Press Release

New CofE guidance on gender transition services follows “devastating trajectory”

Christian Concern’s chief executive Andrea Minichiello Williams, who is a lay member of the Church of England’s General Synod, has responded to new Church of England guidance on how to formally recognise and ‘celebrate’ a person’s gender transition.

She says that the Church of England is continuing its “devastating trajectory towards an outright denial of God and his word” by turning its back on what God has said in the Bible. She continued: “There is no need for Christians to sacrifice truth in a misguided attempt to be loving. It is not loving to mislead people – and wider society – into the falsehoods and myths of transgender ideology.”

This morning, the Church of England published new guidance from the House of Bishops calling for ministers to celebrate a person’s gender transition using an Affirmation of Baptismal Faith service.

The full statement from Andrea Minichiello Williams, Church of England General Synod member 286, follows:

“Today’s guidance continues the Church of England’s devastating trajectory towards an outright denial of God and his word, by undermining what it means to be baptised and to identify with him through baptism.

“There is no question that God calls us to love our neighbours, no matter how they might identify, and to call them to follow Christ. But to be a disciple of Jesus is to deny ourselves and take up our own crosses, whatever they may be.

“The point of baptism is to identify a person with Jesus as they begin a life of following him. Using an affirmation of baptism to celebrate a gender transition turns this upside down by encouraging people to follow their own feelings and live in identities contrary to how God created them.

“Very sadly, the guidance colludes with the unproven and untrue notion that a person can be ‘born in the wrong body’, rejecting the truth that God saw His own creation of humans as male and female as ‘very good’. As God is eternally the God of truth – not lies – Christians cannot and must not fall over themselves to accommodate transgender ideology.

“There is no need for Christians to sacrifice truth in a misguided attempt to be loving. It is not loving to mislead people – and wider society – into the falsehoods and myths of transgender ideology.

“The Bible, God’s revealed and perfect word, does not recognise postmodern gender theory. Neither does the official doctrine of the Church of England. It is time for bishops to teach faithfully on this issue and for the clergy to speak with love, compassion and truth.” 

Notes for editors

Today’s Church of England’s press release and guidance can be found at the following links:

https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/guidance-gender-transition-services-published

https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2018-12/Pastoral%20Guidance-Affirmation-Baptismal-Faith.pdf