The Church of England is exploring the option of having special liturgical materials and services for transgender individuals. Its national assembly, in fact, recently passed a motion in favor of doing so.

“As the world listens to us, the world needs to hear us say that LGBTI+ orientation and identity is not a crime,” Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, said earlier this month during an annual church assembly meeting in York.

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The pastoral care materials would help churches meet the needs of individuals who have transitioned away from their biological gender. “I hope that we can make a powerful statement to say we believe that trans people are cherished and loved by God, who created them, and is present through all the twists and turns of their lives,” Reverend Christopher Newlands said during debate on the issue. He spoke on behalf of the Blackburn Diocesan Synod.

“The motion recognized the need for transgender people to be ‘welcomed and affirmed’ in their parish church,” as the BBC reported this month.

The passed motion reads, “That this Synod, recognizing the need for transgender people to be welcomed and affirmed in their parish church, call on the House of Bishops to consider whether some nationally commended liturgical materials might be prepared to mark a person’s gender transition.”

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As the BBC further noted, “A transgender liturgical service would not be a second baptism, however, as the church’s teaching is that humans are made in the image of God — transcending gender — and baptism takes place only once. The Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend John Sentamu, said that ‘theology has to be done’ by the House of Bishops, but “it can be done very quickly.”

The conservative and liberal wings of the church have opposing viewpoints on how to address transgender and homosexual issues that arise within the church. The topics are controversial and often lead to politically charged rhetoric.

“My guess is that those who proposed this motion did so in order to be inclusive and affirming,” Carl R. Trueman, the Paul Woolley Professor of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, wrote in a blog post on First Things. “They are motivated by a sincere pastoral concern. But their proposal is ultimately cruel and callous.”

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The implications that this type of decision has on the church are “catastrophic,” Trueman argued. “They are putting their seal of approval on the demolition of the notion of human nature. The costs of that will in the long run be catastrophic, seen in mutilated bodies and hormone-addled minds.”

The church’s assembly also backed a motion to ban conversion therapy — which is meant to alter sexual orientation.

“In the church we are certainly called to help one another to conform their lives to Jesus Christ and to live lives of holiness, but we do not need to engage people in healing therapy if they are not sick,” Bishop Bayes said.