An openly transgender woman has been named pastor of a Baptist church in Ohio, Baptist News Global reported.
Erica Saunders, a 2019 graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, began July 1 as pastor of Peace Community Church in Oberlin, the outlet said.
The church was founded in 1866 as the First Baptist Church of Oberlin but became Peace Community Church in 2000 and now describes itself as a “small, but active and social action-oriented congregation” that’s “very involved” in the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, the Alliance of Baptists and the American Baptist Churches of the Rochester/Genesee Region, Baptist News Global said.
The church added on its website that it’s “an inclusive congregation that boldly and earnestly embraces the call of Jesus to seek God’s Realm.” Peace Community Church began welcoming and affirming LGBTQ people in 2005, the outlet said.
Saunders embarked on a first-year-of-seminary gender transition and eventually became one of the first openly transgender individuals to be ordained by a Baptist church in the United States, the outlet said. Wake Forest Baptist Church — which meets on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina — ordained Saunders earlier this year, the outlet added. – READ MORE