A Wisconsin cathedral has installed what is believed to be the first trans-identifying dean in the history of The Episcopal Church.
The Very Rev. Micah Cronin, a woman who identifies as a man, became dean of All Saints’ Cathedral in Milwaukee on Aug. 16, according to Episcopal News Service.
Cronin is married to the Rev. Elias Henry, a woman who also identifies as transgender and serves at The Corner House, a Lutheran LGBT-affirming campus ministry at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
In an introductory email sent to the congregation last month, Cronin described being raised Methodist, joining The Episcopal Church at age 19 and beginning to identify as transgender that same year.
“For clarification, this means that I was raised as a girl. For my whole adult life, I have been known and loved as myself — Micah,” wrote Cronin. “The churches I was raised in were not able to receive me as I am. But as a young person, I heard through the grapevine that the Episcopal Church would accept me.”
“I knew that no matter what I had to follow Jesus. The small Episcopal parish I walked into years ago made it possible for me to do that, through their kind, steadfast, gentle acceptance, and above all, their love.”
Cronin’s appointment comes as The Episcopal Church continues to face long-term membership decline, a trend that has unfolded alongside broader losses across many U.S. denominations and amid controversy over the church’s progressive theological direction.
The denomination experienced significant division after consecrating the Rev. Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop in 2003, prompting numerous congregations to leave in protest.
In 2010, The Episcopal Church reported fewer than 2 million active baptized members. By 2023, that figure had fallen to about 1.547 million.
For its 2024 Parochial Report, released last October, the denomination did not publish an overall membership total, citing questions about how the numbers should be measured and reported.
The same report recorded 19,624 baptisms of children and adults in 2024, down from more than 28,000 total baptisms reported in 2014.
