Even today issues regarding sex, gender and sexuality and religion are still hot topics around the holy water, Rev. Cameron Partridge from St. Luke’s and St. Margaret’s Church in Allston said Wednesday night. Partridge, a Harvard Divinity School graduate, addressed a small group at the College of Arts and Sciencesin a talk about gender issues of both the early and modern Christian church. Boston University’s Episcopal Student Organization organized the talk. Gender issues in religion are common today, Partridge said. Just six years ago, Gene Robinson’s election as an openly gay bishop in the Episcopalian Church of New Hampshire ignited debates over whether a gay man can also be a bishop, Partridge said. ‘It’s hard to understand why we’re fighting about it now,’ Partridge said. ‘I come at it from a gay positive standpoint. I’m not going to try to be neutral, because I’m not.’ Although many of the church’s current issues today regard homosexuals, the church was also not as progressive when it came to ordaining women as priests, Partridge said. Women were only first ordained as priests in the Episcopalian Church, with other Anglican churches following afterwards, about 30 years ago. The first woman to be ordained a bishop did not occur until 1989. Anna Howard Shaw, who became the first female Methodist minister in the US, graduated from the BU School of Theology in 1876. As a member of the transgender community, Partridge said he identified with the story of those women. ‘I tell this story because it is real for me,’ he said. During those times, there was a lot of fighting about the presence of women, similar to the struggle going on now about sexual orientation in the clergy, Partridge said. ‘The Episcopal Church is negotiating its identity through a sense of gender and authority,’ Partridge said. People have questioned what roles are appropriate for women and men throughout history, Partridge said. ‘What it means to be a woman now is very different from what it meant to be a woman in 200 C.E.,’ Partridge said. Gender issues are found in many early Christian texts, Partridge said. Reading these texts can enhance the modern understanding of sex, gender and sexuality, he said. ‘These noncontemporary conversations are by no means out of nowhere,’ Partridge said. ‘These conversations of sexuality are related to conversations that have been happening in Christianity since its origin.’ Today, religious communities are redefining their identities by reexamining sex, gender and sexuality, Partridge said. However, while it may be difficult to understand where theses prejudices come from, Partridge said they have stemmed from sexism since ancient times. Also, when people read the Bible, they do so with their own presuppositions, he said. ‘We already have an idea of what it means to be human or gendered,’ Partridge said. ‘We bring all this stuff to the text.’ The tough part will be breaking through these layers of built-up prejudice within religious communities, Partridge said. Not all of the churches will agree, but Partridge said he hopes that they can all work together and move forward. ‘Despite the fact that we’re making huge gains, there is still a long way to go,’ Partridge said. School of Theology graduate student Rhoda Serafim said she agreed with Partridge. These issues of sex, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and class have one thing in common, she said. ‘All of these things culminate in [a person’s religious] identity,’ Serafim said. STH graduate student Liz Douglass said because everyone is different in terms of religion and sexuality, people should not be fearful of what they don’t know, Douglass said. ‘There is always more to the picture,’ Douglass said.