What does the Scottish Episcopal Church’s vote to ‘welcome trans people unconditionally’ mean in practice?
According to the Church Times, the General Synod of this small Anglican denomination in Scotland passed a motion to that effect on June 7th:
‘The motion under debate, which was eventually passed, said that the Synod “affirms that transgender, non binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people: are made in the image of God; are loved by God; should be accorded the same dignity, respect and rights as cisgender people; and can and should participate fully in the life, worship, mission and ministry of the Scottish Episcopal Church”.
The Revd Amy Jo Philip (Edinburgh), who is transgender, moved the motion. “Are we welcome in the SEC?” she asked. “I know I am, but do my trans siblings?”
Transgender people were marginalised in society, she said, and “the body of Christ has always been most what it is called to be when it cares for those on the margins.” The public debate had become polarised, and the Church had an opportunity to be “prophetic” and to show a better way, she said.’
The motion and its theological justification by its mover are notable for a combination of politically-correct jargon and language lifted from the Christian Bible. They conspicuously neglect to mention the fact that, according to Genesis 1v27, God created his image-bearers as male and female. They also neglect to mention the moral impact of humanity’s rebellion against God, as narrated in Genesis 3.
Unfortunately, the dire practical consequences that will be the result of this ‘prophetic’ motion flow out of its theological deficiencies. Based on my experience as a Church of England minister, I think I know what those practical consequences might be.
My wife used to run some wonderful events for children in the Parish Centre in the South Yorkshire commuter village where I was vicar for 19 years. It was a great joy to see a hall full of children enjoying themselves and learning about Christianity.
As well as the church team, other adults were often there, parents or carers of children in the room. Whatever the secular legal position, a motion like this would have put an expectation on me, backed by the Church authorities, to stand idly by while a man behaving suspiciously (to put it politely) was lingering in the ladies’ toilet. All he had to do to invade this female space and make women and girls feel uncomfortable was to self-identify as trans, put on a frock, and Boberta was your auntie.
I hope I would have defied this expectation and taken action to safeguard women and girls by telling the man to leave the female facilities. But under the SEC regime there could well have been disciplinary consequences had I done so.
This SEC motion reminds me that when religion turns toxic, it can generate more evil than the secular world is usually capable of. At least, the secular trans movement does not bring God into it.
The trans issue is extremely contentious in Scotland because of the Scottish government’s attempt to introduce gender self-recognition. It was the For Women Scotland movement that brought the legal action that led to the UK Supreme Court ruling in April that under the Equality Act 2010 ‘the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man’.
The SEC, which has been recently hit by an episcopal bullying scandal, has dwindled to under 23,000 members. But even if one woman or girl in any of its churches were harmed by a predatory male exploiting the naivety of a once Christian institution captured by neo-Marxist ideology, that would surely be an appalling outcome.
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire, UK.