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Transgender faithful incorporate theology, ritual in their transitions
The minister blessed the chalice of wine and loaves of bread before inviting everyone in the pews of St. Michael's United Church of Christ in West Chicago to partake of Holy Communion, a sacrament she had once been excluded from because of her gender identity and transition.
"We don't slip in unnoticed — we are specifically invited by Jesus to this borrowed table, to share, to remember," Cindi Knox remembers announcing to the congregation that July 5 liturgy. She was licensed as a minister last month and is openly transgender, her sex reassignment and spiritual life often intertwined and woven in her ministry.
"We thank God for the gifts of bread and wine, body and blood," the congregation replied.
The 53-year-old cleric in feminine glasses with white hair parted to the side said she knows she could have chosen to live as a woman and hide her birth sex, but she believes transparency helps her as well as those she serves spiritually.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-transgender-religion-met-20150803-story.html#page=1