{"id":20687,"date":"2025-01-16T08:58:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T13:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=20687"},"modified":"2025-01-16T08:58:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T13:58:01","slug":"a-black-lgbtq-connecticut-pastor-leads-nearly-600-new-england-churches-he-has-a-gift-for-all-who-need-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/01\/a-black-lgbtq-connecticut-pastor-leads-nearly-600-new-england-churches-he-has-a-gift-for-all-who-need-it.html","title":{"rendered":"A Black, LGBTQ Connecticut Pastor Leads Nearly 600 New England Churches. He Has a Gift for All Who Need It"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Rev. Darrell Goodwin \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The\u00a0Rev. Darrell Goodwin<\/a>\u00a0is seeking those who have been estranged from hope.<\/p>\n

The leader of nearly 600 New England churches has recently launched a campaign to reach those in need of hope,\u00a0Find Hope Now<\/a>. It\u2019s a new take on the gospel, offering radical love, inclusion and what he calls \u201can extravagant welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodwin, who lives in Bloomfield, is the executive director of the\u00a0Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ<\/a>, a collection of 570 churches in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The conference was formed four years ago when the state conferences voted to join together, and Goodwin was appointed to lead them. He is the first LGBTQ Black American person to lead a UCC conference.<\/p>\n

His selection, he said in an interview with The Hartford Courant, is itself a message of welcome and affirming to members of marginalized communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur oldest church in the Southern New England Conference is 405 years old,\u201d Goodwin said. \u201cAnd I often say when I visit our churches that are celebrating 400, 300, 175-year anniversaries, you know, when you were founded, I wouldn\u2019t even be allowed in your pulpit. I\u2019m not even sure I would be allowed to be here in the space. And so, not only am I in the space, but I\u2019m serving as the spiritual leader of these 600 churches. To me, that ripples. I think it impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodwin and his husband were married at Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford\u00a0in 2022 in a ceremony<\/a>\u00a0that was open to the public and livestreamed on the church\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that me and my husband could find a church in the heart of the city to be married with a packed sanctuary and a clergy person to do the ceremony and not just be willing but glad about it and the church streamed it on their website \u2026\u201d illustrates the depth of support the church offers, Goodwin said.<\/p>\n

That is for queer people and for people of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for communities of color, who have sometimes seen themselves as adjacent to the congregational experience but not centered in it, they now see they can be centered in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodwin said when women, LGBTQ, people of color are given leadership roles, it\u2019s often when organizations are struggling and they are then blamed for their failure. The SNE UCC\u2019s choice flips the script.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have the largest, most resourced conference give me the opportunity, from a minoritized community, it\u2019s a historical shift in power and privilege,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of saying \u2018We\u2019re not gonna give this to you because it\u2019s falling apart. We\u2019re gonna give this to you because we feel you can actually help grow this, expand this and expand our outreach.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for that, I think it\u2019s a notable choice. It\u2019s significant that the search committee was bold enough to say \u2018No, we\u2019re gonna change the script.\u201d And I\u2019m grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodwin launched the Find Hope Now campaign as a means to expand the church\u2019s outreach. Within the first six weeks of launching\u00a0FindHopeNow.org<\/a>, the site had 135,000 visitors, Goodwin said.<\/p>\n

FindHopeNow.org<\/a>\u00a0says this: \u201cThere is a place for you in this world. A place of radical inclusion. A place where, no matter who you are or where you are on life\u2019s journey, you are welcome. A place of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodwin said that in this moment when people are alienated from each other and from the church by the harms of prejudice, the UCC churches offer an example of people loving and serving each other, and an opportunity to find a home to be loved and to love and serve others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a world that\u2019s so concretely divided, literally where people are experiencing hatred towards their neighbor, distance towards the humanity in another individual, these churches are showing that no matter your background, race, culture, sexual orientation, we can find some sense of commonality with each other, and I might say that commonality is this desperation, I think we all have towards finding hope,\u201d Goodwin said.<\/p>\n

The UCC, a continuation of New England\u2019s Congregational churches, is a liberal Protestant Christian denomination that focuses on the social gospel \u2014 putting the biblical command to love one\u2019s neighbor into action.<\/p>\n

The SNE UCC site says that in addition to making disciples of Jesus, the conference\u2019s essential values include \u201cmaking God\u2019s love and justice real by loving our neighbors, children, and all of creation through our collective work, such as seeking racial, economic, environmental, and LGBTQ justice,\u201d as well as partnering with those who do the same.<\/p>\n

On the website are stories of UCC churches\u2019 outreach: During a push to ban books in Enfield schools, the UCC church there worked with neighbors to build a free lending library to show support for the LGBTQ community; The church in North Reading, Massachusetts, built a food pantry to celebrate its 300th anniversary; A church in Worcester launched the LGBT Asylum Task Force to assist queer people fleeing other countries because of persecution.<\/p>\n

And Goodwin has his stories, too: a church that knew of a member family dealing with food insecurity that started an extravagant pot luck supper as a means of sending home leftovers to carry the family through to the end of the month; a pastor whose hug quieted a woman\u2019s tears when the church was opened for vigil following the election; a church family offering love and acceptance to LGBTQ people who\u2019ve been estranged.<\/p>\n

The Find Hope Now campaign is also a means of revitalizing the churches that count hundreds of years of history but fewer members than they once had, Goodwin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many of our churches who may feel that they\u2019re aging or that they don\u2019t have a relevant purpose in this world, Find Hope Now has kind of given them this boost of energy to say \u2018We do have work to do as laws are changing, as anti-trans bills are being formed, as there\u2019s more homelessness and loneliness, we might be able to do something \u2026 to offer something that\u2019s seemingly absent unfortunately in our day and age,\u201d Goodwin said.<\/p>\n

The churches on Cape Cod and the Massachusetts islands created signs with the Find Hope Now logo and message that are now displayed on the churches\u2019 lawns. The signs are a powerful visual connecting the churches and offering welcome, said Rev. Tina Walker-Morin, who helped spearhead the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe churches are here with everybody during challenging times. Our boards say \u2018God is listening and we are responding,\u2019\u201d Walker-Morin said.<\/p>\n

The campaign aims to let people know \u201cone, we\u2019re not alone. Two, that everyone is loved no matter what is going on. And three, that we can make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker-Morin said many people have asked what they can do with wildfires raging in California, wars across the world and the political climate. \u201cIt can be overwhelming, so it\u2019s a place in the world we can find hope and be together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pattern comes from \u201cthe greatest commandment\u201d to love God and love your neighbor, Walker-Morin said, quoting Matthew 22. \u201cThose are our guiding mission. Really it is to love everybody. We\u2019re just trying to do the best we can and hopefully inspire and help people feel that they are loved most importantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This article originally appeared on GazetteXtra.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Rev. Darrell Goodwin\u00a0is seeking those who have been estranged from hope. The leader of nearly 600 New England churches has recently launched a campaign to reach those in need of hope,\u00a0Find Hope Now. It\u2019s a new take on the gospel, offering radical love, inclusion and what he calls \u201can extravagant welcome.\u201d Goodwin, who lives in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":20684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[741,4,12,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-inspiring-messages","category-inspiring-people","category-something-to-think-about"],"yoast_head":"\nA Black, LGBTQ Connecticut Pastor Leads Nearly 600 New England Churches. 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