WATCH: Episcopal priest says Jesus was transgender and ‘transitioned’ after resurrection

CALGARY — A video of an Episcopal priest describing Jesus Christ as transgender and saying she believes Jesus “transitioned” after his resurrection has resurfaced online, drawing renewed attention to the March sermon.The Rev. Flourish Klink delivered the remarks during a March 21 service at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City billed as a “Celebration of Trans Joy and Resilience.”The service was organized by the cathedral and the Episcopal Diocese of New York, with Klink serving as the preacher. The cathedral described the event as a special service held “in solidarity with our trans siblings.”In a written version of the sermon published on Klink’s website, the priest argued that God exists beyond human gender categories and explicitly described God as transgender.“God is non-binary—but I’m going to go further than that and say that God is trans,” Klink said.Klink then applied that interpretation to Jesus’ birth.“When God, who is non-binary, was born in human form as our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary said ‘Oh, look! A baby boy!’ But God isn’t a boy,” Klink said..Klink described this as an example of Jesus being assigned a gender at birth that did not reflect his deeper identity.The sermon later turned to Jesus’ resurrection.Klink acknowledged that the Bible does not explain why some of Jesus’ followers initially failed to recognize him after his resurrection.“The Bible doesn’t tell us why it is that Jesus’s best friends, the disciples, the people who had walked with him to the end of his life, the people who buried him in the tomb, still didn’t recognize Jesus for a good long time,” Klink said.“I don’t know for sure. I wasn’t there. But I have an idea.”Klink presented the interpretation as a message for transgender people, saying Jesus’ resurrection could be understood as an example of becoming one’s “truest self.”.The March service was held ahead of Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place annually on March 31. The cathedral's event included music from the TRANScend Ambassadors, described by the cathedral as a transgender and gender-diverse choir.Klink is a member of the Greater New York Area Episcopal Trans Task Force and wrote that the group had organized the celebration at the cathedral for the previous three years.Klink’s statements are a theological interpretation of the biblical accounts rather than a claim that the New Testament explicitly describes Jesus as transgender.The video of the sermon has now resurfaced online months after it was originally delivered, bringing renewed attention to Klink’s interpretation of Jesus, gender and the resurrection.

WATCH: Episcopal priest says Jesus was transgender and ‘transitioned’ after resurrection

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