"This Is My Body: Hearing the Theology of Transgender

Christians"

THE SIBYLS BOOK

Now Number One!!!! The Sibyls Book "This is My Body" has been listed as Number 1 of the top 35 LGBTQ

Christian books of 2016 -- including queer theology, Bible, history, memoir, fiction and church life for all ages.

See: http://qspirit.net/top-35-lgbtq-christian-books-2016/

ORDER YOUR COPY NOW

For the Publisher's Leaflet please:

Fifteen years ago Sibyls members were displeased with what the Evangelical Alliance had to say about trans people in its so-called report, “Transsexuality”*, and then, just three years later, there was similar disappointment with the Church of England’s fence sitting, contained in Chapter 7 of its report on “Some Issues in Human Sexuality”**. We were annoyed that other religious people kept writing things about us while our own experience as transgender Christians was nowhere represented in this literature.
 
What we needed was a publication of our own. In it we would tell our stories, outline the latest scientific evidence, and set the theological record right as far as being transgender was concerned.
 
That’s how the idea of the Sibyls Book was born. Sibyls members began to send in their contributions and chapters were gathered from relevant specialists. The book is published by the internationally-respected religious publisher: Darton, Longman and Todd. http://www.darton-longman-todd.co.uk/ . The book’s title is “This Is My Body: Hearing the Theology of Transgender Christians”. It was released in May 2016 in two formats: an e-book version and a paperback version.  The recommended retail price for the the paperback is £14.99, plus postage and packing. The book is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions and in other bookshops. We are hoping that people will buy at least one copy, as well as additional copies to pass on to their friends and church leadership.
 
The book has two parts
 
Part 1: The Workshop, Theology, Social Science &
the Arts
 
Part 2: Sibyls’ Stories
 
Jasmine Woolley’s chapter is about the social construction of gender. Terry  Reed of GIRES*** brings us up to date with the latest scientific background. Chris Dowd dissects common misunderstandings of what it means to be trans.  Mercia McMahon contributes a chapter on Trans Liberating and Queer Theology. The Trans Awareness Group from a member’s parish engages with Chapter 7 of the Church of England document  “Some issues in Human Sexuality”. Jay Walmsley describes the early days of Sibyls, the late Michelle Le Morvan considers the essence of her spirituality, and Sibyls tell their own stories of faith. Helen Belcher, on the other hand, ponders how transition can lead to loss of faith. Elaine Sommers ‘Faith, Gender and Me’ can be found between the book’s covers as can Susan Gilchrist’s ‘Taking a Different Path’ which proposes a radical new approach to the issues of gender and sexuality. Michelle O’Brien, one of the editors, explores intersex perspectives on medicine, diversity, identity and spirituality, while Tina Beardsley, who is the other editor, adds some history (including a brief biography of an older Sibyls member) and theology, and there is more about the Sibyls’ workshop, Gender, Sexuality, and Spirituality.
 
Pre-publication comments  
     
The book has a foreword by Exeter theologian Dr Susannah Cornwall, who has read the manuscript and concludes: "The editors of this collection have assembled and curated a series of narratives which testify to the breadth of experiences – some uplifting, some justly angry, some heart-breaking – of trans people navigating their relationships with the Christian Church. It is my hope that the book will become a landmark text and testify to the many theological possibilities that full acknowledgement of a diversity of bodies, genders and sexes brings to life together."  
 
 
Some commendations
 
‘Announces the growing confidence of trans Christians and our refusal to be treated as second class and welcome under sufferance.’ Rachel Mann
 
‘I read these essays with a growing sense of excitement. Here is a highly readable theology rooted in the experience and faith of trans people’. Professor Adrian Thatcher

* Please note that the Evangelical Alliance have kept the conclusions of their report on their website while removing the main body of the report. http://www.eauk.org/church/resources/theological-articles/transsexuality-report.cfm  

** http://www.chpublishing.co.uk/uploads/documents/0715138685.pdf  

***Gender Identity Research and Education Society www.gires.org.uk/