"God is beautifully non-binary" are the words Reverend Sarah Jones used to describe her idea of God.
Straying away from the biblical stereotypes, she thinks the idea of God is something our language simply "cannot capture."
In 2018, Sarah arrived in Cardiff as the new vicar for St John The Baptist City Parish Church. From the get go, she was motivated to tackle the problems that lie just on the church's doorsteps, such as homelessness and drug addiction, and she was determined to create a church that was inclusive as it could be.
After changing her name legally to Sarah in 1991 and studying at University, Sarah "fell in love" with the Anglican church and was received into the Church of England in her college chapel.
In the early 2000s Sarah began her training and was officially ordained in 2004. In doing so, Sarah became the first person to be ordained after having made a gender transition.
"I grew up thinking of God as a sort of grandfather figure," she explained.
"But the more we think about God, the more we realise that our language simply cannot capture what God is.
"If we say God hears our prayers, how does God hear everyone? I'm pretty sure God doesn't hear our prayers in the way that we are hearing each other.
"Our image is so prescribed. I don't think God has a physical body in heaven. But on the cosmic scale when we're talking about eternity, what is at the heart of God? We learn that God made us in God's image but the thing we have to avoid is making God in our image."
After being ordained in 2004, someone caught wind of Sarah's transitional history and, she said had threatened "to out her". At this point the church, which Sarah has always said have backed her, decided to tell her transitional story to defuse the situation. In doing so, Sarah became a beacon and living proof that LGBT+ communities could be involved with and celebrate their faith. You can read more about Sarah's history here.
The idea of being accepted into a church as a member of the LGBT+ community is hard to believe for a number of people. With many archaic strains of religion holding sometimes anti-LGBT views, many queer people have chosen to distance themselves. Admitting that her early exposure to Christianity was "conservative" Sarah believes under the surface things are a lot more diverse.
"I really understand why LGBT+ people can be wary of religion, partly because it seems to be quite a straight thing, There don't seem to many kind of role models in Bible stories that they might of heard," she said.
"And it's certainly true that more conservative Christians are very well represented in the media. So often, when you hear a Christian talking about the position on marriage, for example, almost everything can come across as if Christianity is a very conservative religion.
"I meet a lot of LGBT+ people who say to me that they've been told explicitly that they're not welcome in a church or that people are praying for them in a way that suggests that they're praying for them not to be gay.
"The truth is, it's much more diverse. Below the surface, things are a lot more diverse. And happily, there are a lot more congregations and groups now that are fully inclusive of LGBT+ people.
"Personally, I think God is fully inclusive. I would say that I honestly think matters of sexuality in terms of attraction are not things that God would have a problem with. It's about the way we live our lives, not whether we're in an absolutely straight relationship."
As we head towards the end of Pride Month in June, Sarah has taken this opportunity to focus more of her attention into creating the church as inclusive as possible, especially for those who have disabilities and learning difficulties. Describing it as a "good wake up call", going online during the ensuing coronavirus has led to more inclusive congregations.
"We hear of people's stories and we celebrate with people," she said. "So it's an opportunity to make us more aware. How many other groups are excluded from church deliberately or not? How many do we not even notice?
"For example, the disabled community have found it very hard to get to a normal church. And so all the bad news of Covid has put a lot of churches online. All of a sudden able bodied churches have discovered that there's a great opportunity to produce worship in a way which is more accessible.
"We're celebrating Pride Month and I'm loving the stories about my LGBT+ brothers and sisters but I think it's important to also say 'OK, who is still missing from the table?'."
This year, Sarah was honoured in the Attitude Pride Awards for embodying the "spirit of LGBTQ Pride in the Christian community".
Working tirelessly to create an inclusive church community in Cardiff, Sarah described the news as "out of the blue" and credits the Church in Wales for being so supportive.
"It was really lovely, because Attitude build up a community in their own way. It focuses on a readership and a community which is in need of things to pull it together," she added.
"The fact that I was nominated and they gave me this award is fabulous, because it shows that we're not on opposite sides of the fence. You can be queer and have faith. And I've found that the church in Wales have been there for me 100 percent. Not just for me but for others in our community.
"I have the award sitting on my mantel. And every time I look at it, I'm just reminded of my queer brothers and sisters and the fact that we're ultimately in this together."
