Our survivor stories and statements are firsthand accounts written by survivors of abuse in ACNA contexts.
If you are interested in telling your story of abuse and/or failed response to that abuse by ACNA leadership, you can contact us confidentially here.
Clarke’s Testament
In 2021, we published “Clarke’s” account of being groomed by their high school English teacher Christopher Lapeyre, then an ACNA lay leader. In June 2024, Clarke released an online memoir that chronicles the aftermath of the grooming, including subsequent abuse at the hands of ACNA lay catechist and now-convicted sex offender Mark Rivera.
Amy’s Story
The lessons of obedience to my husband as to God, combined with the insistence that God (through others) knew me better than I knew myself led directly to my accepting emotional abuse as godly submission to authority. My religious indoctrination groomed me to be an unwitting, but willing victim.
Steve’s Story, Part 1
Steve was a Wheaton College student when he started attending Church of the Resurrection in 2006. He alleges spiritually abusive behavior and pastoral malpractice by Resurrection leaders, including being targeted for excommunication despite adhering to church requirements that, as a gay person, he remain celibate.
River’s Story
“River” was a Wheaton College student when she met Mark Rivera at Church of the Resurrection. Read her story of how Mark’s grooming in plain view of Rez leaders set her up for sexual abuse at the hands of a female Wheaton professor and others.