Rev. Dr. Mark Allen Doty

Rev. Dr. Mark Allen Doty
United Methodist Church

Bangor, ME

I was a fifth generation Methodist minister. Beginning with the ordination of my great-great grandfather, Thomas King Doty in 1834 by Bishop Osmon C. Baker, our family line continued with my own ordination as a United Methodist Elder in 1978. That rich tradition of 162 years was abruptly broken by my outing in October of 1996. I was then the Senior Pastor of a 3,300-member United Methodist congregation in Corpus Christi, Texas. I began my full-time ministry in that church in 1977 as an Associate Pastor and returned in 1989 as the Senior Pastor. It had been a glorious experience.

The great irony of my outing is that I was then a non-practicing gay man – faithful both to my wife and to the Discipline of the UMC. Regardless, the news sent the church into an uproar. Two protests were hastily organized by members of the congregation. I was told that on the following Communion Sunday, one group planned to jeer when I began preaching. Another group was going to refuse taking Communion from my hands. After gathering at the alter rail, the protesters planned to drink the juice from the small glass, place the piece of uneaten bread in it, and hand it back to me.

Needless to say, I found the prospect of doing any further ministry under those conditions intolerable. I resigned my pulpit eight days after the news broke. Suddenly I had no profession, no income, no home, no marriage, no place in the community. My outing set me on a path searching for a livelihood and another denomination to accept me. I found a blessed home in the United Church of Christ. Twelve jobs and five years later, I received a call to Hammond Street Congregational Church in Bangor, Maine.

May God forgive “the people called Methodist” for the pain and shame that has been wreaked on so many LGBT clergy and those who they love!