February 2025
A recent BBC feature is the latest in a string of media interviews in which The Revd Robyn Golden-Hann has shared her experience of being a transgender priest in the Church of England.
Robyn trained for the priesthood at Sarum College, having first completed the Theology, Quest and Questions course, now Exploring Theology. She was ordained in 2022 and serves St Aldhelms Church in Poole.
Despite an impressive Google profile, Robyn didn’t always seek the limelight. It was only after she accepted her identity as a woman and went through all the pain of changing her life from that of a married man with two children to one as a single mother, that she realised how many problems arise from not knowing who you are.
During her studies and her formation, she was struck by the universality of difficult transitions in life, and the universality of being vulnerable.
“I was acutely aware of my vulnerability and realised more and more that everyone is in the same boat,” she explains. “And that it isn’t a weakness — we are always vulnerable and always fully acceptable to God.”
The other major life change was from working primarily with her hands as a stonemason to grappling with academic study.
Having had a negative previous experience of studying, the idea of learning how to write an essay was terrifying. “I had no idea what I was doing – luckily I had wonderful support at Sarum and I was able to slay the negative ghost.
“Reading notes and having theology swirling around the brain really blew my mind – a lot of the foundations were being rattled and it was very healing.”
The theme of vulnerability fed into her essays, and she is especially taken with the work of the Dutch Catholic priest Henri Nouwen, a writer and theologian.
“Underlined and highlighted,” in Robyn’s copy of Nouwen’s book, Reflections on Christian Leadership is this line:
I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this role with nothing to offer but his or her vulnerable self.
“The media interviews have been an opportunity for me to be completely vulnerable in a completely open way,” she says. “I think this what I was called to do.”
+++++++
More about Robyn
Engraving History and Herstory
Leave a Reply