This Transgender Awareness week, TransEpiscopal lifts up the inspiring ministry of the Reverend Carla Robinson, Canon for Multicultural Ministries and Community Transformation in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia (western Washington state). This is a position whose development the Reverend Rachel-Taber Hamilton helped lead and described in her candidate statement for Vice President of the House of Deputies this past summer. As far as we know, Carla is the first openly trans canon in the Episcopal Church. She was ordained on the Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6, 2009, and has served in several settings prior to this chapter of her ministry. You can hear her share more of her story on “the Talk” from All Saints Pasadena’s LGBTQ Ministry. We asked Carla if she would be willing to write about her new, pathbreaking position and work. Thank you, Carla, for your ministry and inspiration!

How did the position of Canon for Multicultural Ministries and Community Transformation come into being?

In 2019 the Diocese of Olympia created the position of the Canon for Multicultural Ministries and Community Transformation in the Diocese of Olympia. The position is both new and not so new. Our diocese has had a staff position that focuses on Multicultural Ministries for some time, but it has gone through many changes. Under Bishop Warner the Rev. Jerry Shigaki was the fulltime Canon for Ethnic Ministries and I served as his administrative assistant. Father Jerry retired, and I went on to ordained ministry. A part-time position was created under Bishop Rickel. The Rev. Arienne Davison held that position and later the position was folded into her role as the Canon to the Ordinary. The administrative assistant position was eliminated.
For several years multicultural ministries were not a priority in our diocese. That changed when three things happened:

1. The Covid 19 pandemic disrupted the lives of faith communities, as it did to every other human community.
2. In our diocese people of color longed for connection and began gathering in virtual communities to discuss what was happening to them. This was the genesis of what is now known in our diocese as The Circles of Color.
3. The murder of Mr. George Floyd triggered a nationwide awakening to the issues of racism and that awakening rocked many communities of faith, including the Diocese of Olympia.

As the racial reckoning in the wake of the George Floyd murder washed over the country, the church sought to respond. The Diocese of Olympia sought to respond. In our diocese the Circles of Color were able to work with our bishop and our governing bodies to create a response. Part of that response was the creation of a new position: The Canon for Multicultural Ministries and Community Transformation. 
In April of this year, I was selected to serve in that new position. I am hardly the first person of color to serve in this type of position. However, I believe I am the first transgender woman to serve as a canon on a bishop’s staff. 

What does the Canon for Multicultural Ministries and Community Transformation do?

The job description can be summarized in five points:

1. The Canon for Multicultural Ministry and Community Transformation engages the diocese in becoming a more inclusive community.
2. The Canon is responsible for oversight, facilitation, and implementation of a diocesan strategy to increase diversity in lay and clerical positions, as well as in programming.
3. The Canon supports ethnic congregations, including the development of such congregations.
4. The Canon engages the larger communities on issues of racial justice and reconciliation.
5. The Canon is in active relationship with the Ethnic Ministries Circles of Color (EMCC) network and with the Office of the Bishop.

What inspires me in my work?

It is the many ways in which the work is done and the people I get to work with. I preach and teach all over our diocese. I lead workshops on multicultural ministries and racial justice. I write articles. I draft budgets. I oversee grants for multicultural ministry. I sit with vestries and bishop’s committees. I work with our Standing Committee, Diocesan Council, Commission of Ministry, Board of Directors, and the rest of our bishop’s staff. There is no part of the diocese’s life that I’m not involved in. I’m heartened by the deep commitment in our diocese to racial justice.

I take special joy in my work with the Circles of Color. We are an amazing mix of people: Indigenous people from the America, African Americans and immigrants from Africa, Asian and Asian Pacific Islanders, Latino peoples of many countries, biracial and multi-racial people, and Anglo folk in our Circle of Allies. It can be a spiritual experience just showing up in a meeting and seeing this visible representation of the kingdom of God as Revelation depicts it (…from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages…). 

What challenges me in my work?
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The challenge I face constantly is the one that Jesus spoke to when he said to his disciples, “the harvest is plentiful, but laborers are few.” There is so much work to be done. This is a moment in the life of the church in the United States when we can make hay. We can show our country that there is another way, the way of Jesus, the way of love, love that brings people who are very different together. The challenge is to step into that work, day after day, led by the Spirit of God.

​TransEpiscopal celebrates the successful conclusion of #GC80 and gives thanks for the inspiring work of this Convention. All of the resolutions we came to Baltimore supporting ultimately passed both houses, becoming acts of this Convention, and we are both grateful for and proud of all the effort and allyship that contributed to that outcome. This includes the following five resolutions on which we particularly focused:

• D029 Affirming Nonbinary Access and Leadership
• D030 Develop Resources and Training for Welcoming and Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Persons and Families
• D066 Addressing Restrictions on Access to Gender Affirming Care
• D072 Resolution on Gender and Sexuality Training
• A063 Creation of a Director of LGBTQI and Women’s Ministries

 
We are moved that all of these resolutions passed in the context of a Convention that actively extended the crucial work of racial justice, truth telling, and reparations through resolutions, presentations, and testimony. These included A125 (“A Resolution Extending and Furthering the Beloved Community”), which establishes and funds a voluntary Episcopal Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice among dioceses and congregations. Another key resolution, A127 (“Resolution for Telling the Truth about The Episcopal Church's History with Indigenous Boarding Schools”) sets aside funds over the next biennium for investigating The Episcopal Church’s role in Indigenous boarding schools. We heard powerful testimony on the first day of Convention from Indigenous Episcopalians who themselves or whose family members experienced horrible denials of their personhood in boarding school and other racist, anti-indigenous ecclesial settings. We appreciate as well that resolution A126 (“A Resolution Supporting a Comprehensive Review of the Book Of Common Prayer, The Hymnal 1982, and other approved liturgical material”), proposed by Committee 12 (Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music), commits the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to thoroughly review all of The Episcopal Church’s approved liturgical and musical sources for colonialist, racist and white supremacist, imperialist and nationalistic language and content.
 
Speaking of liturgical resolutions, we were very pleased that this Convention ultimately voted to support A059 (“Amend Article X of the Constitution of The Episcopal Church (First Reading)”) the pathway proposed by the Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision (TFLPBR) for liturgical renewal, broadening the definition of the Book of Common Prayer to mean “those liturgical forms and other texts authorized by the General Convention.” This new process will allow for the development of liturgies with inclusive and expansive language as well as liturgical marriage equality to receive authorization as part of the BCP, and not be designated as “second class” rites within The Episcopal Church. We are very glad that the TFLPBR-sponsored resolution A060 (“Endorse Guidance for Inclusive and Expansive Language”), which lifted up concerns about binary language in liturgical texts, also passed.
 
Among the resolutions on which we focused our advocacy, we were especially gratified that the House of Deputies concurred with the bishops on resolution A063. We very much look forward to the hiring of the Director of LGBTIQ and Women’s Ministries, and we would love to be part of a community that can gather around this person, supporting and dialoguing with them as they make their way into this important work. 
 
We were inspired by the eloquence of those who spoke in support of this resolution, especially in the House of Deputies. As time ran out in debate, there were others who did not have the chance to speak, like the Reverend Isaac Martinez of the Diocese of Massachusetts. He shared his testimony in a series of Tweets. His witness poignantly speaks to the need for this position:
 
As an Episcopal church planter, my embryonic ministry has been blessed to have professional and prayerful leaders in the office of church planting and redevelopment. This resolution and the draft budget accomplish what other General Conventions before us have failed to do. It provides real and valuable support, in the form of a new DFMS staff position, for the vital and interdependent ministries of combatting the lingering sexism and misogyny in our church and ensuring that every corner of our church fully includes queer and trans people. Yesterday, our Presiding Bishop gave us a good word about closing the gap between the Jesus we know and how we act. The gap isn’t just a product of other Christians’ belief and behavior – we Episcopalians still have a wide gap between what we preach and what we practice when it comes to inclusion and equality for women and queer and trans people. Closing the gap will take clear vision, strong trust, and good, hard work.
            The Gospel reading for last Sunday from Luke chapter 10 – the sending of the 70 disciples into the Lord’s harvest – is a favorite of church planters for obvious reasons, but it has a verse that I particularly love to remind my bishops and canons about: ‘the laborer deserves to be paid.’ My siblings in Christ, the labor of equipping each Episcopalian to fully celebrate the image of God in women and queer and trans people finally deserves the investment of a churchwide director. Without a shadow of a doubt, I know this resolution will bear fruit for my QTPOC church plant and for all of our dioceses, congregations, and ministries – I urge your full support.
 
Thank you, Isaac. 
 
As we close out the 80th General Convention, we give thanks for the many whose labor, both seen and unseen, shapes our church. We celebrate the historic election of Julia Ayala Harris, the House of Deputies' first Latina President, and the Reverend Rachel Taber-Hamilton, the HOD's first Indigenous Vice President. We honor all who offer themselves to serve in the committees, task forces, advisory councils, boards, and yes as deputies. Today we celebrate, and tomorrow we will go back to work committed to walking the way of love. 

Congratulations to TransEpiscopal Steering Committee member the Reverend Kit Wang, whose podcast interview with “Queer Spirit” for “OUT Cast” on WMPG was released on January 25th. In the interview, led by Dr. Marvin Ellison and the Rev’d Tamara Torres-McGovern, and recorded in the fall of 2020, Kit reflects on their experience of race, sexuality, and gender, as someone who identifies as queer, trans, and Chinese American. They also talk powerfully about discernment, not only to the priesthood but also to parenthood. Kit is one of a growing number of openly trans and nonbinary clergy in the Episcopal Church sharing the wisdom of their experience through service on wider church bodies, in local congregations, and in combinations of vocational settings. Kit serves on the leadership team of Arise Portland, is the chair of the Commission on Ministry for the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, and is the President of Province One, a regional body of seven New England Episcopal dioceses. 
 
Thank you, Kit, for your voice and witness!

by the Revd Dr. Cameron Partridge

What a whirlwind the last couple of days at General Convention have been. Friday the news of the Supreme Court’s decision blew through Convention like wildfire. People are absolutely jubilant. And then yesterday Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina was elected the next Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church on a landslide, first ballot vote. He follows Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as a pioneer: she has been the first woman elected to this position, while he is the first African American. He is an firey, articulate preacher and evangelist, the kind of inspiring leader you want to get up and follow to the ends of the earth. Yesterday the House of Deputies also discussed C019 “Establish Response to Systemic Racial Injustice”. As Deputy Jennifer Baskerville Burrows wrote, “To hear a white member of the [Social Justice and U.S. Policy] committee say words to the effect of, “we have the chance to make race the centerpiece of the next triennium” signals a shift.  If funded, resolution C019 will put real muscle (to the tune of $1.2 million) behind the work of racial reconciliation for both justice and mission strategy.”

Amid this intense, spirited movement, two of the resolutions that TransEpiscopal has been particularly tracking have also made their way through the open hearing process.

D037 came first. This is the resolution that calls for a study of the canons to clarify that and/or how people who have legally changed their name(s) can have their names amended in church records and registries and church certificates reissued. It came to the committee on Governance and Structure last night amid several other complex resolutions on the possibilities of restructuring aspects of our Church’s governance. To begin, the chaplain of the committee lead us in prayer and a hymn, one of my favorites: “God is love and where true love is, God [Godself] is there.” When our resolution came up, something like six or seven of us testified in support of it. No one testified against. We told stories of how we or people we know have been impacted in our full access to the life of the Church by not being able to change records in a consistent way, or to have certificates reissued. After we were finished, a number of deputies and bishops came up to us, thanking us for our testimony. As the Structure committee sifts through all the complexities of the restructuring resolutions, our stories were, as one committee member later related to me, very straight forward and incarnational. We hope it moves out of committee and to one of the houses quickly.

Then twelve hours later, at 7:30 this morning, we gathered again to testify in support of D036. This resolution, on “Adding a Name Change Liturgy to the Book of Occasional Services”, came to the Committee on Prayerbook and Liturgy. Once again we began and ended with prayer and song, and once more we had a great group of people prepared to testify. I am hoping that some of these folks will write about their experiences as well. I lead off my own testimony by recounting an experience I had in 2001 when I first claimed my name. I described how I passed a difficult night, sharing the name Cameron with loved ones. When I went to church the following morning and was asked to do the first reading, I had been stunned to find myself standing before the congregation reading the story of Jacob wrestling with the divine stranger who then gave him the name Israel. Flash forward several years, my testimony continued, to my years in parish ministry in which I had a trans parishioner who wanted to take on his chosen name in the context of the congregation. And so I put together a rite as a component of the Sunday liturgy, drawing in part upon the name change rite in Changes: Prayers and Services Honoring Rites of Passage that is the subject of D036. To be able to take up one’s name in the midst of one’s congregation, to be named and seen in that way, can be a profound recognition of the deep spiritual significance of embodying one’s name, I concluded. I was also struck that in addition to the other trans folks who testified—and, again, there were several powerful speakers – there were non trans ones as well, lifting up the flexibility of this resource to be used by many people. These were folks in a religious order who talked about the possibilities of claiming a new name in connection with religious life. This rite is additionally applicable to situations like adoption or divorce/remarriage. I especially appreciate that this resource came out of indigenous Episcopal congregations, communities that have long recognized the spiritual significance of names and particularly of taking on a new name later in life.

We now wait for D036 and D037 to go to their houses of origin. The name change liturgy resolution should first travel to the House of Bishops, while the name change canon study resolution should head to the House of Deputies. Meanwhile a number of resolutions related to liturgical marriage equality are coming forward to the Houses of Bishops and Deputies as well. Stay tuned on all of these fronts.

Amid all of this, the hymn from the beginning of the D037 hearing continues to echo in my ears: God is love and where true love is, God Godself is there.