Reformer of the month (from The Reformation Project, October 2018)

Reformer of the Month

The Reformer of the Month Column is dedicated to reformers who are working for change—reformers who inspire us all to work for a global church that is fully affirming of LGBTQ people.

This month, please join us in honoring Wei-Jen Chen, the TRP leadership cohort alum and Taiwanese doctoral student at Chicago Theological Seminary that translated our inclusion pocket guides into Mandarin. Wei-Jen holds a Master of Divinity from Tainan Theological College and Seminary where he was valedictorian of his class and is a social reformer in Taiwan where he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Tainan Chapter of the Taiwan Green Party (2015) and spokesperson of the Kaohsiung Pride Parade (2015). 

Wei-Jen joined TRP's leadership cohort in January of this year, and began working as a leader with TRP's Chicago chapter to change Chicago-area churches to become more affirming. He also partnered with another TRP leadership alum, Anthony Aguinaldo, to form the group Queer Theologians Illinois. 

Thank you, Wei-Jen, for your tireless efforts to make the church a better place for LGBTQ people in Taiwan and in Chicago! 

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The Programming Minute

Myles Markham, TRP's programs and organizing coordinator, takes a minute to equip you with the tools you need to change your church and faith community to be fully affirming of all LGBTQ people.

While it has been a joy and honor for us to produce resources that address the biblical case for same-sex relationships, trans inclusion, the connection between the LGBTQ movement and racial justice, we cannot overlook the ways in which access to our resources have been limited to English-language readers.

At TRP, we say our vision is of a global church that fully affirms LGBTQ people. While our print materials have been helpful tools for our leaders working for change in Canada, the UK, and our chapters in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, we are now pleased to introduce to you our first translated resources!

Thanks to one of our outstanding leadership cohort alum, Wei-Jen Chen, a Taiwanese doctoral student focusing on the queer interpretation of the Hebrew scripture at the Chicago Theological Seminary, we are able to release for free all of our pocket guides in Mandarin. Please share them with anyone you know who speaks Mandarin.

This is just the first language that any of our materials have been translated into. Spanish is next, and we can’t wait to share those with you in the coming months. In the meantime, feel free to check out the translated transcript of Matthew’s original viral YouTube video from 2012 that has been translated into ten different languages or PFLAG’s national site to take advantage of how they’ve synced their web presence with Google Translate.

(retrieved from The Reformer's Report: October Newsletter, The Reformation Project)