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Witness History

The first transgender minister in the Church of England

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2021

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sarah Jones is the first person who had undergone a gender change to be ordained in the Church of England. She has been talking to Phil Marzouk about her journey towards the priesthood. She says that in her early life she knew that although she had been born a boy, she wasn’t one. She also knew that she wanted to work in the church. She transitioned as a woman in 1991, and was first ordained as a deacon in the Church of England in 2004.

Photo: Sarah Jones.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

0:06.8

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Cladie Aide.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

0:24.9

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds.

0:29.2

This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Phil Marzuke.

0:37.0

In July 2004 the small town of Ross-on-Y in Herefordshire, England was about to see

0:49.9

something groundbreaking happen. The Church of England was set to

0:53.8

ordain its first transgender minister. My final report was so positive and

1:01.3

so sort of affirming and was a lovely moment I have to say and then to be

1:08.4

lined up to go into Hereford Cathedral to be ordained you know I first thought that I might have a

1:14.5

vocation when I was seven or eight years old and there I was in my early 40s so it was a

1:20.0

lovely lovely thing.

1:22.8

This is Reverend Sarah Jones and although she was born a boy, when she was in her 30s in

1:27.5

1991, she transitioned to become a woman.

1:30.8

She worried how this could affect her desire to work within the church.

1:34.8

I was well aware that it could go either way, but all I could do was offer myself.

1:41.4

I said straight away, look, you know, there's this other bit of me. I was born a boy.

1:45.7

I never really was one. I made a gender change.

...

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