Bingo Allison, who lives in Norris Green, is gender-queer and to their knowledge is the first openly non-binary priest to be ordained in the Church of England.
Bingo grew up in a “strongly religious” household and this meant the only time “gay people” were mentioned was as a “sinful thing”. Bingo was raised to believe being gay wasn’t sinful but to act on it was.
The parent-of-three recalled one occasion which became key in their journey of self-discovery and religion. Bingo told the ECHO someone corrected them for referring to gay marriage as an “issue” rather than speaking about the topic as if people were involved. They said after being challenged, it helped them to see a “new way” and a “different way of thinking”.
Bingo considered putting their new-found identity on hold whilst they finished their vicar training – at this point, they were only halfway through the seven-year programme – but this proved harder than they initially expected.
They said: “I try to get involved in, not just in my religious work but outside it, with the local secular LGBT youth groups. One of the biggest things is just being a visual representation in my community and going into schools, doing assemblies and making a huge difference in normalising it for children. When I’m wearing my collar it lets children know that is okay and that there is a place in church and the outside world for people like me.”
Source: Church of England priest on how God guided them on their journey of becoming queer – Liverpool Echo
What a travesty.
I’m a very lapsed C of E atheist but the first word to come to my mind upon seeing that was
‘sacrilege’…
I will never, ever mangle the English language up by using non grammatical pronouns.
The church is such an easy target these days.
Can you imagine the out rage if an Iman dressed up in drag like that?
Sorry to read your inability to learn, James. You bring an English professor of mine to mind, who spent several minutes explaining the details of how our English language is a “living language” that changes & grows slowly over time, as our society does, & word definitions also change & grow.
Immediately afterward he said, I kid you not, “Now, today’s reading includes the s/he or she & he & other ridiculous nonsense which I won’t put up with in this class in your writing.”
I’m certain plenty of men were happier when no women, no words like “she” or “her” were ever included in public documents or business discussions of any kind, or even mentioned, & females were simply to fetch coffee for the big important men; but, as w/stringent, unrelated or tethered to the actual FACTS of human behavior, the rules for ‘female’ & ‘male’ babies, children & adults based solely on their genitalia at birth, & regarding what each person should be comfortable wearing, what colors they should like, wear, or be drawn to, or whether one should wear shoes which are comfortable & not physically damaging, or others, that have been proven for decades to damage feet, knees, hips & spinal nerves bc “they make their calves look more attractive” is beyond ANYONE’S reach toward logic.
But ok, James… you stick to your “grammatically correct” perfection in our language that is constantly changing & growing – that’ll show us.
(And yes, btw, we CAN imagine clothing for various religious folk being changed – like all of those long dresses Catholic priests are supposed to wear. That’s just crazy, right?)
After all, if we were logical relating to bodies, men would ride sidesaddle & keep their legs together when seated, given the extreme delicate, obvious/easily seen display of parts dangling there, while females display very little if anything if sitting a’la “man-spread” in pants or shorts, & can bounce around on a trotting horse for hours or even days without any threat to their reproductive organs or bits.
Oh, & James, …those kilts! Why the entire culture that allows such an outfit to be worn by MEN must be a terrible affront to the clothes you believe your God demands of all decent humans. Alas, how WILL we survive such travesties…?!