Following the Annual General Meeting of the Inclusive Church on Thursday July 11th, some representatives of Hinde Street also attended the 2024 Annual Lecture. This year’s lecture, entitled ‘Faith in Transition’, was given by Alex Clare-Young who spoke about trans and non-binary theologies both from the viewpoint of a PhD researcher and a non-binary Minister of the United Reformed Church.
Alex began their lecture with an overview of their doctoral research, which they wish will challenge the tendency of scripture and tradition to take precedence over religious experience in theology. To this end, the methodology of Alex’s thesis was devised to highlight the varied experiences of trans individuals through interviews and self-reflection. By prioritising lived experience in this way, Alex also hopes that the narratives around trans and non-binary topics within the church may become less abstract and more complex by re-structuring themselves around the perspectives of trans individuals.
So, what might trans and non-binary theologies look like, and how might trans perspectives change the way we relate to God?
Instead of engaging in trans apologetics – the ‘defence’ of their existence to which trans and non-binary people are often pushed in discourse – Alex spoke on the theological themes of the transformation and reclamation of the body. This topic clearly illustrated how listening to trans and non-binary experiences may change the conversation around trans issues in the church – for example, through the challenge they present to the trope of rupture. According to Alex’s research, trans individuals often contradict the commonplace interpretation of the relationship between their bodies and minds as needing healing and repair. Instead of a feeling of brokenness, many participants in Alex’s study reported a much more positive experience of continuing createdness, transformation and becoming.
Alex also discussed gender and its many dimensions within the church more broadly, including a breakdown of some of the complexities that arise in our use of gendered language. For example, we may find ourselves speaking to and about ‘our Father’ while also envisioning a God without gender. Here, Alex explains that seeming contradictions in the ways in which we deploy and understand gender may help to enrich our understanding of God. If God encompasses all of human experience but also exists entirely beyond it, God may be understood to transcend gender or to embody the full gender spectrum. In Alex’s words, God may be gender-less to some, and ‘gender-full’ to others – or both a Father and a Mother. For us from Hinde Street, this was not only a reminder of the enduring complexity of God, but also of the fact that the way we speak and the words we use frame our thinking, and thus also have the power to re-frame it.
With these and many other queer theological perspectives, Alex hopes that trans voices may help disrupt binary language and normative approaches to religious faith in a way that is helpful for everyone. Alex encourages us to ‘not be so quick to pin down God’ in our resolve to tidy away contradictions – instead, we can learn to ‘manage complexity’ better by embracing being ‘indecently incoherent’. In short, if we allow for our experiences of complexity in life to translate over into our experience of God (or vice versa), we may find it easier to find acceptance and peace in both.
In addition to diversifying theology and amplifying trans and non-binary voices within the conversation that often merely takes place around them, Alex also stressed the practical element of their work: it is important to them that research outcomes should be useful to and actionable to churches. To this end, Alex shared some advice on how churches may make trans and non-binary people feel more welcome by using inclusive and expansive language within or without the traditions of the church. Here are some of those tips:
Use gender-neutral words instead of gender-inclusive language (e.g. ‘everyone’ as opposed to ‘men and women’)
Learn about gender-neutral pronouns and take into account individuals’ preferences
If possible, designate some toilets gender-neutral
From Hinde Street, a big thanks to Alex Clare-Young for their illuminating and powerful talk.
If you would like to listen to the Annual Lecture, make sure to follow the Inclusive Church on Facebook – a recorded version will be released shortly.