Abuse in the church is everyone’s problem.

We believe it is everyone’s responsibility to take a stand against abusive behavior in their spiritual community. If you are a concerned leader or parishioner (in the ACNA or elsewhere), we invite you to use our resources to explore how to make your local church a safer place for vulnerable people.

Not sure where to start? Here’s a guide for using our website to educate yourself and your community on how to prevent abuse, respond well to abuse allegations, and better support survivors.

The first step in educating yourself on abuse is listening to those most directly impacted by it. Our survivor stories and statements are firsthand accounts written by survivors of abuse in ACNA contexts and/or at the hands of ACNA leaders (listed in order published).

Please also see additional survivor accounts of grooming and abuse by former ACNA lay catechist Mark Rivera as told to Religion News Service in this article.

Upper Midwest Timeline

For a closer look at how not to handle abuse allegations in an institutional setting, read our five-part Timeline series, compiled and edited in collaboration with Cherin and Joanna. This series closely documents the failed response to abuse allegations in the Upper Midwest Diocese of the ACNA, starting in mid-2019 and ultimately leading to the formation of ACNAtoo in mid-2021.

Witnesses

See our Witnesses page for firsthand accounts by advocates corroborating and contextualizing the accounts of our survivors. For purposes of education, these accounts stand as additional case studies of failed institutional responses to abuse allegations, reaching up to the highest levels of the ACNA.

Resources

Continue to educate yourself on an array of abuse issues with outside resources our team members have personally found helpful in our own healing, education, and advocacy work. Our list includes books, podcasts, documentaries, and more.