Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Transgender Pastor Is Welcomed Into Church With A New Name

From Huffington-

Many Bible stories recount how God changed followers’ names to recognize their new identities. In Genesis, Abram’s name was changed to Abraham to reflect his new identity as the father of the Jewish people. And in the Christian gospels, Jesus changed his follower Simon’s name to Peter to symbolize that the apostle would be the “rock” upon which the church was built.

Echoing that tradition, a Lutheran congregation in New Jersey recently marked a milestone in the life of its pastor with a renaming ceremony. On Sunday, parishioners watched their transgender pastor take on his new chosen name ― Peter.

It was a sacred way for Hoboken’s St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church to acknowledge and bless the Rev. Peter R. Beeson’s gender transition.

Beeson told HuffPost that it was also important for the congregation to demonstrate the “expansiveness of God’s compassion.”


More here-

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/transgender-pastor-peter-beeson_us_5a833097e4b02b66c5129ebf?platform=hootsuite

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