Phillippa Phaneuf
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On the podcast this week
Rev. Dr. Phillippa Phaneuf, pastor of North Chili United Methodist Church in Rochester, NY, discusses coming out as transgender to her congregation.
On this week’s podcast
A year ago this month, the Rev. Dr. Phillippa Phaneuf stood before her congregation at North Chili United Methodist Church outside Rochester, New York, and came out as transgender. She posted the video of the announcement on Facebook so members who missed the service wouldn’t be confused the following Sunday. Within days, the video had gone viral. “I thought at most it would just be something from a North Chili perspective, but not from a global perspective,” she told me.
Pastor Phil grew up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal home, where her parents were convinced she was destined for ministry. At seven, she went trick-or-treating dressed as a preacher. But it took 10 years away from organized religion before she found her own way back, first as a youth pastor and then, in 2018, as an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.
One of the things that struck me when we spoke was that, in one of the most vulnerable moments of her life, Pastor Phil’s first instinct was pastoral care for her congregation.
In this episode, Pastor Phil talks about growing up without the language to understand who she was, why she calls fear a junk food emotion and the heartbreaking message her parents asked to her to convey to the congregation.
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Coming up on the podcast
Nahid Salimi in Cascais Portugal
On August 15, 2021, 15-year-old Nahid Salimi put on her uniform and set off for school in Kabul. When she got there, she found men with guns inside. The Taliban had taken over and outlawed education for women and girls.
“That’s how my whole life changed in one day,” she told me. Undaunted, Nahid taught herself English watching YouTube.
Later, she taught herself French and risked arrest to teach it to other Afghan girls. As the community grew to 1,000 the risk to Nahid increased. She did it anyway.
Shark behavioral ecologist Cristina Zenato has spent three decades swimming with Caribbean reef sharks. When she noticed that some of them had fish hooks in their mouths, she developed a method to pull them out.
When I asked what she’s afraid of, sharks didn’t make the list. So what did? Cristina shares the fears she still works through and why, when her body sounds the alarm, she tells it, “Thank you for the warning.”
Cristina Zenato (photo by Kewin Lorenzen)
Get caught up on previous episodes…
Melissa Blake
When an online troll said journalist Melissa Blake should be banned from posting photos of herself, she posted a selfie. Then she posted one every day for a year and went viral.
Lorenz Hemicker
As a child growing up in Germany, Lorenz Hemicker heard that his grandfather had done “distinguished service” in World War II.
Decades later, Lorenz set out to learn the whole truth.
Ben Stone
In 2019, he woke up from surgery and thought it was 2024. Then his mother started looking like his cat.
Leeann Bongiorno
She feared she would live the rest of her life in pain. Then one doctor said six words.
Sasha Karelsky
She Checked His Location…and Her Whole Life Changed
Zero Experience, Huge Deals: How Miguel Olave Just Went For It
Cory Young
What Would You Do If a Stranger Tried to Set You on Fire?
Abigail Washington
How Can You Think Outside the Box When You’re in the Box?
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Special thanks to Kim Ledgerwood, Hannah Verdant, Laine Seaton and my kids for their support and hard work in making Bodacious Tenacity a reality.
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