(The Christian Institute) - A man’s sex change has been affirmed in a Church of England service, said to be the first of its kind.
The transsexual man who is known as Susan Musgrove, 60, underwent surgery last year and has now been publicly blessed as a woman at St Andrew’s Church in Northumberland.
The curate of his Church designed an affirmation liturgy for the service after they got the go-ahead from the Bishop of Newcastle.
Married
Susan Musgrove has been married three times, and has two children and two grandchildren who all attended the service.
He saw a ‘gender specialist’ at a gender clinic in Sunderland in 2009, and lived as a woman before having a sex change.
Susan Musgrove said: “I’d needed the stone and wood and ceremony of an Anglican church, particularly my local church, to make my transition feel real”.
Formally
He also said: “As far as I could see, no transgender person had ever formally affirmed their faith before in the Church of England.”
In November last year, it was revealed that Britain’s youngest sex swap patient decided to reverse the procedure after living as a woman for less than a year.
The 18-year-old, who was formerly known as Brad Cooper, has been having hormone injections to make him look like a woman but decided to revert back to living as a man.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Church of England continues... being the CofE
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The Episcopal Organization has long ceased to be Christian in any meaningful sense of the term. It appears that the CofE is in a mad rush to catch up with them.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure which is crazier, the Anglicans or the fact that most Orthodox jurisdictions still treat them as distant cousins even to the point of recognizing their baptisms.
That is not exactly true. TStrictly speaking the Orthodox Church does not recognize Episcopal baptisms. Chrismation completes and perfects that which is lacking. or defective in Episcopal baptisms. Traditionally the Church has allowed the Reception of those baptized with water
ReplyDelete"In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" through Profession of the Orthodox Faith and Chrismation. Canon 95 of the Council in Trullo even allows Arians who denied the divinity of Christ to be received by Chrismation. The Council of Constantinople in 1884 which repudiated the Union of Florence followed the teaching of St. Mark of Ephesus and ruled that Roman Catholics should be received by Profession of Faith and Chrismation. The Council of Jerusalem Bethlehem in 1672 ruled that Protestants would also be received into the Church by Profession of Faith and Chrismation.
Did the Council of Constantinople of 1884 repeal the Council of Florence? Was the Council of Florence valid for Orthodox for 400 years?
ReplyDelete"Traditionally the Church has allowed the Reception of those baptized with water
ReplyDelete"In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" through Profession of the Orthodox Faith and Chrismation."
Seventh-Day Adventist converts to Orthodoxy must be baptized, even though SDA's are baptized by a single immersion in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I don't know much about the Seventh Day Adventists, but as they would be considered rather marginal, if not actually heretical, by many conservative Protestants, if that applies within Protestantism, I wouldn't be surprised to find the Orthodox baptising any SDAs who converted. I've heard of some Orthodox jurisdictions requiring baptism of converts from what would be called 'non-denominational' churches ie.independent charismatic evangelicals who are ostensibly just as Trinitarian as any Orthodox - although often untutored and lacking in adequate catechesis.
ReplyDeleteI think, though, that many - but not all - Orthodox are unware of how things 'work' in Protestant contexts and assume that because something is done in one place - such as the instance we're discussing here - it applies equally elsewhere. I suggest that the Orthodox treat individual Protestants on their own merits and individually because things vary enormously making it very difficult to come to any blanket conclusions on what Protestants do or don't do or do or don't believe ... and I say that as an Anglican!