With your generosity, we exceeded our $30,000 fundraising goal!
On Pentecost Sunday, May 23, we dedicated and blessed the financial gifts and the gifts of every body. Every body is a gift! Stay tuned for a recording of the worship service + celebration. What an honor — what a joy and inspiration — to receive the gifts and stories of so many as we celebrated the 30th ordination anniversary of Allen V. Harris.
AllianceQ promises to put your gifts to good use. Additional gifts have been made since the close of our campaign! We’ll provide updates and we will invite you to continue this work with us. Let us be the church we say we are! Thank you to our Pentecost Sunday worship leaders: Rev. Luther Young, Jr., Rev. Sara Nave Fisher, Jonathan Fisher, Sophia, Ransom and Lenora Fisher, Dann Bain, Rev. Nathan Russell, Rev. John Payne, Maria Cuca Perez, Rev. Stephanie Kendell, William DeShay C. Jackson, Rev. Chaim (C.J.) Rodriguez, Rev. Melissa Guthrie Loy, and Rev. Terri Hord Owens. Thank you, Robin Knauerhase, for hosting and providing technical support.
Download the event program book here.
Yes! You can still donate to the Allen V. Harris Open & Affirming Ministries Endowment Fund. Mail gifts to Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance, Allen V. Harris Fund, P.O. Box 44400, Indianapolis, IN 46244 or give online using this secure link.
“30 for 30”
Celebrating the life-giving ministry of Rev. Allen V. Harris, the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance alongside the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) strived to raise $30,000 to honor the 30th anniversary of his ordination. May 19, 2021, marked the 30th anniversary of Allen’s ordination at Park Avenue Christian Church in Manhattan. May 19, 1991 was Pentecost Sunday. Guided by the Spirit, sustained by the Spirit, following the Spirit, Allen has and continues to breathe life into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
From Sandhya Jha:
Allen Harris balances some of the most pastoral instinct I’ve ever encountered with an almost fearless commitment to liberation for the queer community and for people of color and for people made poor by systems of injustice, and for ALL of us to get free. Plus, that dude is HILARIOUS, and we don’t get enough joy in the church these days, so I say let’s celebrate his compassion, his justice and his joy.
We breathe new life into this movement for wholeness. From the Pentecost Sunday worship celebration:
Celebrating the extravagant love and grace of God, we offer our whole selves; we recommit to the work of justice and inclusion.
What an abundance of gifts we have to offer:
musical talent, the melody of laughter,
the use of our hands in cooking and repairs,
the use of our minds in problem solving,
curiosity, compassion, patience, urgency,
spiritual reservoirs, financial resources,
obedience, and courage to act.Everyone has something to give. Every body is a gift.
Gifts to the Allen V. Harris Open & Affirming Ministries Endowment fund honor Allen and they enable the growth and deepening of open & affirming ministries, ministries that set a place at the table for persons of all gender expressions and sexual identities.
About the Allen V. Harris Open & Affirming Ministries Endowment Fund
The Allen V. Harris Open & Affirming Ministries Endowment Fund is invested through the Bostick Select Fund with the Christian Church Foundation, restricted and designated to benefit the ongoing work and operations of the Open & Affirming Ministries program. Rev. Sarah Lue Bostick (b.1868, d.1948) was one of the first women of color ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and served for over 40 years until her retirement. She was a devoted worker for the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions and the National Christian Missionary Society particularly in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. She worked to establish CWBM auxiliaries across Arkansas and collected an impressive collection of missions literature. This collection, given to the Disciples of Christ Historical Society after Rev. Bostick’s death, opened an unparalleled window into women’s and African-American studies in the Stone-Campbell movement.
News Stories about the Celebration + Campaign
“We were doing what we thought was just and right” (published May 2021)
An Invitation to Celebrate from General Minister + President Rev. Terri Hord Owens: Pentecost Sunday (April 2021)
Love and care not hatred and shame: a video interview about the magic of relationship in the O&A journey (April 2021)
Behind the scenes: years and years of love and support (March 2021)
Birthday blessings: Allen Harris opts for birthday gifts to build up Open & Affirming Ministries Endowment Fund (February 2021)
Celebrating the ministry of Allen V. Harris: Exquisite beauty and profound pain (January 2021)
Donate Now
Mail gifts to Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance, Allen V. Harris Fund, P.O. Box 44400, Indianapolis, IN 46244 or give online. That secure link directs gifts to the Allen V. Harris Open & Affirming Ministries Endowment Fund.
Make a pledge
Email Executive Director + Minister Rev. Melissa Guthrie Loy to communicate your intent for a gift. Pledged gifts can be made throughout 2021-2022, in full or installments. We are glad to work with you and financial advisors to steward your giving. Rev. Guthrie Loy can be reached by phone at 317.721.5230.
About the Rev. Allen V. Harris
Allen’s journey to be ordained was one of both exquisite beauty and profound pain. It paralleled in chronology the events surrounding the contested nomination of the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon as General Minister and President of the denomination, whose candidacy was defeated at the General Assembly in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1991, in large part because of an orchestrated campaign of homophobia because Rev. Kinnamon and his (then) wife, Katherine Kinnamon were supporters of the GLAD Alliance: the Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples.
While Allen was not the “first” in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to be ordained openly LGBTQ, nor was he the “first” to be hired in a parish setting as openly LGBTQ, he does appear to be the first to do both, and has been out as a fully-embodied queer man in all of his ministerial settings since graduating seminary. Allen has been dedicated to local, regional and general expressions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He has attended and served in leadership at every biennial General Assembly of the Christian Church since 1979 (St. Louis).
Allen became an early leader in the Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples Alliance; now the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance – AllianceQ. He served on the Council for several terms and was founding co-editor of the Crossbeams newsletter with the Rev. Michael Schloff (later serving in that role with the Rev. Jon Lacey). Along with the Rev. Laurie Rudel of Seattle, Washington, Allen was one of the founding “Developers” of the Open & Affirming Ministries program of the Alliance.
With gifts and graces in many areas, Allen is especially experienced in leading congregations and individuals through Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation, Open & Affirming, and Accessible Congregational processes. He delights in and seeks to grow in transformational leadership, using social media for mission and advocacy, and in mentoring new clergy. Allen spent time studying and developing skills in working with multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, economically diverse congregations. He is committed to ecumenical and interfaith work. Allen openly affirms every body.
The Allen V. Harris Open & Affirming Ministries Endowment Fund has received gifts and pledges from the following supporters:
Laura Jean Allen and Kit Romero
Mark Anderson
Sydney Marie Avent
Diane Bales
Karen and Wayne Barr
R. Brooke Baker and M Cal Zunt
Robert Allan Blair, Jr.
Steven Blinder and Keith Miller
Ben Bohren
Bruce and Tom Bowerman-Jett
Betty and James Brewer-Calvert
Renee and Steve Bridwell
Nancy Brink and Maria Perez
David and Rebecca Brown
Cheryl Brush and Al Terry
LaTaunya Bynum
Jason Carson Wilson
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Mid-America
Frederick Clarke
Audrey Connor
Carol Cook
Mark Covey and Israel Ehrisman
Eleanor Cozad Cherryholmes
Ann B. Day and Donna E. Enberg
Alan Dicken
Linda Farley
Bryan and Laurie Feille
Leigh and David Finnegan-Hosey
First Christian Church, Lehigh Acres, FL
Melissa Frantz
Rachel Frey
Richard Follett
Allen Foster & Gerry Brague
Brian Frederick-Gray
Kirby and John Gould
Joanne Graves
Melissa and Leah Guthrie Loy
Laura Guy
Dick and Mindy Hamm
Tom Harshman and Stan Gwyn
Allen Harris and Craig Hoffman
Heights Christian Church, Shaker Heights, OH
Tyler Heston
Terri Hord Owens
Paul and MaryEllen Huber
Christina Irvin
Bill and Mary Jacobs
Sandhya Jha
Randy and Sandy Johnson
Belinda King
Don King
Michael Kinnamon
Robin Knauerhase
Dennis Landon and Lana Hartman Landon
Kim Leon
Steve Martz
Cynthia McBride
Michele McGuirl
Cheri Metier
Park Avenue Christian Church, New York, NY
John and Jensene Payne
Raymond Person
Pamela J. Pettyjohn
Keith J. Phillips
Chett Pritchett
Andrew Raker
Courtney Richards and Brad Lyons
John and Jeannine Richardson
Michael K. Richter
J. Cy Rowell
Laurie Rudel and Barb Scamman
Debbie Saxe
Schaefer-Kenagy Family
Dale Schneidmiller
Wayne Sparrow
Richard Sturm
Stephen Tickner
Jay E. Treat III
Diana Tyler
Joanne VerBurg
Judith Wray and Donna Prince
Connie and Bruce Tiffany
Mary Kay Totty and Stephen Griffith
Jessica and Jordan Wray
Byron and Luther Young, II
Richard and Peggy Ziglar
If your name is not listed and you give us permission to print your name, please contact us. Contributions made through Facebook specifically require the communication of your permission to post.
Donate Now
Mail gifts to Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance, Allen V. Harris Fund, P.O. Box 44400, Indianapolis, IN 46244 or give online. That secure link directs gifts to the Allen V. Harris Open & Affirming Ministries Endowment Fund.