Transgender priest shares her story at the Steyning Festival

She was ordained more than 20 years ago but sadly she’s not sure we have moved in the right direction in the years since, particularly in more recent times.

Sarah will offer her thoughts at this year’s Steyning Festival in a session called The Reality, The Questions and Some of the Answers (May 25, 6pm-7.30pm) at Steyning Methodist Church.

The vicar of a central Cardiff parish, she will describe her personal journey of transition and ordination, including being outed by the media after her ordination and how her faith supported her – a tale with a darker background more recently.

“I think over the last few years we have seen an increasingly divisive society in all sorts of ways. You can think of race, you can think of disabilities, and you can also think of trans people. I think there has been a rolling back in so many ways.

“I think it is partly because the country is going through hard times in terms of everybody's standard of living dropping. Also I think that politicians and people that want to influence other people have found that by dividing people they can boost their own support. It doesn't help that the tactic has apparently had success in the United States. I think other people are now following that lead. We've seen it all over Europe with the rise of significantly more divisive politics.

“For trans people the watershed was the Supreme Court decision in April 2025 and that hasn't finished yet. In April 2025 four women in Scotland brought an action to the Supreme Court, and the issue was whether trans women could be on all-women short lists. It was at the Supreme Court because they had lost in the lower courts, and the Supreme Court ruled the definition of a man and a woman to be based on what they called biology. And that's really what is on your birth certificate, and the fact is that that works for 99.9 per cent of people, an acid test of briefly looking at somebody's genitalia when they are literally a few minutes old. But a number of us fall through that gap. I grew up and I always wanted more to be one of the girls than I wanted to be one of the boys. After 30 years of trying the best I could, I just realised that I had to do something about it.”

But as Sarah says, the Supreme Court ruling came as a massive blow. She says, as a result of it, “all sorts of anti-trans organisations have tried to eradicate us from public life.”

“I made my gender change in 1991. I had tried my best to live as a guy but I just wasn't one. The world was confused about me but when I made the gender change the world was less confused about me. After a few weeks, after a few months, my friends said ‘We much prefer you as you are now.’ It was not a political statement. It was just me quietly trying to be the real me. That was in 1991 but over the last four to five years the whole thing has become intensely politicised.

“I was ordained in 2004 and I had informed the Church of England right from the very first meeting. They were ‘Oh we don't know how to handle this’ but they were very decent. They were very, very nice but they just didn't know what to do. But it turned out that I was at the head of a queue. There were a few other people that had made gender changes that were coming through so the Church of England had to make a policy decision, and in the end they decided that there was no reason in church law why somebody that had made a gender change could not become a priest. I went into the whole thing not knowing what they would say, but the fact is that there is an element in ordination where you are actually offering yourself.”

Ideally Sarah would love to live in a world where her gender change wasn't significant: “In some ways my change is really important but in other ways it is not. I work in a city centre church where I'm literally feeding the homeless. Nobody cares about my gender change then. And when I am praying you could say that it’s irrelevant.”

But the problem is “the chatter” and the way trans people are portrayed: “Sometimes trans people are portrayed in the media as having done it on a whim. I don’t know of anybody that has done it on a whim. You just can't.”

Meanwhile, divisiveness continues to rise – to which Sarah's response is simply that it is really important that people meet other people, which is a big reason behind the talk: “Everyone is welcome to come to one of my talks whether they are mildly supportive or don't have an opinion or they are anti-trans.

“What I want is everyone to walk away thinking is that we have now met someone, we've heard from someone and we have perhaps a little bit more insight. I want people to think ‘At least I have met a trans person’ and I know a bit more of the reality.

“But I would also like to think that my talks are fun. There are a few laughs in there. Most people come away from my one of my talks thinking that it has been a life-affirming evening. But as an absolute minimum I want them to feel that they have a bit more reality. So many times people talk about safety when they're talking about trans, but I would say that trans people are absolutely not a threat. They really aren’t. But in the rush of our lives, we never get the chance to sit down and think issues through properly, and that’s what I would love people to be able to do.”

Talks at this year’s Steyning Festival, May 22-31.

Guaranteed garden success: Start with Soil with Juliet Sargeant, May 24, 6pm-7.30pm:

Transgender Anglican Priest: The Reality, the Questions and Some of the Answers with Sarah Jones, May 25, 6pm-7.30pm.

The ethics of bringing the Holocaust into the Gaza war: Why I changed my position – Anne Karpf, May 26, 6pm-7.30pm.

Alone in the jungle with Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent, May 26, 7.45pm-9.30pm.

Mind Matters: Practical strategies for fostering mental wellness within our communities with Sarah Hughes, May 27, 6pm-7.15pm.

Sustainable farming is not a sacrifice; it’s an investment in a better future with Patrick Holden, Rachel Phillips, Tom Daniell, Jeremy Kerswell, May 27, 7.30pm-9pm.

Separating fact from fiction on Muslims, Migration and Multiculturalism with Taj Ali, May 28, 7.45pm-9.15pm.