Prominent Church of England clergymen have declined to comment on the recent sermon at Trinity College, Cambridge, which has fueled international backlash for speaking of Jesus Christ’s ‘trans body’.
The Rev. Dr. Michael Banner, who serves as Dean of Trinity College, recently came to the defense of Joshua Heath, a young Cambridge University research fellow who proclaimed from the Trinity College chapel pulpit during an Evensong service that he — erotic depictions of Jesus’ penis in historical art “prompt a welcoming rather than a hostile response to the raised voices of trans people.”
“In the simultaneously male and female body of Christ in these works, if the body of Christ as these works suggest [is] the body of all bodies, then her body is also the trans body,” Heath said Nov. 20, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Neither Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who is the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, nor Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, its cleric, condemned or otherwise commented on Fox News Digital the controversial sermon he also likened the wound in Jesus’ Side to a vagina.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby speaks during a service of prayer and reflection for Queen Elizabeth II at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London September 9, 2022, a day after her death at the age of 96.
(Photo by PAUL CHILDS / POOL / AFP)
“I fear the Archbishop is traveling at the moment and is not available for comment,” a spokesman for Welby told Fox News Digital.
Welby’s office directed Fox News Digital to contact the Church of England press office, which did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for Cottrell told Fox News Digital that “Archbishop Stephen has no comment to offer on this”.
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, above, recently said that falling rates of Christianity in the UK were “not a huge surprise”.
(Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
Heath, whose doctorate in theology was supervised by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, said in his sermon that in one of the medieval paintings he showed the congregation, the spear wound in Jesus’ side “takes on a decidedly vaginal appearance “. In another, he pointed out how blood from his side flows to his groin.
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Heath said that in the 14th-century Luxembourg Prayer Book of Bonne, an isolated depiction of the wound in Jesus’ side “takes on a distinctly vaginal appearance.”
(The Met Collection API)
Williams, who was the highest-ranking Anglican cleric from 2002 until Welby took over in 2012, also did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. Cambridge University did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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The sermon reportedly reduced the outraged worshipers to tears and shouts of “Heresy!” he rang in the chapel as some irritated worshipers left in disgust. Banner later responded to a letter of complaint from an offended congregant claiming that Heath’s sermon raised “legitimate” speculation.
Heath pointed out that in Jean Malouel’s 13th-century Pietà, blood from Jesus’ side flows to his groin.
(Public domain)
Heath’s sermon drew condemnation from figures such as Gavin Ashenden, who served as Queen Elizabeth II’s chaplain from 2008 until his resignation in 2017.
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“What Christianity teaches us is that Jesus makes us more like him, that’s the deal,” said Ashenden, who left the Church of England to join the Roman Catholic Church. “And any time you find someone who makes Jesus more like them, that’s not the problem.”
“So what happened in Cambridge was a reverse process and a perverse process, and we shouldn’t be surprised, because the academy is like that sometimes,” Ashenden continued. “They don’t know when to stop.”
Heath’s doctorate in theology was supervised by Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.
(AFP via Getty Images)
Evangelist Franklin Graham also criticized Trinity College for hosting the sermon, which he called “repugnant and disgraceful”.
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Christianity rates in England and Wales have fallen to their lowest number on record over the last decade, according to government statistics released on Tuesday.
