"Name" | Reflection by Jane Esmonde, Chapel on the Green Coordinator

What’s in a name?

Shortly after his creation, Adam is given the task of naming all the beasts of the earth and the air (Genesis 2:19). We still continue in this task despite our exile from the garden, bringing forth new names for newly-found creatures.

Later in Genesis, God gives the names of Abraham and Sarah to Abram and Sarai as a symbol of the creation of the covenant. Even today, friars and monastics are given new names when they take permanent vows.(Genesis 17:5)

The change of name most familiar to most people in the United States today is the shedding of a wife’s maiden name in favor of sharing her husband’s last name. This is not why I changed my name.

In the 2018 Book of Occasional services there exists a Service of Renaming, wedged between the service for When a Member Leaves a Congregation and The Preparation for Holy Baptism: The Catechumenate. While not perfect by any means (reference to a “Dynamic” God seems to violate His eternal changelessness), it possesses a special significance for me: while it is used for all changes of name, it was made by trans people for trans people.

Many trans people shed their old name when they transition, and pick or receive a new name. I took a family name. Many others feminize or masculinize their given name to make a new one. Some choose a new name that sounds completely different. While we may still be marginalized, we finally find ourselves with at least a de jure existence in the Church in the Service of Renaming, a five-page acknowledgement of our specific existences as children of God.

Words in the Wilderness - Walk through the season of Lent with Trinity, one word at a time. Every day (except on Sundays) we will post a photo and a brief refection written by someone in our Trinity community. https://www.trinitynewhaven.org/words-in-the-wilderness