The Rev. Branch Thomas Crowley preaches during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church Sunday last month in Newton, Mass. In 2015, Crowley, the senior pastor of the church, one of America’s oldest Black churches, announced, to his congregation, “I am a proud, Black, gay Christian male.”
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Gay pastor wants to help Black churches become as welcoming as his own
It was daunting when the Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, at age 22, replaced a beloved pastor who had ministered to one of suburban Boston’s most famed Black churches for 24 years. It was more daunting — at times agonizing — to reach the decision six years later, in 2015, that God wanted him to tell his congregation that he was gay.
