Anonymous

"Someone Needs Us"

For a long time, Anonymous didn’t think she was the right kind of person to be a minister. There were no leaders in her church community like her. Then she realized that’s exactly why she needed to become one.

Anonymous is sadly well aware of the risks of being out during the ordination process. Knowing that changes in the rules don't always equal changes in heart, she refused to speak about her sexual orientation throughout her process in the hopes that she would be judged based on her ministerial qualities and not on whom she loves. Although silence can be painful, it was preferable to having her calling completely stalled and harshly scrutinized based on just one aspect of her life.

Paula

"We are All Beloved Children of God"

To tell a human being that they aren’t welcome is hurtful. To tell them that, because they are gay, they need to be “healed” before being worthy of serving God is a hurt beyond words.

Despite living in a cosmopolitan urban setting, conservative values reign, and Paula has felt rejected by her family and her church most of her life. She tried to walk away from the church to escape the rejection, but God continued to lead her toward ministry in the church. Several years into her teaching career, she finally found acceptance in the PC(USA) and entered seminary full-time in the evenings. Her path to answering her call to ministry has lead her through 20 years of teaching, 2 seminary degrees, and toward a wonderful life partner. 

REV. BERTRAM JOHNSON

"My Call is Bigger than Me"

Bertram’s religion didn’t give him a place to explore being gay. The only vocabulary available in his church told him that being gay was bad. He resisted this truth about himself; he prayed against it; but he only found peace when he claimed the words for his own truth.

The Reverend Bertram Johnson graduated seminary in 1996 and was ordained as a pastor in 2014. He is the first openly gay African American to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He now serves as an Interfaith Minister providing spiritual care to students at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He and his husband, Jason, were married in 2019.