What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • The Affirmation of a Transgender Person

    There’s yet more debate online about people calling for a special service to be approved by the Church of England in order to recognise and support someone following their transition from one gender to another.

    I happen to think that it would be an interesting thing for the Church of England to consider. However, we’re lucky in Scotland that we’ve already agreed a form of service that could be used as an affirmation for transgender people.

    Here are some of the prayers:

    THE LAYING ON OF HANDS
    The president says
    God of mercy and love,
    new birth by water and the Spirit is your gift,
    a gift none can take away;
    grant that your servants may grow
    into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
    Fill them with the joy of your presence.
    Increase in them the fruit of your Spirit:
    the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the spirit of love, patience and gentleness,
    the spirit of wonder and true holiness.
    The president lays hands on the candidate in silence, and then says
    Come, Creator Spirit,
    rekindle in N. your gifts of grace,
    to love and serve as a disciple of Christ.
    Amen.

    Renew her/his life in Christ
    and bring to completion all that your calling has begun.
    Amen.

    Either continuing the laying on of hands, or anointing the candidate
    with the Oil of Chrism, the president says:

    Empower your disciple, N.,
    to bring life to the world.
    Amen.

    At the conclusion of the laying on of hands
    the president says
    Living God, sustain all your people
    to be hope and strength to the world;
    through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
    to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
    be honour and glory, now and for ever.
    Amen

    The congregation share communion.

    The president addresses the congregation:

    The light of Christ is within you. Shine as a light in the world.
    As the seed grows secretly in the earth,
    As the yeast rises in the dough,
    May the power of God be at work in us.
    Like a city on a hill,
    Like a lamp in the darkness,
    May we witness to the glory of the kingdom.

    It seems to me that as we’ve already agreed these prayers, there’s going to be no fuss about it at all in Scotland whereas there might be in Englandshire. I’d be very happy to conduct this service for anyone who has completed their gender transition and who wants to express their faith publicly in their new identity.

    The great news is that the service is available to cis people at moments when they want to express publicly the renewal of their faith too. Indeed, some of these prayers were used at a particular point in my own life when I came into ministry in St Mary’s nine years ago. We don’t discriminate and so this service is available for all God’s children whether they are trans or not.

    The service can be found online here:
    http://www.scotland.anglican.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/affirmation-of-holy-baptism-2006.pdf

    , ,

5 responses to “Sermon preached on 8 January 2012”

  1. Mimanifesto – Jaye’s weblog

    […] on Sunday, Fr Chucks celebrated his first Holy Communion and Evensong as a Priest. Provost Kelvin preached a delightfully personal sermon addressed to Chucks in which he drew some parallels between the season of Epiphany and […]

    Reply
  2. DementedBonxie Avatar
    DementedBonxie

    It’s not really so hard to pronounce Chukwuemeka. Divide it into 2 parts: Chukwu / emeka
    You can surely manage ‘chook – woo’
    and ‘ay – may – kah’ (maybe the ‘ay’ should be ‘eh’ ?) Stress on ‘may’ I think.

    Even doing him the honour of saying one or other half of his name would be something! I believe its meaning is ‘God has done something great’ . Chucks seems somewhat undignified by comparison. So we might at least do something decent and make our muscles work a little differently.

    But then, I’m an enthusiast for the idea that the learning to use muscles differently is an important part of a process of getting to appreciate another person & culture.

    All that aside, a fine sermon, thanks.

    Reply
    1. kelvin Avatar
      kelvin

      Thanks DementedBonxie

      I don’t really have trouble with his name – I’ve got used to baptising lots of babies with Igbo names in recent years.

      Chucks is the name that he is happy to go by amongst both Igbo and English speakers.

      We did decide the other night that Bishop Gregor did need to use Chukwuemeka in full at the ordination.

      Reply
  3. Jaye Avatar
    Jaye

    I found both Friday and Sunday very emotional. Occasions like these days affirm my own belief in God. It was wonderful to see Chuks ordained by the Bishop but the huge hug you gave Chuks and your smile as you were doing it said it all for me 🙂 He’s a treasure, and such an amazing addition to our clergy team-truly a God-given gift to us. It just speaks volumes for inclusion, diversity, tolerance, and all those other qualities I feel are so lacking in other denominations ( including the one from which I come).
    I thought your sermon was wonderfully moving and I don’t mind admit to shedding tears as you spoke, and as Fr Chuks gave the blessing at the conclusion of the service, and at Evensong too, but I’m like that over things I really care about in this world.

    I know it’s been a journey requiring patience, application, and negotiation. Thank you Kelvin for your part in making this wonderful thing come to pass.

    Reply
  4. Kimberly Avatar
    Kimberly

    The middle part of the sermon was dedicated, I presume, to Tilly, of blessed memory.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Anglican Covenant Session

    Primus: my task is to be the person who helps SEC to relate to central bodies of the Anglican Communion. Task is to set out the context in which the SEC looks at the Covenant. Does not think in itself that it is unreasonable to have a document setting out what our commnunion is. As…

  • Home Mission Committee

    Faye Lamont introduces bookmarks which the committee has produced. They have prayers on them.

  • Church for All Group

    Annalu Waller – talks about remit of working group to expore issues of inclusion and accessibility within the SEC. Notes we are called to go out and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. She cringes about this language – but that is for another time. Why do we exlude large parts…

  • Committee for Relations with People of Other Faiths

    John Conway – reports on audit of interfaith activity. Committee were heartened by number of those who responded. Extent of interfaith engagement varies extraordinarily across Scotland. (Apparently some people responded as though questions were about inter-church activity). Festival of Spirituality has a lot of support from Piskies. This year’s theme is Faith, Hope and Reality.…