Still Running Off at the Keyboard

Assistant curate Sarah Jones, 44, from Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, spent the first 29 years of her life living as a man.

Evangelical group Evangelical Alliance said there was no "Christian acknowledgement" of gender realignment.

But the Right Reverend Anthony Priddis said Ms Jones - being ordained on Saturday - was "made and loved by God".

What's important is that she's a person made by God, loved by God and given gifts by God who feels that she's called to be a priest

The Right Reverend Anthony Priddis

Ms Jones was a "superb candidate" who had the gender realignment surgery "many years ago - long before she explored the possibility of being ordained", Bishop Priddis said.

The issue of gender dysphoria was "understood a lot more clearly in this 21st Century as we understand lots of things more clearly", he said.

"Gender realignment surgery helps address that issue and it's about bringing mind and body into wholeness.

"I see this as something restorative and healing.

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