{"id":269882,"date":"2025-12-03T10:16:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T15:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=269882"},"modified":"2025-12-03T10:16:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T15:16:44","slug":"methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation","title":{"rendered":"Methodist pastor comes out as transgender to his congregation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>During a Sunday service on November 23, 2025, Rev. Phillip Phaneuf, the 51-year-old pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, shocked his congregation by announcing his gender transition. Draped in a rainbow stole, Phaneuf claimed, &#8220;I\u2019m transitioning. I\u2019m affirming to all of you that I am transgender. The best way to put this is that I\u2019m not becoming a woman, I\u2019m giving up pretending to be a man.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">United Methodist Church &quot;pastor&quot; announces during his sermon that he is now &quot;transgender&quot; and is becoming a woman.<br><br>Yes, this is real&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9og3Fb8Z23\">pic.twitter.com\/9og3Fb8Z23<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/libsoftiktok\/status\/1995877764076110042?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 2, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This revelation raises serious questions about the erosion of traditional biblical teachings on gender and identity within the Methodist Church. Phaneuf disclosed his asexual identity and lack of romantic pursuits during his tenure, while planning to adopt the name Phillippa and she\/her pronouns. Having begun hormone replacement therapy three months earlier, he warned of impending physical changes to his appearance, voice, and hair\u2014alterations that could disrupt the stability and role modeling expected from pastoral leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He insisted his duties and affection for the flock would remain intact, but such assurances do little to address the potential confusion and division this may sow among faithful members. The congregation&#8217;s reportedly positive reaction underscores a troubling shift toward progressive ideologies in some Christian circles, with Phaneuf noting prior consultation with the bishop and alignment with church leadership. The pastor noted his parents&#8217; opposition, &#8220;They asked me to tell you all that they do not support me&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This incident reflects broader changes in the United Methodist Church, which last year abandoned longstanding policies upholding scriptural views on human sexuality and LGBT ideology. By now framing sexuality as a &#8220;sacred gift&#8221; for all and pledging support for such lifestyles, the denomination risks alienating conservatives and diluting the gospel&#8217;s timeless truths amid cultural pressures for inclusivity over orthodoxy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During a Sunday service on November 23, 2025, Rev. Phillip Phaneuf, the 51-year-old pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, shocked his congregation by announcing his gender transition. Draped in a rainbow stole, Phaneuf claimed, &#8220;I\u2019m transitioning. I\u2019m affirming to all of you that I am transgender. The best way to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":269883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,511,805],"tags":[4861,7186,456],"class_list":["post-269882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-culture","category-foreground","tag-gender-ideology","tag-lgbt-ideology","tag-transgenderism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Methodist pastor comes out as transgender to his congregation - IFN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"During a Sunday service on November 23, 2025, Rev. Phillip Phaneuf, the 51-year-old pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, shocked his congregation by announcing his gender transition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Methodist pastor comes out as transgender to his congregation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During a Sunday service on November 23, 2025, Rev. Phillip Phaneuf, the 51-year-old pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, shocked his congregation by announcing his gender transition.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-03T15:16:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-03T15:16:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Untitled-design-2025-12-03T101542.334.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"IFN English\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"IFN English\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Methodist pastor comes out as transgender to his congregation - IFN","description":"During a Sunday service on November 23, 2025, Rev. Phillip Phaneuf, the 51-year-old pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, shocked his congregation by announcing his gender transition.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Methodist pastor comes out as transgender to his congregation","og_description":"During a Sunday service on November 23, 2025, Rev. Phillip Phaneuf, the 51-year-old pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, shocked his congregation by announcing his gender transition.","og_url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation","og_site_name":"IFN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\/","article_published_time":"2025-12-03T15:16:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-03T15:16:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Untitled-design-2025-12-03T101542.334.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"IFN English","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/iFamNewsEN","twitter_site":"@iFamNewsEN","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"IFN English","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation"},"author":{"name":"IFN English","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/633bdb7ac2496c9b9304ce62d071cdfa"},"headline":"Methodist pastor comes out as transgender to his congregation","datePublished":"2025-12-03T15:16:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-03T15:16:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation"},"wordCount":304,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Untitled-design-2025-12-03T101542.334.png","keywords":["gender ideology","LGBT ideology","Transgenderism"],"articleSection":["Breaking News","Culture","Foreground"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation","name":"Methodist pastor comes out as transgender to his congregation - IFN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Untitled-design-2025-12-03T101542.334.png","datePublished":"2025-12-03T15:16:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-03T15:16:44+00:00","description":"During a Sunday service on November 23, 2025, Rev. Phillip Phaneuf, the 51-year-old pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, shocked his congregation by announcing his gender transition.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Untitled-design-2025-12-03T101542.334.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Untitled-design-2025-12-03T101542.334.png","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/methodist-pastor-comes-out-as-transgender-to-his-congregation#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u041a\u0443\u043b\u0442\u0443\u0440\u0430","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/sr\/kategorija\/kultura-sr"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Methodist pastor comes out as transgender to his congregation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","name":"IFN","description":"International Family News Network","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization","name":"iFamNews","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"iFamNews"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","https:\/\/x.com\/iFamNewsEN"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/633bdb7ac2496c9b9304ce62d071cdfa","name":"IFN English","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f16ce95b558ae6f6eb9ae2f68122482a2c61696af2a8fc343c2e10f981a959d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f16ce95b558ae6f6eb9ae2f68122482a2c61696af2a8fc343c2e10f981a959d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"IFN English"},"description":"Articles published by the English iFamNews editorial team.","sameAs":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/iFamNewsEN","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCMVyIt4z9BANW3d09kwfUpw"],"url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/ifamnews-staff"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269884,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269882\/revisions\/269884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}