Your gift will build a 100% open and affirming church!
The Open and Affirming Coalition is the largest and fastest-growing LGBTQ-affirming church movement in the world — but at 1,800 ONA congregations, we are just 35 percent of the United Church of Christ! Help us to reach the more than 3,000 UCC churches that need to learn how to welcome and affirm their LGBTQ+ neighbors! The ONA Coalition receives no regular funding from the national church: we depend on your gifts.
Make a secure online donation, mail a check, or commit to becoming a sustaining supporter of this movement.
You can shape the future of the ONA movement in the United Church of Christ, and beyond!
In 2022, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of LGBTQ+ advocacy in the United Church of Christ, beginning with the ordination in 1972 of the first openly gay minister in church history, William R. Johnson, and the founding of the Coalition a few months later. The movement Bill and many others built over the years has now become the largest and fastest-growing LGBTQ church movement in the world!
During those decades the Coalition has led the United Church of Christ towards a vision of a community gathered in the name of Jesus Christ where all are wanted, all are welcome, no one is left behind.
But we are not done—this work to which we have been called is not yet complete. We’re proud that more than 1,800 UCC congregations have adopted Open and Affirming covenants, but 3,000 churches are still not part of our family. We won’t rest until the UCC is a church that is 100% Open and Affirming to all people, no matter who they are, where they are on life’s journey, or whom they love along that road.
The Coalition is an independent non-profit, and our national ONA program receives no regular funding from Our Church’s Wider Mission. More than 60 percent of our budget depends on gifts from individuals and ONA congregations. Your gift—large or small—will make a difference in the lives of countless LGBTQ seekers who still have not heard the message that there is a church where they and their families are safe.
Here’s how your support will change our church
- We’ll expand resources, training programs and our churchwide network of ONA consultants to help congregations work towards an ONA covenant in ways that build consensus and reduce conflict.
- We’ll expand our series of webinars and workshops to train ONA churches in the best practices for advocacy, evangelism, communication and growth.
- We’ll support ONA congregations in their advocacy for LGBTQ youth, seniors and asylum-seekers.
- We’ll help ONA churches resist attempts to roll back LGBTQ+ civil rights.
- We’ll build ONA support structures in every Conference of the United Church of Christ.
In 2023, you can be part of a revival of the Open and Affirming movement in the United Church of Christ. Together, we can reclaim the vision of our movement’s founders in 1985: of a church where not some, but all congregations live out Christ’s call for justice, reconciliation and peace.
Remember that the Coalition is an independent non-profit. We receive no regular funding from Our Church’s Wider Mission, although we do work in close partnership with the UCC’s national ministries. The national ONA program is funded by your contributions!
Thank you for keeping faith with the vision of the Open and Affirming movement!
Give by check
If you prefer to send a paper check, please write “ONA Coalition” and mail to:
Open and Affirming Coalition
1300 East 9th Street
Suite 1100
Cleveland, OH 44114
Please do not use the UCC’s PO Box number. This is for gifts to the UCC’s national setting only.
Church Pledges
Does your ONA congregation support the Open and Affirming Coalition? If all of our ONA churches pledged at least $250 annually to the Coalition, the financial basis for our ministry of inclusion and justice would be secure!
If you or your congregation needs a report on the Coalition’s program and budget, or if you have any questions, please write us at office@openandaffirming.org.