A Black, LGBTQ Connecticut pastor leads nearly 600 New England churches. He has a gift for all who need it

HARTFORD, Conn. — The Rev. Darrell Goodwin is 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, Find Hope Now. It’s a new take on the gospel, offering radical love, inclusion and what he calls “an extravagant welcome.”

Goodwin, who lives in Bloomfield, is the executive director of the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ, 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.

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

“Our oldest church in the Southern New England Conference is 405 years old,” Goodwin said. “And I often say when I visit our churches that are celebrating 400, 300, 175-year anniversaries, you know, when you were founded, I wouldn’t even be allowed in your pulpit. I’m not even sure I would be allowed to be here in the space. And so, not only am I in the space, but I’m serving as the spiritual leader of these 600 churches. To me, that ripples. I think it impacts.”

Goodwin and his husband were married at Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford in 2022 in a ceremony that was open to the public and livestreamed on the church’s website.

“The 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 …” illustrates the depth of support the church offers, Goodwin said.

That is for queer people and for people of color.

“I 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.”

Goodwin said when women, LBGBTQ, people of color are given leadership roles, it’s often when organizations are struggling and they are then blamed for their failure. The SNE UCC’s choice flips the script.

“To have the largest, most resourced conference give me the opportunity, from a minoritized community, it’s a historical shift in power and privilege,” he said. “It’s sort of saying ‘We’re not gonna give this to you because it’s falling apart. We’re gonna give this to you because we feel you can actually help grow this, expand this and expand our outreach.’

“And for that, I think it’s a notable choice. It’s significant that search committee was bold enough to say ‘No, we’re gonna change the script.” And I’m grateful.”

Goodwin launched the Find Hope Now campaign as a means to expand the church’s outreach. Within the first six weeks of launching FindHopeNow.org, the site had 135,000 visitors, Goodwin said.

FindHopeNow.org says this: “There 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’s journey, you are welcome. A place of hope.”

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.

“In a world that’s 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,” Goodwin said.

The UCC, a continuation of New England’s Congregational churches, is a liberal Protestant Christian denomination that focuses on the social gospel — putting the biblical command to love one’s neighbor into action.

The SNE UCC site says that in addition to making disciples of Jesus, the conference’s essential values include “making God’s 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,” as well as partnering with those who do the same.

On the website are stories of UCC churches’ 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.

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’s tears when the church was opened for vigil following the election; a church family offering love and acceptance to LGBTQ people who’ve been estranged.

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.

“For many of our churches who may feel that they’re aging or that they don’t have a relevant purpose in this world, Find Hope Now has kind of given them this boost of energy to say ‘We do have work to do as laws are changing, as anti-trans bills are being formed, as there’s more homelessness and loneliness, we might be able to do something … to offer something that’s seemingly absent unfortunately in our day and age,” Goodwin said.

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’ lawns. The signs are a powerful visual connecting the churches and offering welcome, said Rev. Tina Walker-Morin, who helped spearhead the effort.

“The churches are here with everybody during challenging times. Our boards say ‘God is listening and we are responding,'” Walker-Morin said.

The campaign aims to let people know “one, we’re not alone. Two, that everyone is loved no matter what is going on. And three, that we can make a difference.”

Walker-Morin said many people have asked what they can do with wildfires raging in California, wars across the world and the political climate. “It can be overwhelming, so it’s a place in the world we can find hope and be together.”

The pattern comes from “the greatest commandment” to love God and love your neighbor, Walker-Morin said, quoting Matthew 22. “Those are our guiding mission. Really it is to love everybody. We’re just trying to do the best we can and hopefully inspire and help people feel that they are loved most importantly.”

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