Having dinner with not one, but two pastors can be a tad nerve wracking. Now, imagine you're meeting one (who's known you for 20 years) as yourself, for the first time... And then imagine that you're meeting the other for the first time and he will be your pastor as you transition. Can we spell butterflies?

In so many ways, I was looking forward to this meeting. My current pastor had been very welcoming and had assured me that if anything his successor was even more so. My pastor had told his successor about me, and we scheduled a time to "meet and greet". All good. Then, they said I could be me - rather than that guy (which by the "rules" I'm operating under - with my family means we met out of town).

I left work early (for an appointment. I suspect they assumed it was medical, but I didn't correct them.) in order to be able to clean up / clean the car some. (We own a VERY FLUFFY white dog - a Samoyed - who's been shedding BIG time, so, the car had LOTs of fur. As my pastor and I were car-pooling and I was driving... You get the picture.) I also wanted to make sure I had time to make sure everything was in the borrowed purse (I don't own one, yet...), get dressed, and apply a minimum of makeup - before heading out.

What did I wear? A nice pink blouse (3/4 length sleeves folded over the elbo, a "peasant" skirt, and some nice black (suede) boots made up most of the outfit. (You don't need to know about what was UNDER the outfit.) I also wore my favorite necklace and dangly clip-on earrings. Make-up was just concealer (I have several patches of vitalaigo on my face, so the concealer helps.)

The weather was fairly warm, so I didn't need a jacket, though I'd borrowed a windbreaker from my wife. (My one "unisex" jacket died last weekend, and I didn't want carry guy stuff!!! (Today, on the other hand, just turned REALLY cold.) Oh - when did this happen? Last night (4/4). Sorry I forgot to say.

In any event, my pastor and I drove South on the Parkway (about 85 minutes if you count traffic)... Chatting. He learned more of my history - the stuff I'd hidden in the past. Traffic was heavy for a little while, but let up, so we ended up getting there a little early. As we headed into the restaurant, a guy rode up on a Motor Cycle. I joked - asking if that was the new pstor. The existing one said he didn't think so (turned out, it was him. LOL).

The new guy is BIG... A few years younger than I am. But, I needn't have worried. If anything, his reaction was more welcoming than my current pastor. One thing he said stuck with me - when referring to someone that couldn't accept me. "If they can't be Christian enough to love their neighbor, they really don't belong in the church."

So, what's going on next? I'll send him a few links - to get started learning what this transgender stuff is... And we'll have a dialog. At my suggestion, he wants to bring someone in from the "outside" to educate folks on lgbT issues - perhaps first a core - then more adults, then the kids... But, right now, he wants to be guided by the pros that have helped other congregations come to grips with all this.

I see I've rambled on quite a bit and I've probably lost at least half of those who started by now. Sorry about that. Perhaps there'll be interesting news, next time.

Thanks for listening (okay, reading).
Anne