Unity Cambridge to install openly gay pastor

The Boston area has no shortage of LGBT clergy serving in a variety of denominations, and on March 22 the ranks of the area's LGBT religious leaders will grow by one more when Unity Cambridge installs the Rev. Adam Sutton, a gay man, as its pastor.

Sutton was selected to serve as pastor of the church last November and has been preaching at the church on an informal basis since 2005, when he first got involved with the church. The Unity movement, part of the New Thought movement, has been described by church leaders as a practical approach to Christianity that focuses on the healing power of prayer and that allows people to choose their own spiritual path. Sutton said Unity Cambridge has between 50 and 60 parishioners, and he said the congregation is steadily growing.

Sutton, 44, said he is comparatively new to the Unity movement, having gotten involved around the time he joined Unity Cambridge, but he has been active over the course of his life in various denominations. He grew up in Bedford as a member of an Episcopal church, and in high school he joined a Congregationalist youth group. He was struggling with his sexuality at the time, and said the progressive youth group invited a speaker to talk about homosexuality. The speaker's affirming message helped put him on the path to ministry, he recalled.

"I thought, whoa, this is my little hometown, we're in a church, we're talking, we're bringing all my worlds together in a very powerful way. ... I think that began this really positive connection with being able to be in a positive space with the divine, what I call God, and being accepted. And that became my model for what a spiritual experience was supposed to be like," said Sutton.

Sutton first encountered the New Thought movement while visiting Chicago in 2005, attending a church in a sister denomination, a Science of Mind church. The pastor of the church was a gay man, and Sutton said he was intrigued by the church, its teachings and its LGBT-friendly climate. Upon returning to Boston he began attending services at Unity Cambridge, which was then just getting off the ground, and soon decided to enroll in an interfaith seminary in Manhattan in 2006.

Sutton originally planned to practice as an interfaith minister, but began to gravitate even more strongly towards the Unity movement when he attended a Unity church in New York that had about 600 parishioners and a gay pastor.

"I walked in the door watching a gay man talking to 600 people about access to spirituality and love. And I probably cried the entire service," said Sutton.
When he returned to Boston he found that Unity Cambridge was conducting a search process for a new pastor, and he applied.

Much like the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Unity movement does not have any formal dogma, and Sutton said the church is strongly supportive of LGBT people and marriage equality. Sutton said there have been an increasing number of openly gay people serving as pastors within the movement.

"Anecdotally I would say [the presence of openly gay clergy is] a growing phenomenon, over the last 10 years exploding," said Sutton.

Sutton's installation service will take place March 22 at 10:30 a.m. at the Morse School, 40 Granite Avenue in Cambridge. For more information visit unitycambridge.org or call 617.349.3440.