COLORADO – Rev. Malcolm Himschoot has been installed as the Parker United Church of Christ spiritual leader in a ceremony in the Mainstreet Center Auditorium.
“On this day we celebrate God doing a new thing,” said Pam Thompson, a church founder. “So let us come together in boldness and genuine humility.”
What makes Himschoot’s journey more remarkable is that he was born female, choosing, as a young adult, to become male. Despite fears he would be lonely, unemployable and cast aside by other Christians, Himschoot made the decision, when 21, that he wouldn’t take his own life, but would make a leap of faith into gender transition.
He is now the married father of 3-year-old twins and the new pastor of a mainline, Protestant church in Douglas County.
“I have a life beyond my wildest dreams,” the 33-year-old Himschoot told the Denver Post.
The church, founded three years ago, declared itself the county’s first Open and Affirming church, or ONA, and it quickly put its money where its proclaimed values were by hiring Himschoot when it was ready for a full-time pastor.
“We picked him because he was the best fit for our church,” Kepner said. “We didn’t pick him specifically because he’s transgendered.”
