WASHINGTON (RNS) Calvary Baptist Church, a progressive Baptist landmark in the heart of downtown Washington, has named a gay couple as co-pastors.
Sally Sarratt and Maria Swearingen were presented to the congregation during worship services Sunday (Jan. 8) and will begin their new jobs on Feb. 26.
The 150-year-old church severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention in 2012: it found itself at loggerheads with the group on several issues, including the SBC’s stance against homosexuality. Calvary Baptist still affiliates with American Baptist Churches USA.
A spokeswoman for the congregation said she didn’t know whether a gay couple leading a church was a first for the Baptists.
“We look for the best people in the world and that’s who they were,” said Carol Blythe. “We’re very excited.”
Sarratt and Swearingen come to Calvary from Greenville, S.C. where Sarratt has been serving as associate chaplain for behavioral health in the Greenville Health System and Swearingen as associate chaplain at Furman University, according to a press release from the church.
Sarratt has also been filling the role of part-time associate minister at Greenville Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
Both women were ordained at First Baptist Church of Greenville, after it adopted and implemented a non-discrimination policy in 2015, the release adds.
The Rev. Amy Butler, Calvary’s previous senior minister, left to serve in the same position at New York’s The Riverside Church in 2014.
Cavalry Baptist was founded by abolitionists who broke away from another Baptist church where congregants had refused to pray for Union soldiers during the Civil War.
by Lauren Markoe, Religion News Service
