poet. minister.
binary breaker.

Hi, I’m Avery Arden! My ministry centers around God’s good news for trans & disabled people: our inherent wholeness, holiness, and agency as both recipients and bearers of divine blessing.

Photo of Avery, a white person with glasses and short brown hair, standing outside in a scarlet shirt. They are laughing with their eyes shut.

If you believe — or are interested in discovering — that the Imago Dei is not complete without all persons of all genders, dis/abilities, races, cultures, faiths, then you and I might enjoy working and learning together.

I use they/them or ze/zir pronouns, which means that when you talk about me, you can use just they/them, just ze/zir, or you can spice things up and use a mix of both!

In case you are still figuring out the whole pronouns thing, let me show you how they work while sharing more about myself (you can also practice pronouns over on this site):

  • Avery lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with their wife and two cats. They earned their MDiv from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2019.
  • Avery is proudly genderqueer and Autistic. Zir special interests include poetry, linguistics, crip culture, queer history, and the Bible (especially biblical languages and stories about eunuchs).
  • They are also white, currently able-bodied, passionate about (but a novice at) foraging and gardening, and a member of the national board of directors for More Light Presbyterians.
  • A firm believer that all binaries were made to be broken, Avery’s faith draws from both the Catholic and Reformed Protestant traditions. While ze believes that Divinity thrums through all of Creation and breathes life into every human community, not just Christian ones, zir own writing emphasizes a Triune, incarnational God.

Linktree of all projects, including:

Ko-fi for those wishing to offer thanks financially.

Last Note: I changed my last name from Smith to Arden in November 2021. Some of my work is still under Smith, but if you share it around, I appreciate being cited as Avery Arden!