New Jersey ELCA ‘Church’ Holds ‘Renaming’ Ceremony for Female Leader Who Wants to Be Called Peter

HOBOKEN, N.J. — An assembly that is a part of the apostate Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) held a “renaming” ceremony on Sunday for their female pastor, who wishes to present herself as a man and now go by the name Peter—after one of Jesus’ disciples.

St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, whose motto is “Where tradition and inclusivity meet,” held the ceremony during the Sunday morning service on a day that is known to Lutherans as Transfiguration Sunday.

“Today, we are creating sacred space that allows our pastor to live more fully into who God is calling [her] to be,” it said in an online announcement. “We take a bold step in witnessing to the inclusiveness of God’s love for those within our church and society. Bless Peter with grace as [she] takes this new name!”

The ritual was led by Tracie Bartholomew, the “bishop” of the New Jersey Synod of the ELCA, who “blessed” leader Rose Beeson with water from the baptismal fountain to commemorate the changing of Beeson’s name to Peter.

“I support Pastor Beeson coming to the realization who [she] really is,” Bartholomew told reporters. “St. Matthew Trinity is a welcoming place and showing leadership to respond to gender identity and sexuality.”

Beeson said she chose the name Peter because the disciple’s persistence “resonated” with her. She explained that she has struggled with her identity from her youth, and felt “queer.”

“I wrestled with sex and gender from my teens into my early 20s,” Beeson told NJ.com, claiming that her life has now taken her on a “journey toward greater integrity to be the most fully present for the congregation and more honest and authentic and live what God is calling me to be.”

In its Facebook post announcing the ceremony, the St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran attempted to apply Galatians 3 to the occasion, which reads, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

While many congratulated Beeson online, some have expressed sorrow over the continuing apostasy among professing Christians.

“Ignoring the fact that God has called her to be a woman by virtue of having created her as a woman, Rose is using words like ‘honest’ and ‘authentic’ in dishonest and inauthentic ways. Sadly, with her dishonest and inauthentic sinful lifestyle, Rose has misled her congregation,” wrote John Ellis for PJ Media.

“St. Matthew Trinity prides itself on being gay-friendly, and Bishop Bartholomew is hoping that this renaming ceremony will open the door for other churches to allow confused and sick people to openly deny the identity that God gave them. Sadly, she’ll probably get her wish,” he lamented.

As previously reported, Scripture states that those who turn God’s creation “upside down” are like the clay telling the potter that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Romans 9:20 says, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, ‘Why hast thou made me thus?’”

Isaiah 29:16 also declares, “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay, for shall the work say of Him that made it, ‘He made me not?’ Or shall the thing framed say of Him that framed it, ‘He had no understanding?’”

Deuteronomy 22:5 further outlines, “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”