Rev Adam Baker was commissioned yesterday as the new minister at the Dunedin Methodist Parish.
He and his wife, Jenn, chose to move to New Zealand with their four children, aged 18, 15, 13 and 11, to escape growing discrimination against the queer community in their home state of Missouri.
The former St Louis pastor, who has family members in the LGBTQ community, said the political climate in the United States had become vitriolic and fiercely antagonistic.
"When anti-trans legislation was trying to be passed in Missouri, I would do advocacy work alongside a pretty large group of other clergy and people whose children were trans and non-binary," Rev Baker said.
Not just in Missouri, but on a national level there were attempts to identify a very small part of the population as "problematic or suspect" because of their differences, he said.
"I had lots of trans friends who had moved out of the country or persons whose children were trans or non-binary who had to move to other countries as well."
While his previous church in St Louis was fully inclusive, Mr Baker said he and his wife concluded there was no way for their children to be safe and to thrive as who they were.
"We really need to be in a place where we can feel a sense of safety and connection."
He began looking for a more accepting environment, and a Google search for affirming denominations led him to the Methodist Church of New Zealand.
"To find a denomination like the Methodist Church of New Zealand that has been open and inclusive since the ’90s, in my understanding, has been a refreshing journey for me."
His mission and theology are deeply grounded in welcoming disenfranchised people, drawing on the biblical passage of Matthew 25.
Jesus taught that salvation relies on actively treating vulnerable people with dignity and compassionate care because Christ intimately identifies with the marginalised, he said.
"Beauty is a relentless thing. And it is stubborn. And it seeks us. And whether it is in some of the darkness that is happening there or some of the darkness that is trying to happen here, beauty beats at the heart of God."
Since arriving in Dunedin a few weeks ago, the family has been struck by the beauty and peace of their new home.
"There are so many people and so much history, so many rich stories that I have barely begun to encounter."
