While they can hold their own among clergy and Ph.D.’s, Mx Chris is not a Christian clergy person, pastor, or priest. Mx Chris has an irregular calling that might even be considered “Irreverend.” They draw on numerous lineages and identify as an Animist religious practitioner with Christian ancestry. [Learn More]
Mx Chris spent more than 20 years immersed in non-profit management in a variety of roles from executive director to board member, from communications and website development to volunteer activist and organizer. A driving force behind Transfaith, OtherWise Engaged Publishing, and now the OtherWise Academy, they have provided both visionary and administrative leadership in a variety of forums related to gender-affirming spiritual care.
Their current goal is to become a board-certified chaplain with a specialization around transgender and intersex spiritual care and endorsement from the Religious Naturalist Association. They remain committed to doing trans-disciplinary work around medical narrative, spiritual care with the non-religious, and hermeneutics of presence.
- Member, Transgender Professional Association for Transgender Health (TPATH)
- Member, Spiritual Care Association (SCA)
- Member, College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP), Edison, NJ chapter
- Member, Religious Naturalist Association (RNA)
- Member, Spiritual Naturalist Society (SNS)
Mx. Chris lives in Central New Jersey, but maintains strong affinity and active relationships developed over more than 25 years nearby in Philadephia, PA. They are blessed to parent an extraordinarily wise teen and cuddle with a pretty pup.
Shorter Academic Bio
Mx Chris Paige, M.Div. (they/them) is a scholar, a chaplain educator, and an interfaith chaplain. Mx Chris has more than 20 years of experience working around transgender and intersex spiritual care, with an academic and professional interest in medical narrative, spiritual care for the non-religious, and hermeneutics of presence (care theory). More at www.chrispaige.com.
Longer Academic Bio.
Mx Chris Paige, M.Div. (they/them) is a scholar and chaplain educator who has done doctoral work in the field of medical humanities with an emphasis on medical narrative, spiritual care for the non-religious, and hermeneutics of presence (care theory). They have been doing ground-breaking work around transgender and intersex spiritual care for more than 20 years as publisher of The Other Side magazine and later co-founder of Transfaith, as well as author of OtherWise Christian: A Guidebook for Transgender Liberation (2019) and, most recently, “Transgender-Affirming Spiritual Care: A Bibliographic Essay” in Theological Librarianship (15:1).
As a chaplain educator, Mx Chris is eager to engage in grassroots, professional, and interdisciplinary conversations, combining insight and urgency from community life with more theoretical clarifications from the academy. Their new platform, the OtherWise Academy seeks to move conversations about sex, gender, sexuality, religion, and care ethics forward through accessible introductory resources, while building a container for more advanced conversations among clinicians and care providers.
Mx Chris lives in central New Jersey, but their heart belongs to the multicultural rhythms of Philadelphia. They are a parent of an extraordinary 17-year-old and a pretty fur baby, while being nurtured by their parents, several beloved anchors, and a national network of colleagues and friends. They identify as a Christo-Jew-Bu Animist relational assemblage and find spiritual strength in the compost pile.
More at www.chrispaige.com.
If Mx Chris is joining you for an event, they may want to provide a customized bio highlighting personal relationships or current events. Feel free to use the pictures above in your efforts to promote their appearance!
Shorter Grassroots Bio
Mx Chris Paige, M.Div. (they/them) is an OtherWise-identified organizer, coach, and chaplain educator, who authored OtherWise Christian: A Guidebook for Transgender Liberation (2019). Chris was founding executive director of Transfaith, a multi-tradition, multi-racial, multi-gender advocacy organization by and for people of transgender experience. The OtherWise Academy is the new forum where Chris is providing online education for spiritual care providers (as well as community members more broadly). More at www.chrispaige.com.
Longer Grassroots Bio
Mx Chris Paige, M.Div. (they/them) is an OtherWise-identified organizer, coach, and chaplain educator, who authored OtherWise Christian: A Guidebook for Transgender Liberation (2019), garnering the coveted “starred review” from Publisher’s Weekly which called it “invigorating” and “a treasure chest of resources.”
Mx Chris was founding executive director of Transfaith, a multi-tradition, multi-racial, multi-gender advocacy organization by and for people of transgender experience and continues to publish and teach around chaplaincy and spiritual care with transgender and intersex populations. Mx Chris has been a catalyst and/or contributor to several other ground-breaking projects for and by transgender faith leaders. The OtherWise Academy is the new forum where Chris is providing online education out of both grassroots and academic experience.
Mx Chris launched OtherWise Engaged Publishing to provide a platform for prophetic, transgender, intersex, and OtherWise voices. Examples of projects include the OtherWise Christian series, the OtherWise Reflection Guides, as well as shepherding books by other authors (including Jonathon Thunderword). Previously, Chris had been publisher and co-director of the (now defunct) award-winning, progressive, Christian magazine, The Other Side.
Mx Chris is currently an independent scholar with a continuing interest in doctoral work around medical narrative, spiritual care for the non-religious, and hermeneutics of presence (care theory).
More at www.chrispaige.com.
Mx. Chris Paige, M.Div. 