Thanks to St. Stephen-in-the-Fields, Toronto, ACoC (Anglican Church of Canada) has a new liturgy, a special worship ritual to bless and acknowledge a person who's transitioned to another sex.
The sex-change ceremony was conducted by Revs. Maggie Helwig and Andrea Budgey for Beck Shaefer, who started out in life as a woman but became a man. However, because ACoC didn't have a trans blessing liturgy, the parish invented one.
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| Helwig And Shaefer at The Baptismal Font |
“We understood that this wasn’t a re-baptism,” said Helwig, “God always knew who Beck was in his fullness, and received him as himself from the beginning. But we also knew that this was a moment closely tied to the baptismal covenant, and Beck’s growth as a disciple.”
At the service, Beck declared that transgenderism was part of God's creation and that this was something to be lived "openly and authentically."
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| Helwig, Budgey And Friends |
“God created me transgender, and calls me to live openly and authentically,” said Beck at the ceremony, “This is not a solitary path but rather a call that I am to live out in relation to others and as a member of the body of Christ.”
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| A Beautiful Rainbow Unicorn |
Scientists have so far failed to find the elusive transgender chromosome, causing some to doubt the authenticity of sex-change procedures. "They're just blasphemous parodies of men or women," said one expert, on the condition of anonymity, "No one's fooled, especially God."
Good luck, ACoC.
LSP
