In these historic times, transgender people and our concerns are becoming more and more visible in both secular and religious communities. Yet, too often, we remain an isolated "minority within a minority."

The planned New Orleans event, For Such a Time as This, came together very quickly and dramatically. From the moment, I sent out my first networking emails about the idea to gather transgender religious community, it was clear that there was great energy for such collaborations. 

I was privileged to be at the center of this kairos moment. While the originally planned event did not happen, I was nonetheless deeply blessed, through the planning, to get to know an even wider range of transgender religious activists than I even knew existed. 

As Hurricane Gustav interrupted our plans and with this amazing cloud of witnesses in mind, I wondered how we might still meet the goal of helping our community get to know itself better. 

Opportunities for personal networking, community collaboration, and movement building are still very much needed.  I hope that many will gather at the Philadelphia TransHealth Conference in June 2008, as there is nothing that can replace the power of face-to-face connections.

However, I had tasted the potential energy in these connections and I was loathe to simply postpone such urgently awaited connections for 9 months. Several of the planned presenters were willing and able to participate in long-distance conference calls around the same, originally planned topics.

• Strategies for transgender education
• Dynamics of ministry with the transgender community
• Blessings and challenges of becoming more visible
• Opportunities for collaboration across denominational lines
• Our need for authentic relationships of support and accountability between transgender people and our allies

The on-line conversations will be less interactive than the originally planned event would have been, but they will be accessible to a much wider audience. They are offered here in the hope that they may strengthen the transgender religious community for such a time as this.