New campaign calls on UK churches to stand with trans community
A Transfigured Mission campaign image: ‘Why you should respond to the EHRC’.
Open Table comunity leaders launch urgent campaign after legal roll-backs on trans rights.
IN RESPONSE to a recent wave of legal challenges to transgender rights, Christian community leaders have launched Transfigured Mission, a campaign urging UK churches to educate themselves, take action, and create truly inclusive congregations for trans people.
The initiative was founded by Revd Grey Collier and Revd Sam Mackie, both active leaders in the Open Table Network of LGBTQIA+ affirming church communities. The campaign is a response to the April 2025 UK Supreme Court ruling that under equality law ‘sex’ must be understood as the gender assigned at birth.
“There is a genuine threat to the continued participation of trans people in everyday public spaces.”
Guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in response to the Supreme Court ruling underscores the campaign’s warning: trans people are facing an urgent threat to long-standing legal protections, and the church must respond.
Co-founder of the Transfigured Mission campaign Revd Grey Collier is a former legal director at the EHRC and advocacy director at human rights group Liberty. In 2023 he told The Independent that the UK government’s proposals to amend the legal definition of ‘biological sex’ were ‘pure transphobia’ and ‘nonsense on stilts’.
Transfigured Mission aims to educate and equip churches to confront this crisis. The campaign’s website offers continually updated information on the changing legal landscape, guidance for building trans-affirming church practices, and tools for allies to take action.
Church leaders and members are encouraged to visit and share the site widely; it includes news updates, model letters to MPs, and calendars of urgent action deadlines. Transfigured Mission also maintains a social media presence on Instagram and Facebook - and asks supporters to follow and promote its posts to spread awareness.
The campaign stresses that direct action is vital. For example, the campaign’s co-founder Revd Sam Mackie spearheaded an open letter to Parliament last month calling on MPs to defend trans, non-binary, and intersex rights which gathered signatures from more than 630 church leaders and members.
Transfigured Mission provides sample letters and templates so individuals and congregations can write to their MPs about issues like the Equality Act review and access to care. Organizers note that churches can both care pastorally for trans members and prophetically challenge injustice - they see both roles as integral to the Gospel.
To get involved, Transfigured Mission urges church communities to take concrete steps:
Engage in advocacy: Use the campaign’s guides to write to MPs, sign petitions, and call on policymakers to protect trans people’s rights. One of the best ways you can use your time is to respond to the EHRC consultation before their deadline of 30th June 2025.
Visit and share the Transfigured Mission website: transfigured.wixsite.com/home - it is updated regularly with resources and urgent action deadlines.
Follow and promote @transfigured.mission on Instagram and Facebook to amplify campaign messages.
Attend the online launch meeting on Tuesday, 29 July 2025 at 6pm BST, a national gathering for transgender people in church leadership roles. This meeting will invite trans church leaders to get involved, and start to set the direction of the future of the group.
Join the steering group: The campaign invites trans clergy and laity to share their contact details (with consent) and express interest in helping to guide Transfigured Mission going forward.
Revd Grey Collier emphasizes the urgency and moral imperative behind the campaign:
‘We must act now with urgent solidarity. Our churches must be transformed into communities where trans people are fully included, affirmed, and protected. This is not an optional issue of opinion - it is a matter of justice and love. There is a genuine threat to the continued participation of trans people in everyday public spaces. We cannot allow our churches to be quiet while our trans, non-binary and intersex siblings lose their legal safeguards.’
Revd Sam Mackie adds that the church’s role is both pastoral and prophetic:
‘Our shared vocation is two-fold. We must pastorally care for every one of God’s children - especially those being oppressed and ostracised - and we must prophetically speak truth to power. May we stand together with love, courage and a passion for justice.'
Transfigured Mission’s leaders urge all UK churches - across denominations - to join in this collective effort.
By sharing resources, speaking out, and changing church culture from the pew up, congregations can show living solidarity with trans, non-binary and intersex Christians at this critical moment. The campaign’s website, social media, and upcoming meetings will keep supporters informed of breaking news and deadlines as the situation evolves.
