LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)- A routine Sunday sermon in New York quickly morphed into headline-making drama when Reverend Phil Phaneuf stood before the congregation wearing a rainbow stole and delivered a revelation no one expected.
“I get to announce with joy that I am transitioning. I am affirming and saying to all of you that I am transgender,” Reverend Phil declared, instantly turning a quiet service into the internet’s latest church-gone-viral moment.
The 51-year-old pastor, who has led North Chili United Methodist Church since 2019, told worshippers she has been on hormone replacement therapy for three months and will now use she/her pronouns.
Her new name, Phillippa Faye Phaneuf, though she says it’s still “Reverend Phil.” As she put it, “I’m not becoming a woman, I’m giving up pretending to be a man,” and she assured the room she wouldn’t mind whatever pronoun they used.
While the UMC has recently leaned into LGBTQ+ inclusion, Phaneuf admitted her own family has taken the news hard and loud on their decision.
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“Are my parents okay with this? Absolutely not. They texted me this morning, and they asked for me to tell you all that they do not support me. They have chosen their convictions and their beliefs over supporting their child,” she said bluntly.
The church itself, however, has backed her fully, signaling a reflection of the denomination’s major policy shifts that removed bans on LGBTQ+ clergy, approved same-sex marriage ceremonies and stripped off doctrine calling homosexuality sinful.
Those moves, though historic, cost the UMC more than a million members the moment they took effect.
Phaneuf’s announcement is now circulating widely online, partly because it wasn’t just about her gender transition. She used the moment to unpack differences between gender identity and sexual orientation, also sharing that she’s asexual and not interested in romantic affairs.
“I’ve been that way since we’ve all been together. I’m not living my life in such a way that I am looking for romance,” she said.
North Chili UMC plans to roll out LGBTQ+ educational resources in the wake of the announcement, something Phaneuf believes will make the church a more welcoming place for people who rarely get that treatment in religious spaces.
Authenticity, she suggested, is something God can work with. In her words, “If you felt the Holy Spirit surrounding you in ways that you haven’t felt in years, would you have a sense that might be something that God’s okay with?”
