She was ordained as an elder in the Methodist Church in 1961, making her one of the first women in the denomination to be granted full clergy status.
[1] In 1968, Powers began working as the Secretary of Missionary Personnel for the Methodist Board of Missions in New York City.
As a representative to the World Council of Churches, she participated in three general assemblies and in the creation of "Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry," an interdenominational document approved in 1982 in Lima, Peru.
[3] In 1995, the year before she retired, Powers came out as a lesbian during a sermon she delivered at the national gathering of the Reconciling Ministries Movement, making her the highest-ranking out LGBTQ United Methodist official at the time.
[1] Powers donated a founding gift to the Claremont School of Theology's Center for Sexuality, Gender, and Religion.
Powers spent the last 15 years of her life as an activist resident of Pilgrim Place in Claremont, California.