Carolyn J. Mobley-Bowie
Reverend Carolyn Mobley-Bowie, born in Sanford, Florida, in 1948, earned her religious education degree in 1971, after which she did missionary work in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Later, she took a position as youth director and minister of education in Orlando, Florida.
Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie went to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1973, to attend seminary, which offered a masterâs degree attainable in two to three years. During her days at seminary in Atlanta, she explored the gay lifestyle outside the classroom. After graduation in 1976, she became involved as a lay person with the MCC, the Metropolitan Community Church, which ministers to a mainly gay congregation. At the same time, she got a paying job as a career missionary working for the conservative Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). In 1981, after five years of exemplary work with the SBC, they asked her if she was gay, threatening to fire her. Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie refused to answer, and she resigned. She immediately became a formal member of the MCC and accepted a job there.
Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie lived in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1973 until 1990. During this period, she was an activist in the LGBT community, participating in AIDS Education and Advocacy; gay pride festivals and marches; LGBT protests and rallies; and singing with the Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus and the Lambda Chorale. She also helped to lead worship services and special events at the local MCC in Atlanta (MCC of the Blessed Redeemer, later renamed First MCC of Atlanta).
Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie moved to Houston, Texas, in June 1990, to join the staff at Resurrection MCC, where she served for 15 years as an associate pastor. Just two years later, she was named the Grand Marshal of the Houston Gay Pride Parade. During her time in Houston, Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie continued her activism in the LGBTQI community. She served on the Board of Directors for various HIV/AIDS organizations and on the board of the Houston Black Tie Dinner. She was ordained as a Christian minister in 1995 at the General Conference of Metropolitan Community Churches.
Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie met the love of her life, Adrain [sic] Bowie, in Houston. They were joined in holy union on August 8, 1998. The couple was legally married on December 17, 2015, while living in and serving in a church in Richmond, Virginia. They changed their last name to Mobley-Bowie. The reverends Carolyn Mobley-Bowie and Adrain Mobley-Bowie now live in Saginaw, Michigan, in the childhood home of Rev. Chaplain Adrain.
Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie continues to sing and to preach, extolling the Lord in her attempts to move heaven and Earth.