​I believe that it is past time for full revision of the Book of Common Prayer 1979 (BCP), and therefore support A068, the resolution supporting Prayer Book revision. The 1979 BCP was a stunning move forward in terms of liturgy and theology as enacted in the worship of the Episcopal Church. At the same time, however, it was behind in terms of what was then known as inclusive language. In 2018, it is still lovely and venerable, but it fails to adequately express a theology of the ministry of the laity, and the church’s mission of reconciliation. 
 
The BCP falls short of the call “to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being” which is clear in our baptismal covenant, by making maleness and whiteness normative. (BCP, p. 305) Maleness and gender binary normativity are exemplified as follows: 
 
Strengthen, O Lord, your servant N. with your Holy Spirit;
empower him for your service; and sustain him all the days 
of his life. Amen. (BCP, p. 309)
 
And certainly in the marriage service as well.
 
Whiteness is exemplified and made normative by the way language is used. An obvious example is this:
​
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy
great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this
night; for the love of thy only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. (BCP, p. 70)
 
While it is true that we also have supplemental materials with more expansive language for God and broader theological scope around marriage, the BCP is what is in our pews, and is the canonical, practical representation of who we are as the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement. What folks see when they come to visit on a Sunday morning, or drop by the church in search of a quiet place to pray, may be the first and formative impression received.
 
The notion of “common prayer” is that it is a unifying device. I am exhausted by the constant translation and transliteration in my head that is required when leading worship with text based on scripture translations designed to uphold the power of the English monarchy, and theology that supported the subordinate role of women and the holding of African-Americans as chattel property. It’s hard to evangelize or even talk about reconciliation with folks whose ears are attuned to the language of oppression. We can do better.
 
The Reverend Kit Wang
Episcopal Diocese of Maine and TransEpiscopal Steering Committee Member

This morning TransEpiscopal attended its first hearing of this General Convention: Legislative Committee #13, scintillatingly titled "Committee to Receive the Report of Resolution A169." Its topic was the possible revision of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. For a tradition that strongly emphasizes the phrase lex orandi, lex credendi, loosely translated "praying shapes believing," this hearing was highly significant. The Episcopal Church rarely revises its prayer books -- the current one was issued in 1979 after several years of trial use, while the prior prayer book was issued in 1928. Given all that, and given the significant media coverage the issue of gender and prayer book revision has received recently, surprisingly few people attended the hearing. Sixteen people testified. Of those sixteen fourteen spoke in favor of Prayer Book revision while three spoke in favor of embracing the Prayer Book as it stands, or revising it in a more limited, piecemeal manner.     

We spoke in support of three (out of eight resolutions): A068 ("Plan for the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer"), C031 ("Minimize Gendered Language in the BCP"), and D036 ("BCP Revision: Inclusiveness and Expansive Language").

C031 was originally passed by the Episcopal Church in Connecticut at its 2017 Diocesan Convention. It asks that the Prayer Book revision process "amend, as far as is practicable, all gendered references to God, replacing them with gender expansive language." As its explanation stated, the mandate from the 2015 General Convention to present a plan for comprehensive Prayer Book revision (which resulted in resolution A068), opened "an unprecedented opportunity to further our commitment to equality of all genders." The title of the resolution is misleading: this resolution does not call for the minimization of gendered language for God so much as an expansive approach to such imagery. 

D036 begins by emphasizing the "urgent pastoral and evangelical need for revision of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, particularly regarding the use of inclusive and expansive language for humanity and divinity." It also notes right off the bat that this work "began even as the 1979 BCP was being developed." The resolution's explanation gives a fuller description of how this "pastoral and evangelical need" was recognized and addressed by several General Conventions from the 1970s well into the 1990s after the 1979 BCP was released. It calls for the development of a new BCP "to meet the contemporary needs of The Episcopal Church, including employing inclusive and expansive language for humanity and divinity." A proposed revision of the BCP for trial use is to be ready no later than the 81st General Convention -- two GCs (six years) from now.  
 
A068 is one of two resolutions proposed by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. A069 called for embracing at greater depth the Prayer Book we already have, while A068 calls for its full revision. Three speakers spoke in support of A068 from a trans and/or nonbinary point of view. We referenced the long-recognized androcentric and eurocentric imagery and language that pervades the 1979 BCP and we emphasized how binary its language remains. Gratifyingly, several other speakers also referenced the problem of how binary language erases the lived reality of nonbinary identified people.
 
We also acknowledged the beauty and reverence of Prayer Book language. I, for one, spoke of having grown up in a parish that was strongly opposed to the 1979 Prayer Book and continued to use the 1928 Prayer Book at its principal worship through the 1980s. As a result of that experience, I grew up steeped in the deep significance of patterned, common prayer, aware of how profoundly language matters, how it can touch people at a very deep level. I was aware that changing liturgical language can be fraught. At the same time, given how deeply impactful liturgical language can be, I was also aware that when the language of worship feels like it is missing the mark, its reverberations can be alienating. There were aspects of the 1928 BCP that I grew to love (e.g. the post communion prayer reproduced in Rite I, p. 339). Yet I also grew to feel strongly constrained and alienated by its androcentric language, particularly (though not only) its he/him/his pronoun usage. I have known a number of students over the years, particularly in my previous divinity school context, who loved the Rite I language of the BCP. On the whole, in the campus ministry and divinity school contexts I served previously, and even more so in the parish I serve now, Rite II and the supplemental texts developed after the '79 BCP, Enriching Our Worship, resonate much more strongly. Yet in almost all of our authorized texts some sort of language revision is necessary to keep the language from being exclusively binary. Regularly our worship language reinforces the idea that there are only men or women and that anyone who identifies as neither male nor female simply does not exist. Too many times I have heard the frustration, the deep pain, of nonbinary identified Episcopalians, their sense of being erased by the language of our worship. Our worship language matters in ways we may not fully realize.
 
Let me also add here: I have heard this pain from non-binary lovers of Rite I, from Evensong enthusiasts, from devotees of the Daily Office. The call for Prayer Book revision need not oppose such facets of Episcopal worship. In several comments from those opposed to BCP revision I have heard a concern that Rite I in particular would necessarily be removed. On the whole I'm not a huge fan of Rite I at this point in my life, but I have no need to see it removed from a revised BCP, knowing that many people highly value it. I also appreciate the daily office and would love to see it further developed within the continued principal emphasis on Eucharist. I would especially love to see a revised Prayer Book do more to elevate the seasons of the Christian liturgical year.
 
Prayer book revision is a very expensive undertaking, and for many this factor will be where the rubber meets the road. Yet it's not going to get less expensive as time goes on. Nor do I believe that declaring we will embrace the Prayer Book now will make us any more resolved to revise it in three, six, or even twelve years, as one commentator seemed to suggest this morning. It is past time we got on with thoughtfully and prayerfully revising this critical source of our ongoing formation as Christians, as followers of Jesus, as members of Christ's body in this world.

- The Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge
Diocese of California and TransEpiscopal Steering Committee Member 

On January 27th the Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington passed two resolutions that have received much public attention of late, particularly from reactionary, conservative news sites. We of TransEpiscopal applaud and appreciate the resolutions and recognize them as new additions to a theological and ecclesial conversation that has been ongoing for years.
 
The first of the Washington resolutions echoes in part a resolution the Diocese of California passed in October, entitled “Supporting Transgender Access." Both resolutions call for “educational, pastoral, liturgical, and legislative efforts that seek to end the systemic violence against transgender people, calling special attention to the rise in violence against transgender women of color.” Both resolutions also encourage congregations “to remove all obstacles to full participation in congregational life by making all gender-specific facilities and activities fully accessible, regardless of gender identity and expression.” The DioCal resolution also asks the churchwide General Convention to endorse similar language at its convention this summer.
 
If it passes this resolution, the General Convention would build on work TransEpiscopal began supporting more than a decade ago. After a first attempt in 2006, the Convention passed resolutions in 2009 supporting trans justice, particularly regarding employment discrimination and hate crimes. In 2012 it got more serious about trans justice within our own ecclesial life by passing resolutions committing the church to nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in access to the discernment process for ordination as well as to all levels of church life and governance. In 2015 the Convention called for a name change rite (for all, including trans people) to be incorporated into the upcoming revision of the Book of Occasional Services. General Convention also committed to examine how we can better facilitate name changes in our records and forms. Follow-ups on both of these resolutions are coming to General Convention 2018. For a complete list of General Convention legislation supportive of transgender and nonbinary people, as well as recent statements from the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Officers, click here.
 
What received the most attention out of the Diocese of Washington Convention was a resolution entitled “On the Gendered Language for God.” It goes to General Convention this summer and asks simply that “if revision of the Book of Common Prayer is authorized,” that revision should “utilize expansive language for God from the rich sources of feminine, masculine, and non-binary imagery for God found in Scripture and tradition and, when possible, to avoid the use of gendered pronouns for God.” Distortions of that last clause seem to have inspired headlines that the diocese of Washington, or even the Episcopal Church as a whole, has now prohibited the use of he/him/his pronouns for God. That is not accurate. Similar reporting leaps have been made on a recent move toward gender expansive language by the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran body. A blanket prohibition isn’t mandated there either, as this report emphasizes. Both Sweden and Washington call for an expansive approach to language for God, and ask for particular care about pronouns. Both underscore that God is ultimately beyond gender. This is not a newfangled, politically correct cultural capitulation. It’s old theological news.
 
The call for a more gender expansive approach to language of God and of prayer has been happening for a long time. Feminist and Womanist theologians in particular have been intervening in this conversation since at least the 1970s and 80s. See, for example, Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Sexism and God Talk, Delores Williams’ Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, or Elizabeth Johnson’s She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. The trans theological interventions that started in the late 1990s and early 2000s—for instance Virginia Ramey Mollenkott’s Omnigender and Justin Tanis’s Transgender: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith – continued this conversation in a new vein. Today theologians such as Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Justin Tanis, Christina Beardsley, and Susannah Cornwall are among those continuing the conversation.
 
Fundamentally, these Washington resolutions seek to fulfill the church’s mission to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ and our baptismal promise to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being (Book of Common Prayer, 855 & 305). This is the same spirit that inspires the first resolution passed by the Diocese of Washington on January 27th: "On Becoming a Sanctuary Diocese." "In faithfulness to the baptismal covenant," it invites people of the diocese to stand together in opposition to "policies that target undocumented immigrants for deportation while also placing undue restrictions on refugees seeking safe haven in the U.S."  Each of these resolutions in different ways extends an invitation to communal "places of welcome and healing." 
 
The conversation these resolutions kicked off may be newly intensified and reactionary but it isn’t new, either in the wider worlds of theology or the Episcopal Church. We’re glad the conversation is becoming more widely known, and we want to see it accurately reported and understood. We also want to see it deepen, not only at General Convention but on the ground in congregations.