Click here to complete a form to submit your photos and stories. 

Click here to donate to this campaign to help us equip churches with new microgrants.  

Yesterday, I had to do one of the hardest things that I have ever done in my life. I had to put my beloved fur baby to sleep and say goodbye. The above photograph was taken about 10 minutes before her procedure. I knew it would be our last photo together, and I sense that she knew it as well. After I snapped our final selfie, I broke down. And just like the dutiful companion she has been for over a decade, she comforted me in her final moments.

Since then, I’ve been sitting with a lot of grief, trying to figure out how to hold it without letting it take me under. For the last few years, I have talked a lot about joy. Finding it. Protecting it. Holding onto it. Encouraging it. Recognizing it. Joy is important, especially now. Many of us are on the front lines of the fight against authoritarianism, fascism, and injustice. We are doing real work, and it is draining. As we work and fight, we constantly talk about protecting our peace and practicing self-care. But one of the most overlooked sources of that peace is the emotional support, love, strength, and courage we receive from our pets.

They are some of the most faithful, quiet supporters of this movement. They slow us down. They pull us outside. They make us laugh when we don’t feel like it. They sit with us when we’re tired. They love us in ways that are simple and steady, no matter what is happening in the world. Not everyone in our community has children, but many of us have fur babies or other beloved pet companions who show up every single day with love, play, and comfort. They help sustain us, and they help sustain this work.

As a child, I used to watch Touched by an Angel with my grandmother (it was a sort of millennial rights of passage lol), and I will never forget an episode where someone lost a pet and one of the angels said that having a pet teaches you to love without fear, because they will almost always leave before us and we love them anyway. That stayed with me. And now I understand it even more deeply. As a Black queer man navigating a world that often asks me to shrink, I know what it means to love without fear. Our pets teach us that every single day.

So as I try to keep my girl’s memory alive, and not lose myself to grief, I want to turn that love outward.

Introducing ONA’s Spring Campaign: Love Without Fear.

This is our way of honoring the companions who have loved us well by making space for joy, memory, and continued impact in our community.  Here’s how you can be part of it. Share a photo and story of your pet, and we will lift them up on our social media through the end of May as a way of celebrating joy and honoring the companions who help carry us. Help us raise $5,000. These funds will go directly into a new microgrant program launching in June, offering up to $500 to help ONA churches connect their work beyond their walls.

Let us honor our beloved companions by acknowledging their presence and importance in our lives as we keep doing good in the world. Spring is a season of new life. It feels right to mark it this way, with memory, with tenderness, and with action.

Click here to complete a form to submit your photos and stories. 

Click here to donate to this campaign to help us equip churches with new microgrants.  

Let us love without fear. Let us keep going.

With gratitude and a grieving, hopeful heart,

Rev. Derek Terry, Acting Executive Director
Open and Affirming Coalition

Happy Black LGBTQ+ History Month!

As we begin this month together, I wanted to pause and speak a word of gratitude and encouragement. Black History Month is not only about remembering the past. It is about honoring a living legacy of courage, creativity, faith, and survival. It is about naming the people who carried us here and celebrating those who are shaping what comes next.

I want to give thanks for Black LGBTQ+ people in history who made space where there was none, and I also want to celebrate Black LGBTQ+ people making history right now. I am especially grateful for Black LGBTQ+ pastors, lay leaders, conference ministers, organizers, artists, worshippers, community members, and visionaries in the United Church of Christ and beyond. Your presence matters. Your leadership matters. Your courage continues to help people encounter a God who is loving, kind, compassionate, and affirming.

I want to encourage you, this month and beyond, to offer gratitude to these leaders. Send a note. Make a call. Thank them publicly (if that makes sense).  Speak their names out loud. Too often Black LGBTQ+ leaders are expected to carry heavy loads quietly. Your encouragement, appreciation, and public gratitude matter more than you know.

Yesterday, I was deeply moved watching Black and queer R&B singer Durand Bernarr accept his first Grammy Award. His words felt like a blessing for this moment and for this movement:

“To all independent artists out there and to every Butch Queen who was made to feel like you were too much, I am the proof that you needed and the sign that you have been waiting for,” he said. “Be yourself!”

That is the heart of the work of the Open and Affirming Coalition of churches and faith communities.

Our work is about helping create spaces where people on the margins, and their families, are affirmed, loved, encouraged, and supported in encountering a God who delights in who they are. This is why affirmation, gratitude, and encouragement are not extras. They are essential.  Thank you for your work!  

I also want to thank you for your patience and commitment with us as we continue to grow. Last year was a busy and deeply transitional year for the Coalition. We are now in the process of expanding our programs and our staff, and I am genuinely excited about what is ahead. We are preparing to move in new, bold, and powerful ways to support churches, leaders, and communities across the country.

As we step into this next chapter, I want to invite you to support this work financially if you are able. (Click here to Donate Now!) Your gift helps us build affirming spaces, resource leaders, expand our reach, and show up in moments when LGBTQ+ people, especially Black LGBTQ+ people, need faith communities to be clear, courageous, and loving. Every contribution matters, and your generosity makes this work possible.

Thank you for believing in this movement. Thank you for walking with us. And thank you, especially, to Black LGBTQ+ people whose lives, leadership, and joy continue to show us what is possible.

With gratitude and hope,

Rev. Derek A. Terry
Acting Executive Director
Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ

Dear Friend,

As we arrive at the final day of the year, I want to pause with gratitude—and share just a glimpse of what your support made possible in 2025. These are not all the stories, but they are some of the moments that mattered most.

This was a year of growth, public witness, and courageous movement for the Open and Affirming Coalition.

OPEN AND AFFIRMING CHURCHES
• Certified 40 new Open and Affirming churches in 2025
• First church certified this year: First Christian Congregational Church (FCCC), Swansea, MA
• Last church certified this year: Second First Church, Rockford, IL
• Nearly 1,950 Open and Affirming churches nationwide, each with a public covenant of welcome and affirmation

AFFIRMING TRANS LIVES IS HOLY
• Launched the Affirming Trans Lives Is Holy campaign in response to escalating attacks on trans people and the erasure of trans history
• Named clearly what our faith teaches: trans lives are sacred, holy, and worthy of protection.  Read more: https://openandaffirming.org/erasing-trans-history/

INTERFAITH PARTNERSHIP AND PUBLIC WITNESS
• Helped found the Lavender Interfaith Collective (LInC), a multifaith network of LGBTIQ+ and allied faith leaders committed to intersectional justice, shared resilience, and resistance. Learn more about LInC: https://lincollective.org/

• Hosted a Transgender Day of Visibility virtual panel for LInC, “Beyond Visibility — The Power of Love in Defending Transgender Lives,” centering faith-based resistance and affirmation
• Participated in an ecumenical LGBTQ+ faith partners retreat in October, strengthening collaboration and shared strategy across traditions

• Participated in WorldPride 2025 in Washington, DC, representing Open and Affirming churches at multiple events
• Hosted a shared booth along the WorldPride parade route in partnership with Alliance Q (Disciples of Christ), helping people connect with affirming faith communities in their own regions.  You can see the WorldPride resource card we shared to help people find an Open and Affirming church here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17v4JCfiwH/

FAITH IN ACTION AND MOVEMENT LEADERSHIP
• Helped organize and participated in a Holy Week public witness on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol with over 70 participants from across the country
• Spoke out against the criminalization of trans and nonbinary people, the violent treatment of immigrants, attacks on healthcare and safety nets, and the abuse of power
• Participated in the National Trans Day of Visibility March in Washington, DC, offering a sacred text written for the moment
• Read the sacred text: https://openandaffirming.org/national-trans-day-of-visibility-sacred-text/

EDUCATION, VISIBILITY, AND CHURCH LEADERSHIP
• Hosted a powerful Annual Gathering in Kansas City, Missouri, just ahead of the United Church of Christ General Synod
• Presented at the Horizons on Aging Summit on LGBTQ+ resilience and wellness
• Participated in the 35th General Synod in Kansas City with a Coalition booth, hosted a free BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) gathering space for attendees, hosted a powerful, sold-out Open and Affirming Coalition gala banquet, and shared a message with the Synod marking the 40th anniversary of the Open and Affirming General Synod resolution. Watch the Synod address here:
https://openandaffirming.org/40-years-of-open-and-affirming-from-resolution-to-revolution/
• Addressed conference annual meetings across the country, including the Southeast Conference (speaker and workshop leader), the New Hampshire Conference (keynote speaker), and the Living Waters Association of the Heartland Conference (keynote speaker)

• Attended the GatewayONA annual Convocation in St. Louis, MO

A STRONG FINISH TO THE YEAR
• Successfully met and exceeded our $10,000 matching grant goal for The Beloved Fund and unlocked a $20,000 matching grant!!!!
• Raised more than $12,000 so far to strengthen training, advocacy, crisis response, and accompaniment for churches and communities facing increasing pressure and risk.  You can check our progress here: https://openandaffirming.networkforgood.com/projects/265515-the-beloved-fund-2-for-1matching-grant

None of this happened by accident. It happened because people like you chose to stay connected, invest in shared work, and believe that affirmation is not symbolic—it is life-saving.

Thank you for helping us reach this goal. Thank you for sustaining this movement. And thank you for standing with LGBTQ+ people and affirming churches at a moment when courage matters deeply.

In solidarity and shared purpose,

Rev. Derek Terry
Acting Executive Director
Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ

Friends!

Thank you. Because of your generosity and commitment, we are excited to share that we’ve raised $195 in new monthly sustaining gifts and $1,880 toward our $10,000 matching grant. Your support is helping us build real momentum as we enter the final stretch of the year.

We now have less than 30 days left in 2025 to reach our goals and strengthen the movement we share. The Open and Affirming Coalition has been doing this work since 1972, and the social and political climate we are living through right now is among the most difficult our community has faced in decades. The rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation is not only deeply painful; for many, it echoes the darkest moments of our past.

In the midst of this, the Coalition remains committed to equipping churches, supporting vulnerable communities, and growing a movement of justice and affirmation across the United Church of Christ. But we are severely understaffed, stretched thin, and working hard to update resources, revitalize our ONA coaches program, and sustain a national movement at a time when the need is great and the harm is real.  We cannot do this alone. We need your help.

Here are three meaningful ways you can support the Coalition right now:

1. Join the Sustainers Circle with a recurring monthly gift to keep this movement strong year-round.
2. Encourage your church to pledge as a Sustaining Church, giving once or twice a year (December and June, or more if possible).
3. Give to our matching grant campaign, The Beloved Fund, where every dollar is doubled and helps us unlock the full $10,000 match.

As a thank-you, the first 30 people who makes a new $20/month sustaining gift or a $250 one-time gift toward the matching grant will receive a free copy of the newly released book about Rev. Robert Wood, a pioneer of LGBTQ+ Christian history.

We also encourage congregations to consider making a regular pledge. Only a small percentage of our ONA churches support the Coalition financially, yet we continue to offer resources, guidance, and technical assistance to every congregation without any financial requirement. Our webinars and trainings are open to all, even when participants cannot contribute. And while we are grateful for occasional sponsorships and support from the national UCC, that assistance averages only about 3.5 percent of our annual budget. 

Your generosity helps sustain a movement that has changed—and continues to change—lives.

Thank you for standing with us, for believing in this work, and for helping us meet the challenges of this moment with courage, hope, and love.

With gratitude and hope, 

Rev. Derek Terry, Acting Executive Director
Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ

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