KELOWNA (CANADA)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
April 1, 2025
By Rebecca Hopkins
Alluding to “mistakes made along the way” in more than 20 years of ministry, Art Lucier, one of western Canada’s most prominent charismatic pastors, pulled back from public ministry last weekend at Kelowna Harvest Church.
However, he didn’t apologize and blamed the timing of the accusations on Satan.
“Truth is, I did sin against the Lord and against heaven many times, and even against my vows and against my wife and against others,” Lucier told the church Sunday at about 90 minutes into the livestreamed service. “The enemy is now bringing up actually, though, these past sins, even though they’re under the blood.”
Since 2018, Lucier has been the pastor of Kelowna Harvest Church, in Kelowna, a lakeside town in British Columbia’s scenic Okanagan Valley. It is a part of Harvest Ministries International (HMI), a five-fold, revivalist ministry that Lucier founded and still leads as apostolic overseer. Heather Lucier, his wife, co-leads the church and is HMI’s financial director.
Through their fellow Canadian revivalists – and friends – Wes and Stacey Campbell, Lucier is connected with prophetic networks in the United States.
Lucier told his church he won’t be leaving HMI or the church but will abstain from leading worship and preaching – for now.
“You’re still going to see me around,” he said. “I don’t know how long I will be stepping back from this public stage ministry.”
There have been rumblings about Lucier and his church for months, egged on by a series of episodes on the podcast Heaven Bent created by Tara Jean Stevens, whose day job is a host for the Vancouver-based WAVE-FM radio. After three of them ran in quick succession starting Oct. 28, a group of more than 30 people, most of them members of Lucier’s former church in Kitimat, BC, signed a letter alleging “allegations of abuse, whether physical, spiritual, sexual, or emotional, have followed Art Lucier through his time in ministry.”
In January, more than 600 people signed an open letter on change.org calling for a church oversight committee to hire a third-party investigator to investigate allegations of spiritual abuse, sexual abuse of “young girls,” and public shaming of whistleblowers. The open letter, led by Lucier’s son-in-law, Salem Webb, said that the allegations have had “no viable resolution” so far.
“We’ve lived in silence, afraid to speak out,” the letter stated. “But recently, more has come to light, and the seriousness of the aforementioned allegations cannot be ignored any longer. Those who looked to the church for community, love, and support should not have left in pain.”
Neither Lucier nor the oversight committee responded to The Roys Report‘s (TRR) requests for comment, but he told his church Sunday that he has sin in his past, but it was before he started “this ministry” and he’s already repented.
“(T)hese sins were dealt with in a biblical manner with boards and leaderships, bringing counsel and discipline in proper measure,” Lucier told his church.
The oversight committee has yet to hire a third-party investigator but instead determined that the allegations were not “substantiated,” according to an email chain Webb posted on Facebook.
“After a review of the information and evidence presented, we have found no substantiated or factual basis to support the claims of grooming, sexual abuse, harassment, assault or spiritual abuse by Art Lucier,” the committee wrote in the letter. “In light of this, the oversight committee has determined that engaging a third-party investigation is not warranted.”
The committee also called the matter a “church matter” rather than a situation to be investigated externally. “This is a church matter and falls on its governance and discipline,” the letter stated.
The abuses
Ruth Hird, former member of Lucier’s previous church Kitimat Harvest Church publicly stated on the Heaven Bent podcast that Lucier accused her of being divisive for checking his teachings with her Bible.
She also has spoken publicly about how Lucier kissed her on the lips when he was her spiritual leader and said the committee didn’t interview her. Rather, the committee asked her to enter a Matthew 18 reconciliation process with Lucier, according to an email they sent her. The committee also stated that Lucier denied the kissing allegation and asked if Hird made it up.
“Is it possible that this incident could be a fabrication from your personal trauma?” the committee wrote her.
Hird told TRR that she was 18 and Lucier was in his 40s when he kissed her on the lips, stunning her. She said she’s seen him cuddling with other young women, many who called him “daddy.”
Webb told TRR that he’s had concerns about Lucier ever since Lucier blamed the 2014 death of his daughter Brittny—Webb’s wife—on God taking his protection off her. Brittny died of a lupus-related brain bleed seven weeks after she and Webb married, Webb said.
In 2022, Lucier preached a sermon stating that the couple had renounced “apostolic covering” and Lucier’s own covering in their wedding vows, which is why God allowed her to die.
“I believe the Lord did lift his hand off of my daughter for her vows that she had made and for renouncing the gifts of God, the covering of myself as a father and as a sign to the church,” Lucier said 46 minutes into the sermon.
Webb provided TRR a copy of their wedding vows, which doesn’t renounce anything.
“The lies were becoming more flagrant,” Webb said. “In the end, I decided it was important to set the record straight.”
Webb joined Hird in sharing his story on Heaven Bent last year. Soon, more survivors came forward and shared their experiences about Lucier on the Stories of the Survivors of the Harvest Facebook page. The page now has 380 followers.
Joe Pauloski was one of those who shared his story online. He was part of Kitimat Harvest Church that Lucier planted in Kitimat in 2003. Pauloski wrote on the survivors Facebook page that Lucier told him that a 13- or 14-year-old girl had been abused by a man in the church; that the girl had a “Jezebel spirit” and he had excommunicated her from the church.
Pauloski provided TRR copies of emails with the oversight committee in which the committee told him they wouldn’t hire a third-party investigator. The committee also accused Pauloski of making a “defamatory claim” by posting the story online.
“To perpetuate and claim as fact such an egregious lie is reprehensible and inexcusable,” they wrote to Pauloski.
The bare minimum
Hird told TRR that she’s glad Lucier resigned from preaching, but the whistleblowers still have work to do.
“It feels like we won a battle,” she said. “The war continues to rage, and I know he is likely still pulling strings behind the scenes. Now is not the time to get complacent.”
She’s also disappointed that Lucier didn’t apologize.
“He admitted to the bare minimum, and claimed it is covered under the blood,” she said. “But so much remains under cover, and if sin is not brought to the light, how can it properly be cleansed?”