A hymn written by Jay Hulme for the Transgender Day of Remembrance (today, 20th November), music by Yshani Perinpanayagam, performed by St. Wulfram’s Church Choir. It was written to “provide a traditionally-written and classically-composed hymn to enable Anglican (and other) choirs to make a musical contribution to that day within a traditional idiom” as churches increasingly hold services on this day. Jay Hulme, himself a trans man has also written on Twitter on the purpose of holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance service as a Christian church:
That’s the core of a TDoR service. Trans people are dying, often because of a social climate that has been ignored or approved by Christians.
The job of a Church is to create a safe space for people to mourn and rage and lament, not to justify our religion and their place in it.
An atheist myself, but there’s a deep comfort in seeing at least some people within the Christian faith to make these attempts to be inclusive. Seeing how their faith gives people like Hulme the strength to fight for a better world gives me joy and hope.
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