The Inclusive Church By Paul Walker

     Hi, my return after a long absence due to a car crash I was in. Fully recovered now, apart from some severe head injuries, some brain damage/ moderate brain damage, and burns to about 110 percent of my body.  Otherwise doing fine. Thanks for all your cards and letters. Now, to business, or what remains of it.
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/11/church-england-offer-baptism-style-services-transgender-people/

“The Church of England has encouraged its clergy to create baptism-style ceremonies for transgender people to welcome them into the Anglican faith. New pastoral guidance, published on Tuesday, advises clergy to refer to transgender people by their new name, though it stops short of being a baptism. The guidance, which was approved by the House of Bishops on Monday night, also details how elements including water and oil can be incorporated into the service. It also advises that as part of a special service, they can be presented with gifts such as a Bible inscribed in their chosen name, or a certificate. The guidance notes: “For a trans person to be addressed liturgically by the minister for the first time by their chosen name may be a powerful moment in the service.”

As a central part of the new service, called the Affirmation of Baptismal Faith, the minister lays their hands on the candidate or candidates, addresses them by name, and prays for them. While the Church is clear that this does not constitute a second baptism, it explains that the Affirmation of Baptisimal Faith enables people to "renew the commitments made in baptism and in a public setting and provides space for those who have undergone a major transition to re-dedicate their life to Jesus Christ."

It is understood that traditionalists in the Church blocked a change in the liturgy and stopped this from becoming a new blessing. Instead, the guidance shows how existing liturgy can be used to accept transgender people into the Church and welcome them with their new name. The existing right to an affirmation of baptism is in this case used to mark their change in identity. The bishop of Blackburn, Julian Henderson, chair of the House of Bishops delegation committee, which oversaw the guidance said: "We are absolutely clear that everyone is made in the image of God and that all should find a welcome in their parish church. "This new guidance provides an opportunity, rooted in scripture, to enable trans people who have ‘come to Christ as the way, the truth and the life’, to mark their transition in the presence of their Church family which is the body of Christ."

     What can I say? Sorry Peter West, your constant lamentations as a Catholic who is stranded at sea, look very good still to this writer, who once felt at home in the Church of England. But, that is not my home any more. Today we wander in the wilds of the heath, with no guiding moral compass, stumbling over thorny bushes, slipping into metaphysical ditches, and stubbing our toes on the dead weight of modernity. It must be the brain damage talking.