Have you ever wanted to better understand gender identity and the Bible?....
... and not just that, but to see how trans and nonbinary readings can open up the text for everyone?
Introducing...
Transfigured
an online course in transgneder theology
Uncover the ways gender multiplicity is all throughout Scripture, how trans and gender noncomforming people can enliven gender for all people, and how trans theology can deepen your faith.
Here's what you'll get when you enroll today
- 4 units of video lectures teaching you how to explore trans identity and Scripture.
- 5 workbooks that guide you through an exploration of gender identity in the world and in Scripture.
- Monthly Q&A and Discussion calls so that you can get all of your Trans Bible questions answered.
- An amazingly supportive community of other LGBTQ Christians and straight, cisgender supporters where you can bring your whole self: questions and doubts welcome!
- Bonus: 3 months access to ALL of Sanctuary Collective. We know the world is a weird place right now and many of us our unable to be in physical community so we want to make our online community, Sanctuary Collective, even more accessible to you
We're going to cover:
Transness is already in scripture, you just need to know how to see it
We’ll be teaching on how transgender identity isn’t something new, but how gender variance is already in key places of scripture (even in the story of the people Jesus interacted with)!
We’ll look at a variety of places where gender identity is part of the story of Scripture.
For trans and nonbinary folks, we’ll bring our whole selves to the text
Instead of looking at the Bible for a defense of our existence, we’ll see how Scripture already makes a place for us. And how from that place we can be a blessing not only to our own community but to the church and the world.
Being a better advocate for change
If you’re a cisgender supporter, parent, or church leader who wants to make a bigger impact in your community; standing in solidarity with your transgender/nonbinary/gender non-conforming friends, this course will help you to go deep, not only in Scripture but in ways to advocate as well.
Does any of this sound familar?
- You are so ready to explore the Bible more deeply.
- You’re a straight/cisgender person who longs to understand your trans siblings better.
- You’re a trans/nonbinary person who wants to see themselves reflected more deeply in Scripture.
- You want to stand up and make your community more welcoming of trans and gender nonconforming people.
- You're longing to explore the wider world of gender in Scripture.
- The Bible has been used against you but you know that's not the whole story, you want tools to understand and share the GOOD NEWS of Scripture.
- Finally, you can understand the beauty in all of the Bible, even if it's been used against you in the past (and without going into debt for seminary).
We've been there too...
When I started my transition I desperately wanted to find stories in Scripture that resonated with my experience, but no one was really doing transgender theology back in 2008. So as I continued on my gender journey I also started doing theology from this unique perspective. When I shared the work I was doing I found that it resonated deeply; not just with other trans folks but with straight and cisgender folks as well!
Better understanding the lives and journeys of trans and nonbinary folks can open up and expand your understanding of your own gender and your faith as well. This will help you to advocate more deeply for trans inclusion as well as enrich your own faith.
Even though I’ve been doing this work for over a decade now, there still isn’t much out there about transgender theology that is accessible and that goes beyond the 101. So once again, we’re creating it.
– Fr. Shay
When I first heard Fr. Shay preach on transgender theology, it blew my mind. This was something new and bold and prophetic. I knew it was deeply faithful and profoundly true.
I’ve worked with him on QueerTheology.com for the past seven years and have never stopped learning from him. I’ve gotten a front-row seat to the transformation that his teaching has had on so many transgender Christians. And my own life has been enriched by the new perspectives he brings. Transgender theology has been a blessing for my cisgender self.
It isn’t enough for me to idly “support” transgender people in words, I need to back that up with action.
Expanding my understanding of God, gender, and faith by learning directly from a transgender priest is one part of that practice for me.
– Brian
We’ve spent the past 15 years in LGBTQ Christian activism & education: from going toe-to-toe with police and homophobic Christian administrators to helping queer Christians start QSAs on their campus to supporting LGBTQ Christians as they’ve come out and dealt with unaffirming family. From studying theology at Union Theological Seminary to becoming the first openly trans priest in the Old Catholic Church to sharing the queer gospel at colleges and conferences around the country (and once in Prague!).
We’ve seen a lot.
We’re so excited to share everything we know about the good news the Bible brings to transgender and gender nonconforming people with you so that you can see and understand this holy message, too.
This course will transform your faith and change your life in ways big and small. We hope to see you inside soon.
And so have others...
(Transfigured) That was powerful. That was life-changing. I didn’t have a spiritual life as I could recognize one. I only had this inner drive to win and as I’ve become more and more comfortable with people seeing me as I see myself with the spiritual embrace of my authentic gender, I can lift others up as they work to find themselves. I no longer feel “never enough,” and so now [my] gender, walking through the world, is directly impactful on my spiritual life. I’ve always known my gender and now I have learned… to be who I am.
– Anonymous
“I must say that this in that transition period [between going to an unaffirming church and finding a new church home] the courses and community here became, in my mind, the real manifestation of the Body of Christ for me. This space will forever remain in my heart as the place where I learned that I deserved more than tolerance, and could ask God for more grace as manifested in a community ‘in real life’”
– Jon Carl
I think one of the changes I am making because of [the course] is instead of saying, ‘that doesn’t work, it’s not for me,’ is to just relax and take what is there [in the Bible] and say ‘that is for me.’ That feels good to say.
– Allison D. (she/they)
As a board member of our church, I am privileged and inspired to bring up different ways we can be more trans and non-binary accepting in our [physical space] and to bring back the focus on using gender neutral language in our church.
– Anonymous (Ally)
So looking forward to “doing things right” and changing my mindset to be more questioning and I think I’ve started down that path. [The course] helped me to see the delineation between Queer Theology and Trans Theology and the fact that Trans Theology is pretty new and still evolving sort of sparked in my mind ‘what can I do to help get it out there?’ Even more so, [it sparked] a desire for deeper discussions and to really sit down and talk about my relationships with God and my trans daughters instead of just kind of glossing over things.
– Anonymous (Parent/Ally)
BONUSES
Journey Into The Bible
The Bible is a cornerstone in Christian faith but HOW do we understand this ancient, sacred text?
Journey Into the Bible teaches you how to engage the Bible seriously and faithfully, giving you the tools you need for a more robust understanding of the text and a richer faith.
When you register for Transfigured, you get instant access to Journey Into The Bible as well. And more courses will be available to you after you complete Transfigured.
3 Month Sanctuary Collective Membership
We know the world is a weird place right now and many of us our unable to be in physical community so we want to make our online community, Sanctuary Collective, even more accessible to you.
You’ll be able to engage with the wider Sanctuary Collective community — over 200 amazing people from around the world.
You also get access to the other premium resources inside of Sanctuary Collective: a monthly digital magazine, an LGBTQ Christian Guide to Self Care, a collection of digital books, and our extensive library of on-demand workshops. With more added regularly!
Dedicated Discussion App
A dedicated app (Slack) keeps you connected to our growing community. We’ve got dedicated discussion channels for reading the Bible, prayer requests and mental health support, creativity, and more; plus s a general channel for just being in community, getting to know each other, and sharing life together. This is the heartbeat of our community and you will always have trusted and understanding friends and mentors you can turn to share life’s struggles and joys as we grow together.
Resurrecting Faith
Resurrecting Faith is part Fr. Shay’s personal story and part activities, ideas, and prompts to guide you moving beyond “deconstruction” so that you can build a faith that fits you and brings you a full and fulfulling life.
An LGBTQ Christian Guide to Self Care
We know that it can be tough if those closest to you don’t fully accept your LGBTQ+ identity—we’ve been there. That’s why we put together this guide to equip and empower you to take care of yourself around friends, family, and/or a church community that isn’t affirming. It’s got video + written lessons, workbooks, printable reminders, journal prompts, guided meditations, and even a Spotify playlist.
Walking Toward Resurrection: A Transgender Passion Narrative
Walking Toward Resurrection looks at the passion of Christ stories through a transgender lens and in doing so reveals a deeper meaning for all Christians, while providing a new framework for understanding the trans experience. You’ll finish inspired to find queerness in other parts of Scripture…
… and you’ll be able to do just that with Claiming Your Spiritual Story, a companion journal that guides you through reflections on the text and helps you begin to identify the threads and touchstones of your own spiritual story.
SPIT & SPIRIT a digital magainze
Our lives are not so easily divisible:
soul & body // sacred & profane // righteous & sinful
The 13 issues of Spit & Spirit seek not just to uncover whether it’s ok to be gay/bi/trans but also to illuminate what LGBTQ+ people have to bring to the table of faith and spirituality. Our lives are complex, complicated, messy even. This is especially true for LGBTQ+ Christians as we seek to sort out the difference between what the spirit tells us and what society tells us — for better or for worse — about our lives, loves, bodies, faith, and humanity.
Issues include PRIDE (SHAME), SEX (BODIES), TRUTH (POWER), COMMUNITY (ISOLATION), and more
and more...
There’s so much more to Sanctuary Collective than we could ever capture with words and numbers, but we’ve tried. In addition to everything you see here, we also have pop-up events like monthly video group discussions and spiritual direction coaching, a book club, a space to discuss the week’s podcast, and weekly discussion prompts.
We are also constantly adding new resources to increase the value you receive. But more than “resources,” Sanctuary Collective is about growth, community, and transformation. We’re here to celebrate with you, grieve with you, and support you in building a faith that fits and a life that you love.
Some Common Questions You Might Have
The weekly video lessons and accompanying workbooks are on-demand and you can watch on your own schedule.
As part of your bonus Sanctuary Collective membership, you are invited to monthly Office Hour (Q&A) calls as well as monthly community discussion calls.
The days and times for those calls change every month to accomodate different schedules and timezones (it’s an international community).
The course is designed so that you can get everything you need without ever joining a call live. You can also pre-submit questions to calls, and of course we’re active in Slack 24/7.
We designed the course so that you can go through it at your own pace and with as much depth as you’d like. Some folks spend just an hour or two with the materials each week. Some “go slower” and spread out going through everything over many months (you have lifetime access to it).
You can go as deep and spend as much time as you’d like, but each unit can be completed in as little as 3 hours, including the workbooks and exercises.
There’s also a dedicated channel for the course in our Sanctuary Collective online community app (Slack). That’s where a bunch of discussion happens throughout the week. You can connect with other participants, ask questions about the materials, share your work, and more. You can also take advantage of all the other channels. It’s an awesome group of folks!
The course is setup so that most of the interaction happens in our Sanctuary Collective Slack app so that you can pop in to the discussion whenever you’re available.
People are in and out of there around the clock and you can easily catch up on anything that’s been posted since you were last online (it’s kinda like a message board meets a group chat!).
We’ve designed this course so that even if you’re totally new to the Bible you can get something out it. We’re going to be walking you through several passages as well as helping you to make connections between your own story and the text. But we’re not going to throw you into the deep end without a life preserver! Even if you don’t know much about the Bible, if you enter in with an open heart and a willingness to read the text you’ll be just fine! (And if you are interested in diving deeper into the Bible, we’ve got an intro course on that too that you’ll get if you stick around in Sanctuary Collective!)
We have worked with many seminarians and long-time working, ordained ministers over the years who have gotten a lot out of the materials and community. While we’ve put the course together keeping in mind that not everyone has a master’s degree in theology (that’s part of the point of this!), we also created it with the specific intention to supplement and support seminary education and even be valuable to working ministers. The feedback from alumni of past courses and current members says it’s doing that and more. So there will definitely be more than enough for you to chew on.
We also take boundaries and community dynamics very similarly. You’re here to learn and grow not to feel unduly responsible for others growth.
Straight, cis folks who are asking this question are the exact ones we want to be taking this course! (no thanks on ppl barging in and throwing their privilege around) We think that queering theology is important for straight folks too and so we would absolutely love to have you. We have had straight, cis people participate in the past and it’s been a positive experience for everyone. If you bring the same sort of mindfulness to the space that you’re bringing to this question and to consideration of this course, you’ll be in a great spot.
Your registration for Queering The Bible also comes with a 3 month membership to Sanctuary Collective — our online community and extensive resource library. That’s where the discussion for this course will happen too.
If you don’t wish you to continue on in Sanctuary Collective, you can cancel at any time but still retain lifetime access to Queering the Bible. We will send a reminder email before your bonus membership runs out and your standard membership begins.
We totally hear that concern! We’ve created a special, private channel in Sanctuary Collective just for trans/nonbinary/gnc folks to go through this course (and life!) together. We also see it as our responsibility as facilitators of this course and community to do all of the heavy lifting when it comes to moderating shared space and educating cisgender folks. That burden won’t fall on you at all.
Get ready to expand your understanding of gender & deepen your faith in a whole new way!
Payment Plan
- 4 weeks of video lectures teaching you how to explore trans identity and Scripture.
- 5 workbooks that guide you through an exploration of gender identity in the world and in Scripture.
- 5 live Q&A calls so that you can get all of your Trans Bible questions answered.
- An amazingly supportive community of other LGBTQ Christians and straight, cisgender supporters where you can bring your whole self: questions and doubts welcome!
- Bonus: 3 months access to ALL of Sanctuary Collective. We know the world is a weird place right now and many of us our unable to be in physical community so we want to make our online community, Sanctuary Collective, even more accessible to you
3 monthly payments of
$30/month
Pay in Full
- 4 weeks of video lectures teaching you how to explore trans identity and Scripture.
- 5 workbooks that guide you through an exploration of gender identity in the world and in Scripture.
- 5 live Q&A calls so that you can get all of your Trans Bible questions answered.
- An amazingly supportive community of other LGBTQ Christians and straight, cisgender supporters where you can bring your whole self: questions and doubts welcome!
- Bonus: 3 months access to ALL of Sanctuary Collective. We know the world is a weird place right now and many of us our unable to be in physical community so we want to make our online community, Sanctuary Collective, even more accessible to you