E NEWS 17 NOVEMBER 2023
Lynne Dovey writes:
Our Minister Fei is away on leave this week. We hope she is having a well-deserved break.
As you know Queen Margaret College is a Presbyterian Church School founded in 1919 with close historic and current links to St Andrew’s on The Terrace. This means that the students aged 3 to 18 years are affiliated with our Parish and its values. In my role on the Board of Governors I foster links between our Parish and the College, as does our Minister and her predecessors. The College’s values derive from its Presbyterian heritage: Integrity, Courage, Resilience, Respect and Generosity. The school roll is much more diverse in 2023 than it was in 1919, with girls representing different faiths, many cultures and countries and the College has embraced gender diversity.
Given its connection with our faith community, it is not surprising that Queen Margaret College adopted an inclusive LGBTQI + policy several years ago. The College was quick to introduce long pants and shorts into the uniform in response to student demand. As the Principal said to the then Moderator of PCANZ during his visit to the school, ‘we can’t wait for the church to catch up with these changes [in gender identity] that the students bring to us because they are too important for our students’ wellbeing’.
Like St Andrew’s on the Terrace, QMC is a leader in embracing a well-informed and open approach to gender diversity. The wider church would certainly do well to listen closely to its young people on these issues.
Over the next 3 weeks the College will be farewelling its Year 13 students who began their school years in 2011. These are the Generation Zers who have seen an enormous amount of change in this country and in the world in those 13 years (I started to Google – it’s a lot and much of it is pretty scary). We aim to prepare them well for a rapidly changing world and to expect the unexpected. We also teach them to respect difference and diversity. The Gen Zers are already adept at coping with change. For many of them the freedom to adopt gender identities that allow them to be who they are has become normal in the way it was not for previous generations. Whatever the path these Year 13s choose for their future we are confident we have provided a firm foundation of an excellent education and a caring community based on sound Christian values.
Fionn will be leading the transgender service on Sunday. Their story is a moving one.
Fionn McKenzie writes:
When I was growing up, I was only aware of two possibilities for a person’s gender. I knew that there were gender norms and that some people transgressed the rules. I had some understanding that aspects of my queer identity related to my gender, but the language I had to articulate that was limited.
Non-binary gender identities have always been part of the human experience. People who are a mixture of masculine and feminine, or neither, or something else entirely, have been accepted, and even had special roles in many societies and spiritual communities. It is only in recent history that these identities have been intentionally erased, usually within the process of colonisation. Indigenous people have been leaders in bringing nonbinary experiences back into our collective awareness. Young people have also been leading the way in freeing us from the constraints of the gender binary, and finding was to share and articulate those experiences. It has taken me a while to acknowledge that within the space they have opened up, there is room for me to be more authentic to myself.
2023 has not been the easiest time to begin to share this realisation with the world. There has been an increase in hateful rhetoric and misinformation about trans people, and an increase in violence and threats against us. In the USA there have been literally hundreds of pieces of transphobic legislation drafted since we last marked Trans Day of Remembrance. Here, a party with multiple transphobic policies has eight seats in parliament.
My journey of gender transition has (so far) involved a lot of awkwardness and discomfort, a bit of grief, some experiences that have been hurtful and distressing… overall, it has been exhausting. There have been moments when I have discovered new sources of delight, but that is not what keeps me going. This very much feels like a time in my life when God has decided to “pull the tent pegs up again.” Others have born the risk and pain before me, and that has made my journey easier. I want to do the same for those who will walk this path behind me.
In the current political and social context, this year it felt important for our church to publicly express a message that counters the hatred that is being spread about trans people. In collaboration with members of St Peter’s, both our churches have been decorated for Trans Week of Awareness. I look forward to exploring what our community might do next in our continuing journey of creating an inclusive and welcoming community.
You can read the full E-news here: https://mailchi.mp/7888d1f92e2b/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-9414640
