifford
    John 3
    Joke
    Josephine
    Joy
    Judith Butler
    Julia Serano
    Kaleidoscope
    Leadership
    LGBTI+
    LGBTIQ
    Liberation
    Life And Death
    Listen
    Liturgy
    London
    Love
    Love Of God
    Marcella Althaus Reid
    Mardi Gras
    Marilyn Munro
    Marriage
    Mary
    Mary Magdalene
    Mary Oliver
    MCC
    Melbourne
    Mercy
    Meredith Lake
    Milton
    Minister
    Muslim
    Name
    Namoli Brenett
    Naomi
    Narcissim
    Neighbour
    New Creation
    Noah Riseman
    Non-binary
    Norrie
    Onlyness
    Ordination
    Pain
    Parents Of Gender Diverse Children
    Paul
    Penny Jones
    Penny Whetton
    Peter Kline
    Peterson Toscano
    PFLAG
    Pitt Street
    PItt Street Uniting Church
    Play
    Pope Francis
    Power
    Prayer
    Presbytery
    Pride
    Priest
    Primate
    Project 42
    Prophetic
    Puberty
    Queensland
    Queer
    Queer Theology
    Rachel Lane
    Racism
    Rainbow
    Rainbow Christians Together
    Raquel Willis
    Reconciliation
    Religious
    Religious Discrimination
    Remembering
    Repentance
    Resistance
    Resources
    Resurrection
    Rhett Pearson
    Ricki Coughlan
    Rite
    Rohan Salmond
    Ruth
    Safe Schools
    Saint
    Salvation Army
    Same Gender
    Same Sex
    Same-sex
    SBS
    Scripture
    Selva Neblina
    Sexuality
    Shame
    Sibyls
    Silence
    Solidarity
    Sorèl
    Sorel Coward
    Sorèl Coward
    Soul
    Spirit
    Spiritual
    Spirituality
    Spiritual Misfits
    State Library
    Steff Fenton
    Story
    Struggle
    Suffering
    Surgery
    Sydney
    Synod
    Tasmania
    TDoV
    Theology
    Theroux
    Toowoomba
    Trans
    Trans Day Of Remembrance
    Trans Day Of Visibility
    TransEpiscopal
    Transformation
    Transgender
    Trans Ing
    Trans-ing
    Transitioning
    Transphobia
    Truth
    Uniting Church
    Uniting Network
    USA
    Vacuum
    Visibility
    Voice
    Vulnerability
    Water
    Will Small
    Women
    World Pride
    Worship
    Wound

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
    • about this site
    • about the author
    • about transgender
  • Blog
  • Theology
    • Genesis and Creation
    • Freedom and Order
    • Gnosticism and heresy
    • Healing and Hope
    • Resurrection and the Body
    • sharing in New Creation
  • Scriptures
    • Christian love & identity
    • gender variant people in scripture
    • crossdressing
    • marriage and family
    • suffering and transformation
    • all one in Christ Jesus
  • Spirituality
    • Kaleidoscope people
    • trans experiences and reflections
    • spiritual practices
    • seeking justice and shalom
    • trans history
    • pioneer priests & inspirations
  • Resources
    • Trans Awareness Days
    • Celebrating Gender Diversity
    • Australian Trans Christian Stories
    • information & support
    • affirming religious groups
    • prayers & worship
    • trans affirmation in many faiths
    • online video clips
    • further reading
  • Contact