KYRIE ELEISON!
Posted on 02/07/2020 7:30:05 PM PST by lightman
An increasing number of individuals who identify as “gender non-binary” have emerged among the clerical ranks in mainline Protestant denominations.
Following the ordination of transgender clergy in the United States, non-binary clergy appear to be the next wave of sex and gender revisionism.
While clergy already ministering within Christian communities have come out to their churches as non-binary, a number of non-binary identifying individuals have made headlines as the first to be ordained openly within their denomination.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, non-binary is relating to or being a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that is neither entirely male nor entirely female.
M Barclay
In the United Methodist Church, The Rev. M. Barclay is the first non-binary transgender individual to be commissioned and to be ordained a deacon. Barclay first made news when commissioned as a deacon in 2017. Initially Barclay, then known as Mary Ann Kaiser, was denied a commission by the board of the Southwest Texas Conference in 2014 on account of being a “self-avowed, practicing” lesbian in a same-sex relationship. Later in June of 2017, Barclay was commissioned in the Northern Illinois Conference as a provisional deacon.
Barclay explains a change in identity to non-binary, saying: “For me, once I was exposed to the reality of non-binary gender, it was for the first time recognizing who I am…and what made sense for me in how I carry my body, how I explain myself to the world and how I know myself to be internally. It’s certainly not man nor woman.”
Barclay now specifies the pronouns “they/themme/theirs.”
In the summer of 2019, Barclay moved from provisional clergy and was ordained in the Northern Illinois Conference as the first non-binary United Methodist deacon.
The Rev. Anna Blaedel is another member of the United Methodist clergy who identifies as queer and uses “they/them” pronouns. She was a pastor in Iowa before taking a leave of absence and is now the theologian in residence for the organization Enfleshed, which authors liturgies for non-binary persons. Jess Cook
The Rev. Jess Cook delivers the keynote speech during the More Light luncheon at Presbyterian General Assembly on June 19, 2018. (Photo: Danny Bolin)
Another notable member of the non-binary clergy is Jess Cook. Cook was the first non-binary Minister of the Word and Sacrament to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in June of 2019.
Speaking about her ordination, Cook says, “I’m acutely aware of the people who worked tirelessly to make it possible for an openly non-binary person to be ordained in the PC(USA), and of the young people who feel a call to ministry and will now see themselves in a person leading worship.
Cook is currently the Program and Communications Manager at More Light Presbyterians, the unofficial LGBTQ caucus within the PCUSA.
Megan Rohrer
In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Megan Rohrer is a pastor and writer. In 2006, Rohrer was ordained and became “the first openly transgender/non-binary person to be ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.” She is currently the chaplain of the San Francisco Police Department after pastoring Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco for three years.
In the United Church of Christ, according to the UCC 2019 Statistical Profile, 0.2% of ordained ministers are transgender/gender variant. Among the commissioned ministers, 0.9% are transgender/gender-variant.
A few years ago, The Rev. Ryan Dowell Baum came out as non-binary to his church in Iowa. But, according to an article Baum wrote, “The Holiness and Heartbreak of a Nonbinary Pastor,” his church asked him to resign a few months later in 2018. It seems that, despite the UCC’s progressive views, individual churches and congregations are not always of the same opinion.
These few individuals indicate the shift towards a wider acceptance of non-binary clergy in mainline Protestantism. Time will tell if this trend makes it beyond that confine.
KYRIE ELEISON!
If that picture weren’t tragic and dangerous, it might have been funny.
Yeah you want THAT THING “ministering” to you and your kids?
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Be rooted in Christ!
They don’t have this in Islam for some reason.
Oh, I get it. She couldn't get it as a lesbian. But if she is "non-binary" and therefore not, in her mind, a woman, and has sex with women,she isn't a lesbian.
I'm not surprised that she got declined in Texas and got accepted in Northern Illinois. That conference has been the devil's cesspool for decades.
I grew up in the UMC in southern Illinois. My home church was the best church I've ever been a member of. When I think back on the fine pastors and laypeople I knew back then, I'm glad they didn't live to see this.
We don't have this in the Holy Orthodox Church for similar but different reasons.
Vive la differance!
Glad to see someone else make this observation.
I myself have made this observation quite some time ago. I noticed, that while we read on a regular basis the perversion among many in the Catholic and Protestant churches I do not recall a single article outlining these same issues of rampant perversion in any of the Orthodox Christian churches.
And, I’ve wondered why. What is it about the Orthodox Christian churches that these issues of rampant perversion does not manifest within that Christian community?
Abomination.
Pedos. Attracting to asexual beings without developed sexual organs, is what they basically intimate
“What is it about the Orthodox Christian churches that these issues of rampant perversion does not manifest within that Christian community?”
Explore:
We share the first 1054 years of history with Western Christianity but parted ways before the abuses which led to the Protestant Reformation.
We adhere to the canons and decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils...canons which restrict the presbyteriate (Priesthood) to males and which prohibit marriage after Ordination. They also prohibit continuing in Priestly ministry after Divorce.
We have used the same liturgy and lectionary for sixteen centuries.
We sing a capella without “praise bands” but our Troparia are truly the “praise choruses” of antiquity. And unlike modern “praise choruses” which focus on the most unholy trinity of me, myself, and I; ours focus on the undivided and consubstantial Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I guess they didn't read the manual.
The big question is, what do non-binary clergy do around the children of the congregation? It can’t be normal. (Assuming that their parents are foolish enough to let their children anywhere near these clergy.)
Satan is destroying Christian sects at an alarming rate. Where are the people to stand up this evil ?
I’m sure THAT is a very “hands-on” ‘minister’ with young people.
I identify as half dog and half cat.
I chase myself all day and the furniture is ruined.
Just wondering - do they refer to the Father and the Son? Or do they use non-gendered language like “the Progenitor” and “the Offspring”?
The Institute on Religion and Democracy:
There exists a “faithful remnant” in every “mainline” denomination, and these brave clergy and laity need intense prayerful support for they are engaged in everything described in Ephesians 6.
PM me for more.
I’ll bet your house smells like San Francisco.
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