Jackson Free Press

Fred Hammond understands changing careers; his call to church ministry is the third major shift in his life. At 51, "Reverend Fred" is the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson's new minister, and a novice to the profession.

After graduating from Western Connecticut State with a master's in counseling, Hammond spent 12 years counseling to mentally disabled adults near his home town of Port Jervis, N.Y. But the undercurrent in his life was always his search for a spiritual home, leading him to Catholic Charismatics.

"It was dramatic and dynamic," Hammond says. "As a teenager that was what I was looking for. … I wanted miracles."

Religion proved problematic to Hammond, though, because of his church's attitude toward homosexuals. He knew that he was gay, but back then, even the medical community saw homosexuality as a mental illness.

"I was an abomination," Hammond says. The conflict kept him in the closet for years, and when his best friend from high school came out, Hammond reacted badly.

"It was brutal… a total rejection (of my friend)," Hammond admits. But his friend, Glen, just took it in stride. Slowly, Hammond began to accept him again, even when Glen revealed that he was HIV-positive. "Glen didn't change. He was still the same person I knew."

At the dawn of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, few sufferers had the day-to-day support they needed. So, in 1988, Hammond began his second career by co-founding the Interfaith AIDS Ministry of Greater Danbury, which provided meals, transportation, companionship and other basic aid to HIV/AIDS sufferers, a segment of society shunned even by their churches. For the next 15 years, Hammond devoted his energy to the agency and its clients.

"I began to see the integrity of the relationships," Hammond says. "The only way I could continue this work was if I allowed myself to be as loved by God as these individuals were in their relationships. … I had to accept myself for who I was."

But just as he finally accepted himself and his sexuality, his church asked him to leave because of it. As one of the few denominations that accept homosexuals into their midst without judgment, Unitarian Universalism embraced Hammond, and he soon returned the favor. In 2003, Hammond entered the seminary program at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, and graduated with a master's of divinity this past June. Jackson is his first UU ministerial assignment, and it's what brought him to the South.

In the UU church, "questions are not only allowed, they're encouraged," Hammond says, and ministering "makes my heart sing."