Episcopal Renaming Liturgies

It is a rare thing that I pay attention to anything from the Episcopal News Service (AKA Episcopal Pravda), but this story caught my eye,

 [Episcopal News Service] It’s not often that a 21st-century Episcopalian knows they are standing in the footsteps of Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, but that’s the feeling Andrea Olsen had during a July 9 liturgy that affirmed the name she chose when she came out as a trans woman four years ago.

The service took place at St. Stephen’s in Fargo, North Dakota, with half a dozen of her closest friends – people she calls her chosen family – joining parishioners for the service.

Olsen told Episcopal News Service she knew the Bible is filled with stories of people who had received new names from God, including Abraham (formerly Abram), Sarah (Sarai), Peter (Simon) and Paul (Saul). And hers isn’t the first new name in her family, as her paternal great-grandfather changed his name from Stanislaw Osinski to Stanley Olsen in the early 1900s a few years after he immigrated to the United States from Poland.

The Rev. Jamie Parsley, the church’s rector, told ENS he immediately thought of Olsen when he saw “A Service of Renaming” in the print edition of the 2022 Book of Occasional Services. The service is designed to be used “when an event or experience leads a baptized person to take or to be given a new name.” Parsley said he suggested it to Olsen because the process of legally changing her name was complex, and he thought this would be “a beautiful reward” after its completion.  He also told her it would offer “a public recognition of your new name, and a blessing on your name.”

The liturgy was authorized by General Convention in 2018 after the creation of such a service was proposed by General Convention in 2015. For some, including Parsley, it went unnoticed until it was printed in the 2022 Book of Occasional Services.

Participating in this liturgy was particularly special to Olsen because even though her name had been changed legally, this showed that it now was recognized “in the eyes of God,” she said. Parsley said he thinks hers was the first use of this liturgy in the Diocese of North Dakota, although other churches have used it since it was adopted.

I am certain that the authors of this liturgy had transexuals in mind when they pushed it into the Book of Occasional Services, but it is not just a simple renaming ceremony is it? Olsen changing "gender" is not the same as "Abraham (formerly Abram), Sarah (Sarai), Peter (Simon) and Paul (Saul)."

Here are the suggested readings to be used during the ceremony,

• Genesis 17:1–7, 15–17—God changes the name of Sarai to Sarah 
• Genesis 32:22–31—Jacob wrestles at Peniel, becomes Israel 
• Exodus 3:1–15—Moses is called to serve the God named I AM 
• Isaiah 42:1–9—“Here is my servant whom I uphold” 
• Isaiah 43:1–7—“I have called you by name, you are mine” 
• Isaiah 56:1–8—“I will give them an everlasting name” 
• Psalm 8—How majestic is God’s name 
• Psalm 23—The Lord is my Shepherd 
• Psalm 40—“[God] put a new song in my mouth” 
• Psalm 96—“Sing to the Lord a new song” 
• 2 Corinthians 3:17–18—We are transformed from glory to glory 
• 2 Corinthians 5:14–21—In Christ, there is a new creation 
• Galatians 3:27–28—In Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek  
• Philippians 2:9–13—Christ’s name above all names

Isaiah, the Psalmists, and Paul must be rolling in their graves at the misuse of their words.

The whole thing can be found in the Book of Occasional Services beginning on page 149.

The next question is what pronoun God will use when Olsen's time comes.