Three years ago, Anglican minister Josephine Inkpin finally made the decision to live openly as a woman, to stay married and stay a priest.

"I've never really felt comfortable with myself as male from a very early age but I could never really put the words to it," said Ms Inkpin, now 58 and working as a theology lecturer in Brisbane.

Named Jonathan Inkpin at birth, she grew up in a conservative rural area in England before moving to Australia with her wife and two children in 2001.

Prior to her transition, Ms Inkpin was a minister on Queensland's Darling Downs, based in Toowoomba at Saint Luke's Anglican Church between 2010 and 2017.

But for almost her entire life she never felt comfortable in her own skin. She thought it was a normal struggle that others faced.

"It was really hard to make sense of that," she said.

Ms Inkpin says watching a film on a long haul flight changed her life. ( Supplied: Jo Inkpin )

Moving between different spaces

Ms Inkpin said when she reflected, her decision to become an Anglican priest was linked to her feelings about her gender identity.

"I think being a priest is a lovely way of being someone who can move between different spaces, so I didn't have to be a male businessmen or something like that," she said.

"We're sort of like an intermediate thing, certainly from an Anglican, Catholic point of view."

Ms Inkpin says her life journey and recent decision to live as woman has made her a better Christian minister. ( Supplied: Jo Inkpin )

Between the religious dress and societal function, she said there was a gender neutrality.

"There's kind of a sense in which there's a bit of balance of male and female," Ms Inkpin said.

"I actually think it was partly my salvation."

Fifty years of burying true identity

Ms Inkpin said she threw herself into running which helped distract her.

Ms Inkpin physique during her youth was slim and sporty, which she said made it more bearable to her, but as she grew older her body changed, and her suffering grew.

"I absolutely buried it for a lot of the time," she said.

"You know, you get married and all those sort of things, you think it'll work out."

Three years ago, Ms Inkpin was on a long-haul flight to Paris when she watched The Danish Girl, a film about pioneering artist and transgender woman Lili Elbe. It literally changed her life.

"I knew when I stepped off there, that was it — so it's been a journey ever since," she said.

Throughout it all, Ms Inkpin remained married to her wife Penny.

"Penny found out quite early on by chance in our marriage — I think she thought I was essentially a cross-dresser," she said.

Ms Inkpin, right, remains married to her wife Penny who she said has been steadfast in her support throughout the transition process. ( Supplied: Jo Inkpin )

"But she quickly found out that I was much happier when I was able to express identity."

Ms Inkpin said her wife says "I am a Jo-sexual" to anyone questioning her about being lesbian.

"I think we are both kind of a mixture of what you might call masculine and feminine," she said.

Ms Inkpin said she was more intimate with her wife than before she transitioned.

"For most of my life I've really found it difficult having Penny touch me," she said.

"But as soon as I started taking hormones, because I was comfortable in my own skin, you know, now it's easy for me to do that.

"We're actually closer, because there's less distance and I'm not spending all this time fighting myself so it's easier to love her."

Ms Inkpin says when she first heard about other transgender priests overseas, a new world of possibility opened up. ( Supplied: Jo Inkpin )

New door opens

When Ms Inkpin first learned about other transgender ministers in America and England, a new door suddenly opened.

"It was like an electric shock went through me and I realised that this is possible."

Ms Inkpin believes the profound internal struggle through decades of her life, and now the challenging transition process had helped her ministering across different communities.

And while there were some who struggled with the idea, overall the Church had been supportive.

"A friend of mine said, when I get to heaven I'm going to go straight to the heavenly throne and demand 'why [did] you make me like this?' — and I said, I think you'll be in a long line actually," Ms Inkpin said.