When Darrell Goodwin steps into his new role as Executive Conference Minister for Southern New England in the progressive United Church of Christ, he’ll be the first Black LGBT person in the country to hold such a high-ranking leadership position in the UCC, overseeing some 600 congregations across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
But this isn’t the first time Goodwin has been at the forefront of New England communities of faith.
While earning his masters degree in education at the University of Vermont back in 2005, he created a popular campus ministry at that school. “We built this amazing group: students, faculty, staff, the local community, all walks of life, LGBT, different multicultural family backgrounds,” he told University of Vermont Today.
“That was kind of my foundation of thinking of how to have an inclusive worship community. It stretched me in my theology, in my preaching, in my thought of how you make faith accessible to all people, because there were people who joined who were not Christian, but there was something about the community that made them want to join us.”
Reports UVM Today:
Goodwin, who earned his UVM master’s in Higher Education Administration and Student Affairs in 2005, has followed a dual path in higher ed and Christian ministry for much of his life. He’s deeply grounded in the latter, growing up attending the Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ that his great-grandfather founded when the family migrated north to Chicago from Chula, Mississippi. In 2000, he was ordained as a Church of God in Christ minister. …
The United Church of Christ is among the most progressive denominations in the United States, with deep roots that reach back to the 17th-century. Goodwin’s appointment makes good on pushing forward that tradition. The Southern New England Conference he will oversee (Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut) is the geographic heart of the church, with some 600 congregations across the region.
The congregational church steeple is an iconic part of the New England landscape. As Goodwin outlines his plans and hopes in this new role, it’s with an eye towards helping congregations raise their profiles as places of welcome and unity. Speaking to societal divisions, acts of hate with attacks on mosques and synagogues, Goodwin says, “UCC churches, how dare us not make partnerships with the local mosques and synagogues and the Buddhist Temple and everyone else. What would it be if every town knew that they had a United Church of Christ that is committed to hope and healing and restoration?”
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