Hannah Adair Bonner

Maya Angelou wrote, “There is no greater agony than holding an untold story inside you.” As much as I’ve tried to tell them, there are still too many to count, tucked up in the corners of my heart and waiting to fall out around the edges of my eyes. I carry with so much reverence the investment of spiritual, emotional, and intellectual labor that so many people have poured into me over my four decades of life. I have listened and learned. I have leaned into the moments of life that were hard and uncomfortable, rather than turning away. I have made a life out of finding solidarity with others that resonate with that earnest belief that the world can be a kinder, gentler place for everyone – and not just some. 

When reporters talked to me during times of holding vigil in places of struggle, they would always refer to me as an activist. While I suppose I fit the definition, I always corrected them, saying, “I’m not an activist, I’m a pastor. This is what it looks like for me to live out my faith. What does it look like for you to live out yours?” I did this because I was intent on people knowing who had sent me, and why I was there, and what I was hoping to accomplish and why. It was all tied up in my hope in Jesus, and the fact that I believe pursuing justice is an act of worship because it shifts the world towards better reflecting its Creator’s heart. 

Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner is one of the Senior Pastor of Hollywood United Methodist Church. She is a proudly and publicly Queer clergywoman in The United Methodist Church. She graduated from Furman University with a BS in Psychology/Gender Studies, and Duke Divinity with a Masters of Divinity. She was ordained an Elder in 2012.

In 2016, she became an Honorary Member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., alongside Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland.  Also, in 2016, Abingdon published her first book, The Shout: Finding the Prophetic Voice in Unexpected Places. It was a Bible Study curriculum arising out of the community she had built as the Curator of The Shout – a spoken-word poetry focused artivism movement seeking to nurture a community of multi-ethnic, multi-generational, justice-seeking, solidarity-building people in Houston, Texas. In 2018, HBO released the documentary, “Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland” which included interviews with Hannah and featured her footage extensively.