Hello again supporters. It's time for another update I think...
The last time I wrote to you all was a couple of weeks after the Trans: A British History project achieved its funding target. At that time I was in the middle of getting all the contributors to submit outlines of their planned chapters, giving them feedback and directions, and then setting deadlines for the submission of their drafts.
Another three weeks has passed now and I'm pleased to say things are moving ahead according to plan. A couple of contributors have had unforseeable events, which has led to me deferring their deadlines for a couple of weeks, but the rest have all been hard at it! In fact, I've already received and done a first edit on five of the submissions -- they are really quite an ecclectic mix as intended -- and the remaining 20 should be coming in over a period of 2-3 weeks after the coming Easter weekend. Those will probably take me until the second or third week of May to review and edit. It's only when I've got them all laid out that I'll be able to see for certain how to make a book out of them.
In the meantime, as you can see from the photo, I've been setting up the equipment to record interviews with the additional people who volunteered their recollections for the project. These will provide some additional content to add colour and different viewpoints on events. Also, if you pledged for the Straight From The Horse's Mouth package then these recordings will form part of the audio bonanza that I'll be assembling for you. I may only use small parts of the interviews in the book, but you'll get the each one complete.
Setting up the recording equipment has been a voyage of rediscovery. Years ago I used to record interviews for a series of Podcasts and I became so familiar with all the controls and settings that I could almost do it blindfold. Coming back to the equipment now was a different kettle of fish. Which plug goes where? What do all those buttons on the mixing desk do? I managed to sort it out though, and made some successful test calls to get the levels right. So now I'm all ready for that part of the project too.
Step by step, therefore, the book is coming together. Here's a sample extract from one of the chapters already in, by the Reverend Christina Beardsley.
Christine
Extract from The Vicar's Tale by Christina Beardsley
Before the new millennium there were no role models for UK clergy contemplating transition. Anecdotally, at least one person transitioned in this earlier era but their ministry is said to have ended abruptly. In the late 1990s a rumour circulated that two Church of England clergy had transitioned from female to male. Never confirmed, it seems unlikely. This was long before the days of the Gender Recognition Act (which wasn’t enacted until 2004), so they would have been legally women in the eyes of both Church and State. This was precisely the bind faced by an earlier transitioner, Mark Rees, during his unsuccessful attempts to have his priestly vocation recognised in the 1970s.
Two US clergy transitioned as male in the Episcopal Church at the millennium but, in the Church of England, clergy transitions have been man to woman. Prior to transition all, except me, were heterosexually married. In 1995 a priest transitioned on retirement. Carol Stone’s transition followed in 2000 and mine in 2001. The next year another priest approached their bishop about transition, but was given the ultimatum: ‘Drop this or go!’ She returned to secular employment. In 2006 a priest was persuaded by their bishop to step down from parish ministry ‘temporarily’ in order to transition, but the bishop never offered her another position. She supported herself and her family for a decade and has only recently returned to parish ministry. A Church of Ireland priest, who lost her parish on transition, found a home in the Church of England, but has not resumed priestly ministry.
Apart from Carol Stone, the deployment of clergy who transition has been problematic. Those who transitioned first and then offered themselves for ministry have fared better. Less visible, a policy was put in place for transgender candidates, among them the Revd. Sarah Jones and the Revd. Rachel Mann, who would have been in discernment for ordination when Carol and I transitioned. This was also the period leading up to the Gender Recognition Act 2004, so the Church of England was under pressure from several directions to reach a view on what it referred to as ‘transsexualism’.