Britain’s First ‘Non-Binary Priest’ In Church Of England Says God Loves Variety

The “first” ever non-binary vicar shares thoughts on how their position redefines godly love and talks on ITV’s “This Morning” show. The 36-year-old married queer shares that they had an epiphany 7 years ago while rereading the story of the first humans in the book of Genesis.

Bingo Allison told the hosts, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, “‘Creation is full of variety. That’s what we learn from creation, is that God loves variety.”

Gender is such an entirely new subject that had only gained a lot more awareness and research in recent decades.

Schofield spoke, “The point you make, which I thought was lovely when I read it this morning is the fact that you have male and female, and that God created night and day but he also created the times in between – dawn and twilight.”

The vicar said, “God creates all these different animals, we’re still discovering new animals, and the fact we’re still discovering new ways of understanding gender makes perfect sense for a God who loves variety.”

They were halfway throught the vicar training programme when they first came out on their identity.

He shared how the words in Genesis 1:27 originally used the word “maleness to femaleness” instead of men and women. He continued, “I was sitting there in the middle of the night when I realised I might need to run my life upside down – it was a deepening spiritual experience.”

Bingo, at the time, had met with only two openly gay people, but none were trans among those he knew. Today, he enjoys telling those in the LGBTQ+ community at school that they can be at church.

Bingo is married with three children and shared previously that he gradually came out to his family first before the world.

“I’m married and I’ve got three children, and it was really important to come out to them, give some time letting them understand about me before I emerged on the world,” he spoke on BBC Radio Merseyside.

“My children are young and when you’re little really you accept most things and they’ve been lovely about it. We taught them about trans people before I came out so it wasn’t a completely alien thing for them.”

“It was difficult for my wife to begin with obviously you marry what you think is a straight guy and suddenly things are more complicated than that.”

“But I’d like to believe you marry the person someone becomes as much as you marry the person that they are.”

Bingo was previously trained to serve in Durham and the Church of England was “open” about them coming out. But some people working there found it “difficult” to work with them.

Hence their moving to the Liverpool Diocese where the people “does so much to support and empower LGBT people.” They shared that their time at Diocese has been “wonderful.

“On the outside you might think “oh, they’re quite a traditional church so they might have traditional views”, but I’ve always been treated as a person and as a priest,” they added.

Bingo shared that they grew up in a “strongly religious” household that taught them it was sinful to be gay. But meeting more LGBTQ+ Christians helped them change their view.

“I didn’t take the time to learn from other people’s experiences. I was definitely in a lot of denial and some of that denial came out in denial of other people’s identities,” they admitted.

Bingo, who is also autistic and dyspraxic, have since been an outspoken member that encourage others to be more inclusive. They added, “I am passionate about fully including neurodivergent people in the life and faith of the Church, particularly in our telling and retelling of stories from the Bible.”