Posts tagged catholic

Interesting (on the religious front)

June 6, 2012 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Now there’s interesting. Below, i have reproduced pretty verbatim a release from the Board of America Magazine – which is perhaps the US’ leading catholic weekly publication.

Huh? Why so. Well – and i am pretty sure this is known, so hardly problematic – Matt also, as a Deacon, assisted at a couple of Soho Masses while completing his theological studies at Heythrop College.

The latter, for those not up on such things, are the Bishop of London’s attempt to maintain an open line to London’s lgbt community. Read the rest of this entry »

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Event: Soho masses this bank holiday

May 3, 2012 · Filed under Events · Tagged , , , ,

Forwarded from Soho Masses: Read the rest of this entry »

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Throwing stones and leaping to judgment

April 2, 2012 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

I am sure we all just had a good giggle at the catholic priest reportedly running from the room as his data stick brought up not a powerpoint presentation related to holy communion – but a series of gay porn images. Yeah, yeah: SO Benny Hill…now all we need are a bevy of bikini clad lovelies and a kazoo! Read the rest of this entry »

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Making assumptions…

August 14, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

It is nice when the church tries. The catholic church, that is.

And i am left with a sort of wry smile about my face when it tries and doesn’t quite get it.

This week, the church celebrates the feast of the Assumption. That is the day (August 15) when according to church teaching, Mary was taken up into heaven. Cue massive amounts of mariolatry: and intriguingly, this is one of the few, perhaps the only event, on which a Pope (Pius XII) has ever pronounced “infallibly”.

(Basically, the majority of papal statements, however brusque and authoritative they may sound are NOT infallible, allowing the church infinite wiggle room for later discovering that they hadn’t quite got it right first time).

Anyhoo…it being the good lady’s heavenly birthday tomorrow – and consequently a bank holiday across half of Europe – today’s intercession prayers were mostly for and about women.

Oh. Intercession. For those not familiar, that’s one of the free form bits, mid-Mass, where matters of concern to the congregation may be raised. Prayers may be for matetrs as broad as world peace…or as specific as for the recovery of a local member.

So after we’d done all the ritual stuff, up stepped a member of the congregation to ask us to think of…those campaigning for Women’s Rights…for women suffering violence…for women fulfilling a role in their family…and so on.

Good stuff – espesh the fact that it started with those two BIG issues.

Just a shame – and this is where the wry smile came in – that the prayers were read out by a well-respected stalwart, a veteran of the weekly mass…by a bloke.

Ah, well. Perhaps it’ll be a woman NEXT year. :)

jane
xx

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Church Times (II): women’s bits

May 15, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

Got lectured this morning, as I headed off to church. Its just that I’ve just bought a beautiful green top with in-built support and shaping panels and…it really needs to be worn either bra-less, or with something satin-y and smooth. Definitely not anything that leaves an imprint under the top, because…well, because the top IS a bit see-thru.

According to t’other half “everything was on display”. In vain I pointed out that the priest was a man of God and certainly wouldn’t be looking.

Besides, it did feel a little over-done, since I wore a fairly substantial black cardy with it as well as a bright yellow scarf-cum-shawl arrangement. So my embarrassment – my “décolletage” – was fully covered so long as I remained indoors and didn’t make any sudden movements.

(I did test this theory to near destruction an hour or so later, as I wandered around a cold and revoltingly windy car boot sale. The boy scored well, including a lovely warm mock-russky hat, go-go’s, an xbox game and roller skates – all for around a fiver! I, on the other hand, did very well out of a fairly naïve bloke selling off odd bits of make-up along with the usual bric-a-brac. Victoria Jackson: unused! Not exactly top of range, but a sight better than No. 7 – and he was asking 50p for a palette. I suspect girlfriend troubles…and these, perhaps, all that were left behind).

Anyhow. I thought the fuss overdone, given the fact that the top wasn’t being worn on its own. Although, seized briefly by wickeder thoughts, it did cross my mind that the church shouldn’t, couldn’t object anyway.

Cause, after all, the official line is that my gender is God-given and what I had when I was born is immutable.

So these can’t really count as boobs, can they? How could they possibly object to my… hmmm. No. I am practical enough to know better. But still, its food for thought against future protest. If the church doesn’t recognize this body as female, then what possible objection could there be to flaunting it?

Interested in the answer to that, actually. There is the consistent answer, which would say I shouldn’t bare my chest in church as male or female. And I am sure that there is a theologian somewhere who has worked this one through and determined that even if it ISN’T a female breast, it still LOOKS like one, so it shouldn’t be allowed. (Though the corollary of that would be that less endowed women should be able to bare all too).

Nah. It’s a mystery to me, but one that leads me to think wicked and naughty thoughts.

jane
xx

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Church Times (I): woman space

May 15, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , ,

THE Church (capital T, capital C) is widely regarded as being pretty female-unfriendly. It’s a cardinal thing: the hierarchy is pretty much all male and…well, everything follows from that.

On the other hand, the church (small t and small c) is quite another kettle of fish. In fact, in modern western society, outside of High Church and the evangelical horrors, I’d say that the church belongs, much more, to the women in its congregation than the blokes. Why?

We-ell, its not just the flower arranging. Its…a joyful place where you can go for an hour or so and just be. Where there are hymns and other people and a lot of women who are mostly there for you: women to chat to, women to hold your hand, women, even, to cry with.

I noticed that again today. I had just been re-reading my post about the very first time I’d gone into church “en femme”: how scary it had been and…to my joy, how the mum’s rallied round: didn’t judge; just supported me as I crossed one of the most difficult lines crossed in the last twelve months.

And they are still there for me. So very much there. If this doesn’t sound too abysmally tacky: I love you all…today, especially, Trish, who is very BAD in an ultimately very good way. We-ell…the sound system was switched off…so if you’re in the Sunday school area, you hear very little of the main service and…the temptation to chat is ever-so-slightly overwhelming. Obviously about big metaphysical stuff!

Further down the hall, the boy was stood having an ultra-serious discussion with Trish’s older boy. Which go-go is rarest – and which is the most powerful. Yep. Serious boy stuff! Four of them later decanted to under a table, which seemed to have been transformed into a temporary den.

I wasn’t in too good a space when I left for church this morning. By the time that mass, and coffee, and chit-chat were done, I was far, far happier.

jane
xx

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Catholic Herald

January 31, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

Aw!

You have to buy the hard copy version to read my piece. But i think its a first: trans issues written about seriously in this publication!

I shall await the response from the Christian Institute wih amusement: they have previouly nicked some of my reports in Pink News to fit their own agenda. Now what? Will they decide the Catholic Herald has descended into sin?

Meanwhile, i am also taking the unusual step of publishing a comment HERE within my personal blog. Its from Martin, and he says:

“Congratulations on the article in this week’s Catholic Herald. I think you may have met some of us from the Soho Masses LGBT Catholic community at the Catholics at Pride stall in Trafalgar Square a couple of years ago?”

(nope: but i did chat to the Catholic Pride contingent on the 2010 march!)

He goes on:

“We have a growing number of transgendered people attending our Masses. Our next Mass is on Sunday, 6 February,17.00, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory, Warwick Street, Soho, London W1B 5NB, with Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP presiding. All are welcome!”

Their webste is http://www.sohomasses.com – and they can be contacted directly via info@sohomasses.com

jane
xx

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In a state in church

March 5, 2010 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , ,

Five days ago: definitely catching up!

The last place i have not been out publicly was church. It is hard to explain. So many people get this back to front. i don’t mind people looking strangely at me. i can even accept that over time i will meet people who cannot stand me for what i am.

OK. i’m a wimp. or maybe, as i see it, i just get on with life and have enough difficulties being myself – without obsessing about other people.

Therefore for me, the issue about church was, in part, that i might upset others. it is…it was…the single most scariest place i have come out yet – because i had no idea how those i had met but not really got to speak to would react.

They were wonderful.

i arrived for sunday school with the boy, beskirted and wearing minimal make-up. i sat down with the other mums and looked round the table. Any questions. Nope. They had all read about me in the paper in one form or another. No surprise. No problems.

Then the offertory: the bit where we drag the kids down the aisle to offer up their scribblings and colourings-in for general approval. That was the scary bit.

i couldn’t look…couldn’t connect at all. every step of the way was utterly mind-numbingly terrifying: the sense that a couple of hundred people were watching, judging and making up their mind about me at that moment. Of course the vast majority were doing nothing of the sort. i knew that rationally.

It just didn’t quite work with the panic.

Again, the mum’s were wonderful: one or other stopping at different points to say something encouraging; touch hands and… at the end…to hug.

thank you, especially, to fiona.

At the very end of the mass, after being good throughout, i cried. Honest. It was happiness. That and the fact that the final hymn was a favourite: “Shine, Jesus, Shine”. Ultra-kitsch as hymns go…but just right for my mood then.

How strange. i got home and read the day’s hand-out for the first time. The message for the day was headed….transformation.

jane

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church in a state

March 5, 2010 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

Only a week behind – and catching up rapidly. About this time last friday, i received a visit from my parish priest.

i was very pleased he came round, and both andrea and i found him friendly, sympathetic and pretty helpful. Sticking points? Well, so far, not the trans thing. Though i can see a point where it could be.

As far as the church is concerned, i am me: i remain me whatever i do to my body – whether i have a heart transplant, or grow tits. Gender is therefore not something i can change exactly – although since my soul is probably asexual that is something that won’t be a problem in the after-life.

No. They would be unhappy if i cross over (in moral terms) into the realm of “creating myself”. Not being a theologian, i can’t quite pinpoint what the fault would be in that case, but i sense that it would be pretty serious: an assertion of self over everything else.

i can live with that. What i am doing now is not a re-making: merely an adjustment of the outer to fit what has been inside for a very long time. So there we are: being trans is not a bar to church or acceptance within church. Good stuff.

Now the awkwardness – and the minor comedy. All these discussion have brought to light the fact that my last marriage was never annulled. So i probably need to get that sorted out and, with the help of the selfsame priest, i intend to do just that.

because according to the church, once married in church, you can’t be unmarried just because the state says so.

What then of myself and andrea? Well: we can marry perfectly legitimately now. The only bar would be my being incapable of performing my conjugal duties – and that is not going to be the cae for some time to come.

Once contracted in marriage, we remain so. If at a later date i go ahead with my transition: take my tablets; have my surgery; then we would still be married.

Huh? Church in lesbian marriage approval chock horror?

Not exactly. The state automatically dissolves marriages after gender re-assignment, because…it doesn’t recognise same sex marriages and as far as state is concerned, we would be. Same sex, that is.

The church, on t’other hand, will regard me as forevermore masculine. So my body may be an odd shape for a guy, but… deep down i’m still a guy. So we stay married.

How very curious.

jane.

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In the Lion’s Mouth (II)

February 18, 2010 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , ,

Today was my last and maybe most significant personal outing. To my parish priest, no less.

It was every bit as horrid as i feared it might be. First, i dug down to the bottom of my clothes pile and dragged out a pair of trousers. MALE trousers. The first time in almost a fortnight (with the exception of church) that i dressed once more as a male.

It felt…wrong. Utterly. Like a snake trying to crawl back into a cast-off skin. But i was trying to be respectful.

The result was not as bad as i feared…and yet…

He has, he says, no objections to my cross-dressing. Would he mind if i dressed for church? No. But…

But…could i leave it a couple of weeks. Ouch. Why? If he doesn’t mind, surely he doesn’t mind? Am i being uncharitable?

Or is he hedging his bets? Checking up the line with the Bishop, before he lets a mad tranny loose amongst his congregation. I feel a bit deflated by that.

Then there was the other stuff. Our conversation brought out into the open that i am living “in sin”. Married. Legally divorced – but not, of course, divorced in the eyes of the church.

So: i need to sort that out. Get the previous marriage annulled before getting round to marrying andrea. Hmmm. OK. i have no problems with that – and he suggests that an annulment is no longer quite the song and dance it once was. Still, though, it will take months.

In the meantime, i probably should not be taking communion. Ah. If you’re catholic, you’ll understand: if you’re not, then maybe stop reading now. That is big: a real rebuff. That hurts.

Worse, of course, are the theological windings that follow. I am living in sin because i am having sexual relations with someone not my wife: a person i last shared a bed with almost 15 years ago.

on the other hand, if i do want to marry andrea, my trans journey means there will come a point when i can’t have sexual relations with her. At lest, not relations as the church knows them.

I hadn’t the heart to try to explain we’ve already stopped all that nonsense: that we now have a sex life that leaves out all those nasty pumping and procreative bits.

I shall have to find out exactly what the church counts as a sexual relationship. I suspect it involves an erection, penetration and at least the remote possibility of babies.

Oh dear. i can see this getting a great deal more complicated before it simplifies again. I really don’t want to leave the church: today i had the first inkling that at some point i may have to make a choice.

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