Vicar Faces Official Rebuke From Church of England For Saying Trans Archdeacon is “Biologically a Bloke”
by Will Jones, The Daily Sceptic:
A vicar faces an official rebuke from the Church of England (CofE) for saying the institution’s first transgender archdeacon is “biologically a bloke”. The Telegraph has the story.
The Revd Brett Murphy faces an official rebuke from the CofE over “intentionally derogatory and disrespectful” remarks he made about the Revd Canon Dr. Rachel Mann shortly after his appointment in June.
LGBT+ campaigners had hailed his appointment as a “beacon of light and hope”.
The Revd Murphy, in a 32-minute-long YouTube video, criticised the CofE for putting “a radical rainbow activist” in a “position of high authority in a diocese”.
The Revd Murphy, who quit the CofE a month after the broadcast, had said in reaction to the appointment: “Now you may wonder ‘is that really newsworthy, Brett?’
“You may roll your eyes, if you are a complementarian, that another feminist is getting a prominent high-ranking position in the CofE, but this is worse than that.
“The Revd Rachel Mann is in fact, biologically, a bloke, who identifies and lives as a woman.”
He goes on to question whether the appointment is “positioning” the Revd Mann to become the CofE’s first transsexual bishop and questions how she would deal with a member of her congregation who sees her lifestyle as in “complete rebellion against God’s word”.
“So what you are seeing here is someone who is a radical rainbow activist being put in a position of high authority in a diocese.”
The Revd Mann declined to comment.
He previously told the Telegraph: “I’m self-evidently a woman, but I’m glad I was once a man.”
The Revd Murphy, now a member of the Free Church of England, faces being formally disciplined by the CofE over his comments.
An earlier complaint about his comments was dismissed by the Bishop of Loughborough, the Rt Revd Saju Muthalaly, who said no further disciplinary action needed to be taken.
However, following a review of the complaint by the tribunal arm of the CofE, the investigation has been reopened.
The Revd Murphy said he risks being barred from any future employment in the CofE and of having a permanent mark on his ‘blue file’, a clergy member’s personal record.
Bishop Muthalaly, in a strongly worded letter to the Revd Murphy, called his language “intentionally derogatory and disrespectful” and “not appropriate as a Clerk in Holy Orders, irrespective of the right you have to hold and express views”.
He added: “You clearly recorded your vlog wearing clerical attire aware that this would give you both status and make it clear you were a Church of England priest (further reinforced at the time by your description of yourself on your YouTube page).”
He accused the vicar of trying to spread his views to “as wide an audience as possible”.
Worth reading in full. (£)
Stop Press: Louise Perry in the Telegraph warns that “woke Christianity will kill the Church of England stone dead” and “the churches still thriving are those that refuse to pander to the Left”.
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