Ordaining Trans*

For years, Phyllis Tickle has told of her small Anglican outpost in Memphis, a congregation populated by many queers, bi, gay, lesbian, and trans* folks. In that last category, when a congregant transitioned from primarily identifying as one gender to the other, the church would have a celebration liturgy at the bathroom — that’s because the person they were celebrating was switching from one bathroom to the other.

This week, Amy Butler, pastor-elect at Riverside Church in New York City, posted a “Liturgy for a New World,” which records an ordination service from her current church, Calvary Baptist in Washington, D.C. In fact, it was something of a re-ordination, since the pastor had been ordained some years ago and had served as a Baptist pastor around the world. But that was with a different name. Now, as Amy writes, the congregation was re-ordaining her, with her new name:

Allyson Dylan Robinson is a minister of the gospel, trained for the task, and ordained to the gospel ministry by another community in which she has served as pastor.  Over the course of her journey, God has invited her to step into the faithful witness of a new identity, a true identity, and a new name.

While we have always known her as Allyson, she was ordained with a different name.

And so, today, as witnesses to the ongoing work of God in her life, we want to pause to bless her, to reaffirm her ordination as Rev. Allyson Robinson, to add our voices to the many that witness God’s good work in and through her life.

I’d like to invite Allyson to come forward now to speak again the vows of ordination and to receive her community’s blessing and affirmation.

You can read the rest here.

And join me in congratulating Amy on filling one of the most prestigious pulpits in the world.