Bishop Peggy A. Johnson, who leads the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church, took her first-ever trip to the Island this week with her spouse of 44 years, retired Methodist minister Mary C. Johnson.

The couple’s Pride Month visit comes just weeks after an international conference of United Methodists voted to officially drop church language that banned same-sex marriage and openly gay clergy.

“It was the quickest vote we ever had,” Bishop Johnson said Monday, during her stop at the United Methodist Church of Martha’s Vineyard in Oak Bluffs.

“We voted completely to take away all the punitive words that punished people for admitting they were self-avowed, practicing gay people, as well as punishments for people who would perform a same-gender wedding,” the bishop said. “It’s done.”

Rev. Mary Johnson, Bishop Peggy Johnson and Rev. Joanne Hus. — Jeanna Shepard

The policy change followed decades of contention that came to a head after the United Methodist Church stopped enforcing the written bans a few years ago, leading thousands of conservative churches to end their affiliation with the international denomination. 

At the same time, more progressive United Methodist congregations — including the one in Chilmark, which left the New England conference last year — objected to the fact that the bans were still on the books as official policy.

“And now we’re sort of in alignment with Chilmark’s reason for leaving,” Bishop Johnson said. 

“But people leave for many reasons. We’re sorry to see them go. We wish them well,” she said.

After a career that included 20 years as the sign language-fluent pastor of Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf in Baltimore, Md. and 13 years as bishop for more than 1,000 churches in the Philadelphia area, Bishop Johnson retired in 2021 before becoming interim bishop of the six-state New England Conference at the beginning of 2023.

“Our bishop has just been such a gift to our conference and I’m really sad that she’s interim and leaving us at the end of this month,” said Rev. Joanne Hus, pastor of the Oak Bluffs church.

“She’s seen us through a transitional time, and [she’s] just such a strong leader and so loving — you can just feel the love,” Reverend Hus told the Gazette.

Later this month, Bishop Johnson will preside over the New England Conference’s first annual meeting since the policy change, Reverend Hus said.

“That’s really historic, and we’re blessed to have her leadership,” she said.

During her brief first retirement, Bishop Johnson wrote a book that was published early last year. Titled The Ever-Expansive Spirit of God: For Those Who Feel Left Out, it’s a personal testimony of life and belief based on her long marriage to Rev. Mary Johnson.

The couple met in divinity school, at the Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. Married as husband and wife, they have been together ever since, raising two sons — and keeping a secret that lasted for years.

“Part of our story is that I’m transgender, and I did not come out until after Bishop retired and we moved,” Reverend Johnson said. “Prior to that, I was closeted.”

Moving to Lawrence, Mass., for the bishop’s interim appointment, the Johnsons have found an unexpectedly warm welcome in New England.

“Up here, it was a lot more progressive, which made it fun for us to come here as a trans couple and not be scared somebody was going to call us up on charges,” Bishop Johnson said.

“[To] know that there were a lot of trans pastors here, and there were gay couples here, and there were transgender couples here... that was certainly a welcome surprise [and] a joy,” she said.

Asked whether the United Methodist Church may gain new members as a result of dropping the ban on gay clergy and same-sex weddings, Reverend Johnson wouldn’t speculate.

“I don’t think it can hurt, but I think that we’re in an interesting time in the life of every church, in that this younger generation is still listening for things to be said in the language that speaks to them,” she said.

Reverend Johnson is doing her part with a series of inclusive communion services she writes and publishes online for royalty-free use, on her website transformingcommunion.com, while Bishop Johnson continues to advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in United Methodist life.

“I want to tell people this is a cool thing to do, because it’s making people feel whole and accepted,” the bishop said.

With more than 500 churches in her New England territory, Bishop Johnson said she preaches to a different congregation every weekend.

“Every Sunday at a different place, all over New England, seeing snow, seeing ice, but mostly beautiful services and lots of diversity — diversity of all stripes, not just ethnicity, but theological as well as rural and urban and suburban and downtown Boston and far north,” she said.

But with limited time left in her appointment, she and Reverend Johnson came to the Vineyard on Monday instead, for a potluck luncheon in their honor with church members in Oak Bluffs.

The Johnsons also toured the Vineyard with Reverend Hus and Wanda Santos-Pérez, the Falmouth-based superintendent of the New England conference’s Seacoast District, who accompanied them on their Island trip.