The Star (UK) tells the story of the Church of England’s first transgender priest:
A photographic exhibition celebrating positive images of the trans-gender community has opened in Sheffield. Health Writer Sarah Dunn spoke to former Sheffield student the Reverend Sarah Jones, the Church of England’s first trans-gender priest, when she returned to the city to launch the showcase.
She admits it is not an easy task – but the Reverend Sarah Jones is passionate about the cause.
Rev Jones, who attended college in Sheffield as a mature student and secured the A-level results which landed her a place at Oxford University, is also the Church of England’s first ever trans-gender priest – and is back in the city where she studied to launch the new ‘Living My Life’ project on display until Monday February 28 at The Workstation on Paternoster Row.
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Rev Jones, now a 49-year-old woman and priest of the parish of St Mary’s Church in Ross on Wye in Herefordshire, was born a boy.
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Her years in Oxford were “amazing” – but there was still the issue of surgery to complete the gender change.
“At first I was very keen not to upset God and the big question for me as a Christian was if He had made me a man, could I do anything about it?” she said.
“I did everything I could not to change. I tried to see if there was a point I could stop off at on the way – was I feminine guy? Was I a gay guy? Was I a transvestite? No. It eventually got to the point where I knew it had to be done.”
The operation was finally arranged to take place once she had finished her studies.
Afterwards she went back into industry, but soon felt the pull of a vocation in the church.
She said: “I didn’t think they’d even look at me. I told them at the end of my first interview – they said they had no idea what they would do but they would get back to me.
“In the end, they decided they would test my vocation in the same way they would test anybody else.”
She passed the tests with flying colours, and was ordained a Deacon in July 2004 in Ross on Wye, the parish where she is vicar today. She settled into life there and “forgot” about the change – until one day in 2005 when she received a phone call from a Sunday newspaper probing her past.
Countless newspaper and TV interviews followed, and with them the reactions of her congregation.
Read the rest here.