She opened doors in the church. Then she came out as gay

Cathryn Cummings never set out to be a church reformer, but after she was defrocked for being gay in the 1990s, she said it’s what she accidentally became.

Cummings, of Gig Harbor, Wash., will visit Pullman this weekend to speak at the Community Congregational United Church of Christ, as part of its LGBTQ exploratory discussion and dinner series. The event at 5 p.m. Sunday is free and open to the public.

When Cummings began her ministry work in the 1970s, she said she was an anomaly. She was the first woman pastor most people had met. She received her ordination from the Presbyterian Church in Wenatchee, Wash., in 1979 and said she was the one of the first ordained women ministers in Washington.

Cummings traveled and preached at churches around the country. She said people were surprised and often dismayed by a woman holding a sermon.

In the 1990s she worked as a corporate consultant, encouraging executives to seek spirituality in their lives. Little did she know, she would meet a woman and fall in love.

“I had never considered I could feel this way for a woman,” Cummings said. “I was an ordained minister, married with two children and in love with a woman. I didn’t know what to do.”

She said being gay in the ’90s was dangerous, but she wasn’t afraid to be herself. Cummings divorced and married her life partner, Connie Brown. She added coming out had a cost, and she lost everything.

“The response I got from everyone was deafening silence,” she said. “I lost my friends, my family and I was abandoned by the church.”

Cummings was defrocked by the Presbyterian Church in 1994 after it learned she was gay.

“There was no knock on the door, or a phone call,” she said. “They filled my name in a letter and mailed it, that’s how they handled it.”

She said she wasn’t going to let the church keep her down or quiet. In response, she started a new church in Seattle called Spirit of the Sound.

The congregation was the one of the first gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender-affirming churches in Seattle, Cummings said. She added it attracted all kinds of people from around the nation, and had a ripple effect through churches around the country.

“Spirit of the Sound changed lives and changed hearts,” Cummings said. “And for the first time, we began to see so many more open and affirming churches all over the U.S.”

Cummings continued work with Spirit of the Sound until 2005. She was re-frocked by the United Church of Christ in 2004.

“For seven years I wasn’t sure they were going to let me back into the church,” Cummings said. “Coming out cost me everything, and I’d do it again.”

During Sunday’s service, Cummings will bring the “God is wildly in love with you” chalice from Spirit of the Sound. She said she’ll discuss the church’s history with social issues and God’s unconditional love.

“When someone is left out of the circle of God’s love, that’s a problem,” Cummings said. “We are told to create gracious hospitality to everyone, and that means capital ‘E,’ everyone.”

To learn more about the Community Congregational United Church of Christ, visit its website at pullmanucc.org.

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com