Transgender man will be ordained in Minneapolis
Religious leaders of a relatively unknown branch of Catholicism plan to ordain a transgender man to the priesthood on Saturday in Minneapolis. One of only a half-dozen or so transgender clergy members in Minnesota, Shannon T.L. Kearns will set about starting the state's first North American Old Catholic Church congregation following his ordination at Plymouth Congregational Church. Established in 2007, the North American Old Catholic Church is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, though Kearns says he hopes to attract disenchanted Roman Catholics to his new, more liberal-leaning Minneapolis congregation.
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Heather White, a religion professor at the New College of Florida who has written extensively about gay and transgender issues, estimates there are fewer than 100 transgender clergy in the United States. For the past decade or so, only a handful of faith groups -- mostly mainline Protestant denominations -- have allowed openly transgender people to serve as clergy, she says.
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Originally from Pennsylvania, Kearns, 32, says he grew up in a "fundamentalist evangelical church" and "always felt called to start a new church -- mostly out of my experiences of not feeling welcome in the churches I'd grown up in. I ... always felt like, 'I want to serve here, but you don't want me.'"
While earning a master of divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York, Kearns transitioned from female to male. He moved to Minnesota three years ago and works on staff at Plymouth as a youth-activities and community-ministries coordinator. "This [creating a new congregation] is really coming out of that experience and wanting to create a space that really values ritual and tradition," he said. "It's really exciting to be ordained by this body. My trans status hasn't been an issue. It's something they see as a benefit and a blessing."
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