WASHINGTON D.C. – Sally Sarratt and Maria Swearingen were presented to the congregation of Calvary Baptist Church on Sunday (January 8) and they would start doing their new jobs as co-pastors on February 26. A spokeswoman for the congregation said she didn’t know whether a gay couple leading a church was a first for Baptists. The two women are legally married since 2014, according to media reports. They met in the First Baptist Church of Greenville, and were both ordained there after it adopted and implemented a nondiscrimination policy in 2015.

Meanwhile, Disctrict of Columbia Baptist Convention (DCBC) executive director Robert Cochran told Baptist Press (BP) the convention has "no plans to disassociate" with the church and he "has never discussed the issue of homosexuality with" the congregation's leaders.

A fellow pastor from District of Columbia Baptist Convention called for "prayerful dialog" between convention leadership and the church. And a Southern Baptist Convention seminary president suggested the DCBC should disfellowship the congregation. Joseph Lyles, pastor of Fort Foote Baptist Church in Fort Washington, Md., told BP he was "surprised" and "concerned" that a sister DCBC church would call openly homosexual co-pastors. Fort Foote is a Southern Baptist church. Though each local church "is a sovereign body, I would think that if a church is moving" toward affirmation of homosexual behavior, convention leaders should "have a serious dialogue and prayerful discussion with them," he added.

Sarrat and Swearingen come to Calvary from Greenville, where Sarratt has been serving as associate chaplain for behavioral health in the Greenville Health System and Swearingen as associate chaplain at Furman University. “We have found it so easy to fall in love with Calvary and its longstanding commitment to be a voice of justice and compassion for those who perpetually find the wholeness of their humanity disregarded and maligned,” the couple said to the congregation Sunday, according to the church.

Carol Blythe, chair of Calvary's Ministerial Selection Committee, said on congregation “We look for the best people in the world and that’s who they were,” and “We’re very excited.”

Co-pastoring is a growing trend in U.S. houses of worship, with many churches and couples finding that sharing the often emotionally heavy workload can benefit both the clergy and the congregants.

Photo Credits: The State