Baptist Church Calls Transgender Pastor to Lead Ohio Congregation

A Baptist church in Ohio has welcomed a transgender pastor to come and lead its flock. Erica Saunders, who is one of just a few transgender pastors currently serving in the denomination, was officially ordained into the ministry in July of this year before starting her tenure as pastor of Peace Community Church in Oberlin, Ohio, on July 1.

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Saunders began identifying as a woman during her first year of seminary. The LGBT-affirming pastor saw a potential future in ministry after the former executive director of the Board of International Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA told her he thought he could find a church “crazy enough to take” a trans pastor.

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Sometimes I think I’m a gifted communicator. Then I reflect on moments like my ordination, and I’m reminded of language’s utter insufficiency. There are no words to express fully the gratitude I feel. If Spirit comes as a comforter, she dwells in the many prayers and messages of support I received in the days leading up to the service. If Spirit appears as tongues of flame, she burns in the strangers who testified of God’s boundless love for trans folks like me, made in the divine image. If Spirit speaks in sighs too deep for words, she dwells in the profoundly intimate moments I shared with my siblings as I knelt and they laid hands on me. When Spirit dances among us, she creates love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and gentleness. To those who attended the service, to those who prayed, to those who offered words of encouragement—thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for dancing along.

A post shared by Erica Saunders (@amazingericagrace) on Mar 25, 2019 at 6:38pm PDT

Eventually, after a long recruitment process, Saunders was offered the ministry position.

“Both candidates were very strong…but Erica stood out as a candidate with unique strengths,” the pastoral search committee said of Saunders, according to Baptist News Global.

Posted by Erica Saunders on Thursday, March 28, 2019

“Bright, compassionate, faith-filled and spirit-led with a loving presence, she showed as much interest in each of us as we did in her. At the end of our time together on Sunday, when we formed a circle and said a departing prayer, I think we felt and she felt a sense of calling to our church,” the committee continued.

In a statement, Saunders said that she was “grateful for the gospel witness provided by Peace Community Church.”

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“With God’s help, together we can follow the example of Christ and create a beloved community marked by abiding peace, expansive love and radical justice in Oberlin and beyond,” she added.

In 2005, Peace Community Church took the decision to fully affirm those in the LGBT community, calling itself “an inclusive congregation that boldly and earnestly embraces the call of Jesus to seek God’s Realm.”

Saunders’ academic work includes titles such as “Transgender Justice,” “Subverting Gender, Queering Power: Eunuchs in Early Christianity” and “Reimagining Sexual Ethics in 1 Corinthians.”

On her website, the pastor says “God has called” her “to congregational ministry as well as LGBTQ education and advocacy. “