LETTER FROM STOCKHOLM
International Trans Day of Remembrance takes place every year on November 20, in memory of Rita Hester, a 34-year-old African-American transgender woman, murdered at her home in Boston on November 20, 1998. This year, on her account , followed by 21,000 people, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden, former State Church, published a prayer for “transgender people victims of violence and hatred”. “Help us to make the world a better place, to say each person’s true name, to treat each other with respect in order to show that the victory of love in the world comes through care, kindness and goodness”encouraged the Church.
Since 2016, Charlotte Frycklund, 54, ordained twenty-seven years ago, has been a “priest of the Internet” (“nätpräst” in Swedish). With three communications officers, she manages, from the Archdiocese of Uppsala, the three official accounts of the Church on X, Facebook and Instagram. On November 20, she was not on duty at the start of the evening, but, faced with the wave of reactions, she had to return to duty, in front of her screen. She had prepared for it: on the occasion of Trans Visibility Day, March 31, 2023, the Church posted a similar message, calling for prayer for “all transgender people who suffer, who are oppressed, who are killed”. Seen 2.9 million times, the tweet caused a storm on social networks.
Despite the inflammatory comments, mocking the “leftism” of the Church, accused of betraying conservative values and the Bible, the priest and her three colleagues never part from their stoicism. Example : “How many genders are there?” », asks Nick Alinia. Answer : “As much as God wants. » What the far-right MP, Erik Hellsborn, reacts: “God created two genders: man and woman. Other “genders” are created by people who believe they are above God. » And he is surprised “that a supposedly Christian Church adopts this point of view”. New answer: “It’s not surprising at all. From the beginning of the Bible, when creation takes shape, there is talk of the “multitude” that God creates. God creates exactly what He wants, and we do ourselves a disservice by trying to limit God’s creative power. »
“We need to be where the people are”
Charlotte Frycklund admits: it is not always easy to find the right answers, “especially when there is none”. Often he is asked “why does god let babies die”. He also happens to find himself face to face with an Internet user who has just learned that he has cancer. What can you say to reassure someone who sees their life turned upside down? “The important thing is that there is a conversation and to show people that they are not alone”assures the clergyman.
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