The Episcopal Church has its first transgender dean

The Episcopal Church has its first transgender dean of a cathedral

The Very Rev. Micah Cronin in August became dean of All Saints’ Cathedral in Milwaukee. The Wisconsin faith leader told the Episcopal News Service in an interview published earlier this month he grew up in a conservative church in rural New York State that didn’t accept his transgender identity, but converted to being Episcopalian at 19 after finding an affirming church in Olean, New York. Now, the 30-year-old is leading an LGBTQ+-affirming congregation with an average Sunday attendance of around 70 people.

He said his position should show there’s a place for LGBTQ+ people in faith spaces.

“The way I see our moment in The Episcopal Church right now is being a church that has taken a stand to welcome and include because of its Christian faith,” he told the news service.

Related: Meet the transgender Lutheran pastor preaching acceptance: 'Nothing is wrong with you'

“Just by me existing as a trans person and as a priest, I get to have conversations with people that very few people get to have. I think we have a chance to preach the Gospel in places it wouldn’t otherwise be heard.”

Cronin previously served as a transitional deacon in the Diocese of New Jersey, where he wrote publicly about the need for greater tolerance in Christian faith or all groups, and also to engage in conversation with those who resist tolerance.

“We are to seek and serve Christ in those whose political attitudes appear repugnant, even dangerous, to us,” Cronin wrote for Earth & Altar in 2022. “We are to seek and serve Christ in those who are bigoted, prudish, homophobic, anti-transgender, uncaringly promiscuous, self-centered, and in those who would never seek and serve Christ in us. We promise to do this, not to affirm bad behavior, but because it is only by our cooperation with the cleansing love of God that evil is overcome.”

Related: Blessed be our rights: 20 American Christian churches, ranked on LGBTQ+ support

The Episcopal Church has been at the forefront of affirming individuals’ sexual orientation and gender-identity, including lifting any restrictions on same-sex marriages in any churches even if individual dioceses object, ordaining gay bishops, and welcoming trans students into its church-run schools for more than a decade.

The church 50 years ago broke ground at its 1976 General Convention by passing a resolution recognizing LGBTQ+ individuals’ place in the church.

Rev. Cameron Partridge, a part of the TransEpiscopal group promoting embrace of trans and non-binary people in the church, cheered Cronin’s elevation to dean as another milestone within the faith.

Related: 17 queer clergy taking the Gospel back from Christian nationalism

“It is so moving how The Episcopal Church has been a place where [Cronin] could follow Jesus authentically and step more fully into his vocation as a human being and a priest,” he told the Episcopal News Service. Partridge noted one of TransEpiscopal’s founding members, Rev. Gari Green, served as a diocese of Milwaukee until her death in 2024, showing a history in Wisconsin of embracing gender minorities.

“I think Gari would see this moment as a true sign of hope and transformative possibility for our church and our world,” Partridge said.