I was sitting at my friend's hair salon, and he looked over at me, “my friend is about to be here. She is trans. Don’t ask a bunch of silly questions.” I was fifteen years old and had never (to my knowledge) met someone who was trans before. Full of youthful curiosity, I ended up breaking my promise and asked them when they knew.
You are gradually doing the impossible: Restoring my faith in a possible human Christianity. Many people are out there saying it is all fundamentally flawed at a Theological level.
And that may be true. And that may mean changing the Theology, but no one is offering to throw another Council of Nicaea, at least not officially.
But it's a different age now.
Thank you for taking this to the streets. You are realizing the transfiguration of His Church and you are not asking the Church's permission. You're doing it because it's the right thing to do, in the name of love.
Only those who resist the incoming tide of love will be harmed by it.
Brilliant insights, per usual. This, if we're lucky in life to have enough thrown at us by the divinity of your choice: "Once they have a life-altering interaction with the divine, sometimes their appearance is altered, sometimes their name is changed, but they are forever different. More importantly, they are transformed into the person they were always supposed to be. They stepped into becoming their true self."
Mar 6, 2023·edited Apr 9, 2023Liked by Father Nathan Monk
Whoever was in your congregation when you were a priest were pretty lucky, unless of course you had to leave to write sermons like this that actually make sense of the Bible.
In 2009 I wrote and first performed a play called "The Gospel According to Jesus Queen Of Heaven" which imagines Jesus coming back to earth as a trans woman. I still perform it. Traditonal Christians hated it then, and some still do. The play's opening in Florida next week, and the dear loves are hitting a lot of trouble. You can imagine. But it's actually very orthodox theology... My substack is called "The Light Inside" and the latest post quotes Queen Jesus to bless Women of the World on International Women's day. You might find it interesting. And thank you for what yu write; I'm really happy to have found you, and look forward to reading more...
I think the Church (for me, Greek Orthodox) is losing bucketloads of people precisely because it was and continues not to be transfigured, leaving 51% of us in the nave discounted because of gender. At St Nick's, until I left, there was always a token female on the parish council and she was automatically assigned the role of secretary, to take the minutes. When it came my turn, that lasted about 2 meetings, until I became so repulsed by the rest of the pc - Greek men - turning each meeting into a shouting match laced with profanity. I walked out. There was no transfiguration there. That women are still excluded from all levels of ministry (except Sunday school) and still excluded from the area behind the iconostasis generates only bitterness in my heart. No transfiguration here, either. I think the idea of transfiguration is another part of the Christian lie.
I recently wrote my own essay regarding the transfiguration Jesus Christ work on the cross had on the devil. I am of the opinion that it involved a change in spiritual authority and dominion not physical anatomy. Interested in debating me? If you block me I will consider it an act of submission to the authority Jesus Christ as the son of God come in the flesh over you.
You are gradually doing the impossible: Restoring my faith in a possible human Christianity. Many people are out there saying it is all fundamentally flawed at a Theological level.
And that may be true. And that may mean changing the Theology, but no one is offering to throw another Council of Nicaea, at least not officially.
But it's a different age now.
Thank you for taking this to the streets. You are realizing the transfiguration of His Church and you are not asking the Church's permission. You're doing it because it's the right thing to do, in the name of love.
Only those who resist the incoming tide of love will be harmed by it.
Brilliant insights, per usual. This, if we're lucky in life to have enough thrown at us by the divinity of your choice: "Once they have a life-altering interaction with the divine, sometimes their appearance is altered, sometimes their name is changed, but they are forever different. More importantly, they are transformed into the person they were always supposed to be. They stepped into becoming their true self."
Whoever was in your congregation when you were a priest were pretty lucky, unless of course you had to leave to write sermons like this that actually make sense of the Bible.
In 2009 I wrote and first performed a play called "The Gospel According to Jesus Queen Of Heaven" which imagines Jesus coming back to earth as a trans woman. I still perform it. Traditonal Christians hated it then, and some still do. The play's opening in Florida next week, and the dear loves are hitting a lot of trouble. You can imagine. But it's actually very orthodox theology... My substack is called "The Light Inside" and the latest post quotes Queen Jesus to bless Women of the World on International Women's day. You might find it interesting. And thank you for what yu write; I'm really happy to have found you, and look forward to reading more...
I think the Church (for me, Greek Orthodox) is losing bucketloads of people precisely because it was and continues not to be transfigured, leaving 51% of us in the nave discounted because of gender. At St Nick's, until I left, there was always a token female on the parish council and she was automatically assigned the role of secretary, to take the minutes. When it came my turn, that lasted about 2 meetings, until I became so repulsed by the rest of the pc - Greek men - turning each meeting into a shouting match laced with profanity. I walked out. There was no transfiguration there. That women are still excluded from all levels of ministry (except Sunday school) and still excluded from the area behind the iconostasis generates only bitterness in my heart. No transfiguration here, either. I think the idea of transfiguration is another part of the Christian lie.
Thank you from the bottom of my mama bear heart
I recently wrote my own essay regarding the transfiguration Jesus Christ work on the cross had on the devil. I am of the opinion that it involved a change in spiritual authority and dominion not physical anatomy. Interested in debating me? If you block me I will consider it an act of submission to the authority Jesus Christ as the son of God come in the flesh over you.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ascensionfromdarkness/p/jesus-neutered-the-devil-real-bad?r=25fg9s&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web