Iowa woman to share trans journey through song at Niantic church

Oct. 19—EAST LYME — Niantic Community Church is turning its focus outward this weekend with a concert by singer-songwriter Namoli Brennet, a transgender woman who has been touring on the folk-rock circuit since she released her first album more than two decades ago.

Brennet was invited to town from her Iowa home by Rev. Eric Elnes, an interim pastor at the church. He arrived in December with a doctorate in biblical studies, an abiding interest in using technology to foster spiritual growth and a commitment to LGBTQ+ activism.

Elnes said he was introduced to Brennet when she was a guest on his online TV show, "Darkwood Brew."

"We just fell in love with her music," he said.

Brennet was born in Derby and earned a music degree from Western Connecticut State University.

Niantic Community Church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. Rainbow panels affixed to the building look out over Pennsylvania Avenue on either side of a stark white cross, representing a community described by the church as "open, affirming and reconciling."

Associate pastor Kaleigh Corbett Rasmussen described the concert as a way to put those beliefs into action.

"It was a great opportunity to bring in this amazing musician, but also to support a musician on their own journey, which I think is really important," Rasmussen said.

The term "reconciling" refers to the church's commitment to making sure LGBTQ+ people are included fully in church life. That's despite doctrine within the broader United Methodist Church saying homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

"The United Methodist Church is going through its own internal family struggles, we'll say, with LGBTQ+ inclusion," Rasmussen said.

As a United Methodist minister married to a woman, Rasmussen acknowledged the church's stance "kind of complicates things." But at Niantic Community Church, that hasn't been the case.

"I've been able to be myself and be accepted by this entire community, and that's something I haven't had before," she said.

She said Elnes' focus on acceptance — not just of people, but of different faiths — has been a gift for the church that will be missed when he leaves his interim post in December.

Elnes was pastor at Countryside Community Church in Omaha, Neb., back in 2019 when it became the Christian partner in a tri-faith initiative that also included a synagogue and a mosque housed on a 38-acre commons.

Elnes was a leader in the formation of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, which in 2002 gained support from more than 160 Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy members in Arizona for a declaration of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. He was serving at a church in Scottsdale at the time.

The declaration led to the Phoenix Affirmations, a set of 12 principles outlining a new progressive Christianity with acceptance at its core. Elnes wrote a 2006 book on the affirmations, followed the next year by the 224-page recounting of a five-month cross-country walk that took those principles to the streets.

Elnes, who earned his doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary, is married with two grown daughters.

Rasmussen reiterated Elnes' advocacy for LGBTQ+ issues goes back decades.

"That's part of who he is," she said. "He uses his voice as a man who identifies as straight to amplify the voices of others."

The church's focus on inclusivity under Elnes' leadership included a series of classes on topics including homosexuality in the Bible and gender pronouns.

The congregation has embraced the learning opportunity, according to the associate pastor. The emphasis has also served to draw in new families "who want to raise their kids differently," she said.

"As this next generation comes up, I always say they're inventing new pronouns," Rasmussen said. "They're creating new terminology to decide who they are, and it's our responsibility to learn and teach and accept them and understand them."

Rasmussen said she is not aware of any transgender members at the church currently. But she knows there are some with transgender grandchildren who are seeking to gain a better understanding of the unfamiliar experience.

She credited congregation members with their willingness to open their minds and their doors.

"It's this desire to learn as the world keeps evolving," she said.

Brennet will perform at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free. A freewill collection will be taken to benefit the OutCT pride group out of New London. She will also be the featured speaker during the church's 9 a.m. worship service.

e.regan@theday.com