Kelowna Harvest Fellowship and Harvest Ministries International: Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Civil Suits, and Evangelical Accountability in British Columbia
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Vocal.Media
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/11/30
This article examines recent abuse-related cases in British Columbia’s evangelical landscape. It outlines criminal charges against Pastor Edwin Alvarez of an unnamed Metro Vancouver church for alleged sexual interference and assault against children between 2017 and 2021. It then reviews two active civil lawsuits against Pastor Art Lucier and Kelowna Harvest Fellowship, where plaintiffs allege long-term grooming and sexual abuse beginning in childhood, alongside institutional negligence. The article contrasts these ongoing actions with a separate Kelowna case in which a former youth pastor, anonymized as “CM,” received an 18-month custodial sentence after pleading guilty to child sex offences.
Continuing from the previous piece, Pastor Edwin Alvarez of a Metro Vancouver church had a number of child-focused charges, this is part of the wider Evangelical rivers in which Langley’s Christians can tend to swim.
In January, 2023, the New Westminster Police Department announced Pastor Alvarez was arrested and charged after a crime investigation led by the New Westminster Police Major Crime Unit beginning in the spring of 2022 into multiple reports of sexual interference against children.
The alleged incidents took place between 2017 and 2021. Alvarez faces three counts of sexual interference and three counts of sexual assault. Police described Alvarez as a pastor at a church in the Metropolitan area. It was at a small, unnamed church in the Metro Vancouver region.
Another church in Kelowna follows these similar across numerous churches in British Columbia. Harvest Church in Kelowna was covered in the Langley Advance Times fits within the wider BC Evangelical mapping. The lawsuits and coverage refer to the congregation as Kelowna Harvest Fellowship and its affiliated Harvest Ministries International (Harvest Church).
In 2025, Pastor Art Lucier went into two civil lawsuits based on a filing to the BC Supreme Court, brought by lawyer Morgyn Chandler on behalf of two women, Jasmine Hall and Ayla Thompson. The plaintiffs allege grooming and sexual assault spanning years. These allegations include an abuse of a foster child and a young woman in a ministry context.
Both plaintiffs state Lucier groomed them as foster children when 11 and 14 years old, respectively, while he was pastoring in Kitimat. The abuse continued for many years and into his later ministry base in Kelowna. Lucier is described as a spiritual authority who used prayer, church events, and pastoral meetings for abuse.
Further allegations included institutional negligence by the church, such as a failure to supervise to act on warning signs, and to protect vulnerable people within the care of the church. The statements of claim assert that Kelowna Harvest Fellowship and Harvest Ministries International created an “operational culture” enabling alleged grooming and sexual abuse. Complaints were mishandled or silenced.
Lucier and Harvest Church, apparently unlike the other cases from the previous article, publicly deny the allegations. In a public statement, Lucier and Harvest Ministries International called the allegations “completely and totally false.” No findings have been made on the merits so far, though the case in young. Both civil actions remain before the courts. No liability findings or judicial determinations of fact have yet been made against any defendant.
Another Kelowna case include a former youth pastor from early 2024 who was sentenced to 18 months in jail for child sex offences. They plead guilty to one count of sexual assault and one count of telecommunicating to lure a child under 18 as part of a plea agreement. The church is not named in public reportage. The man had worked as a youth pastor at the church for years. Complaints about the behaviour emerged before charges were finally laid on the youth pastor.
Reporting notes allegations surfaced in 2020. He was initially charged with 17 offences. These included seven counts of sexual assault, three counts of sexual exploitation, involving four complainants.
The reason for not naming the church and only listing the offender by initials is the protection of the victims’ identities. Local coverage refers to the offender only by the pseudonymous initials “CM.” These match some of the thematic elements of some of the other reportage, including youth-work, delays in reportage, patterns, and a plea plus custodial sentence.
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