Biographies

Rev. Elder Darlene Garner

Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Darlene Garner celebrates herself as a lesbian Christian woman of African, Cherokee, and Irish ancestry.  She was baptized into the National Baptist Church at the age of 7 and joined the Episcopal Church as a young adult.  She came out as a lesbian in 1973 and joined MCC Washington, DC, in 1976.  She served MCC DC as Church Treasurer and Lay Delegate and later served the Mid-Atlantic District as Assistant District Coordinator.  Garner was ordained to the professional ministry in 1988.  She has served as Associate Pastor of MCC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pastor of MCC in Baltimore, Maryland; and Senior Pastor of MCC of Northern Virginia in Fairfax, Virginia.  Since 1998, she has been the convener of the international MCC Conference for People of African Descent, Friends, and Allies. 

Garner has been a member of the Board of Elders since 1993, serving from 1993 until 2003 as Clerk of the Board of Elders.  She is now the Elder serving Region 6 (which includes Antarctica, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the U.S. states of Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico, southern California, and southern Texas. 

Before entering the professional ministry, Garner worked as a legal secretary, office manager, and Girl Scout Executive.  She also served as the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on Sexual Minorities.  In that position, she functioned as the liaison between the government of the sixth largest city in the United States and its LGBT community.

Garner’s community involvement has included being a founding co-chair of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays; being part of the historical first meeting between the U.S. White House and gay and lesbian people of color; chairing the first International Conference for Gay and Lesbian People of Color; serving as chaplain for an AIDS hospice; serving on the Board of Directors for a health clinic; and President of the Board of Northern Virginia AIDS Ministry.  She has also served as a member of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (hearing complaints of discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender, and national origin); the West Hollywood Business License Commission; and the Religious and Faith Program Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.  Garner has received numerous awards and citations for her service to the community.

Darlene Garner has attended Ohio State University, Samaritan College, and Lancaster Theological Seminary.  The mother of four and grandmother of eight.

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Rev. Hector Gutierrez

Rev. Hector Gutierrez has served as the Director of Latin American Development since May 2003.   His primary area of responsibility is the support of new churches throughout Latin America and the education and training of pastoral leaders.  

Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco (México), Gutierrez was ordained by the Roman Catholic Church in 1994, and gained standing with the Metropolitan Community Churches in 2005.  He attended Saint Joseph Seminary in Guadalajara, México. Upon graduation, he served as Assistant Pastor in Guadalajara, Cuquio, Arenal, and El Salto in the state of Jalisco and in Tetepan, which is part of Mexico City. He also served as the chaplain of Saint Therese College. He was appointed to be a Member of the Cultural Committee in the Archdiocese in Guadalajara and was elected President of the Students Association of the Pontifical University. He is also a guest teacher at the Pastoral Institute in Los Angeles, California. After 9/11, he was the co-coordinator of an Inter-religious meeting between Jews, Muslims, Protestants, Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists and Buddhists in Los Angeles, California. He has also worked in different parishes in the United States, including Orange Cove, Salinas, San Gabriel, Selma, and Commerce City in California.

A significant part of his ministry has been based in teaching. He was a teacher of Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Guadalajara and of social science at Magallanes College in Totatiche, Jalisco. He was also a professor of Theology at Salesian Seminary, Saint Joseph Seminary, Evangelization 2000, the Pastoral Institute in LA, and at La Salle University in Guadalajara where he taught a variety of subjects, including Christology, Anthropology, Eschatology, Liberation Theology, Holy Trinity, Pauline Theology, New Testament Theology, Canon Law, Ecumenism, Toward Religious Pluralism, Third Millennium Theological Perspectives, Sacraments in Latin American Perspective, and Dialogue between Theology and Science.

His post-graduate studies were undertaken at the Pontifical University of Mexico, where he obtained his degree in Dogmatic Theology with a specialization in Christology. The title of his work is “Jesus Christ: The Full Realization of Men and Women.” He is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical University of Salamanca in Spain, having begun his doctoral studies at the Pontifical University of Holy Conception in Concepción, Chile. 

He and his partner Juan Ramos live in Guadalajara, Mexico.

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