Should a “transgender” person be allowed a ceremony of “re-baptism” at their local church? That is what a parishioner requested from the Rev Chris Newlands, Vicar of Lancaster.
“I said we don’t do that, but we did offer him, and then carry out, a service,” Mr Newlands told the Lancaster Guardian. “He was originally baptised as a baby girl, and to him it was about God knowing him by name.”
Mr Newlands mobilised his Deanery and put a motion on the House of Bishops’ agenda for the General Synod of the Church of England: “That this Synod, recognising the need for transgender people to be welcomed and affirmed in their parish church, call on the House of Bishops to consider whether some nationally commended liturgical materials might be prepared to mark a person’s gender transition.”
That was earlier this year, but such services are already being performed.
Read it all from Christopher Howse at the Telegraph.
Épater les bourgeois, indeed! This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of baptism. Or, perhaps not. There is a naming component to infant baptism, paralleling the naming component of the Jewish bris ceremony. Oh – my head’s going to explode.
So if I go to the state registry and change my name, God doesn’t know who I am any more? Nonsense.