Life Forum: Seeing God’s Work Through Students

By Sammie Gallo, Creator of Abundant Life: You Were Made for More

Did you know that Anglicans for Life is Abundant Life’s parent organization? 

The answer to why is simple: our goal is the same. The sacredness of human life, the importance of human identity, and the life-changing Truth of the Gospel are at the heart of both of these organizations.

According to AFL’s website:

While Anglicans For Life (AFL) is known for addressing abortion and euthanasia, in recent years the ministry has seen an increase in interest from people seeking guidance and counsel on bioethical life topics. People in pews are making real decisions about life and death situations that are not being addressed in the Church, such as;

• A husband and wife sitting in a pastor’s office, explaining that after years of infertility, they finally conceived through IVF. But now they have three embryos frozen in a clinic freezer—and they’re not planning to have more children. “What are we supposed to do with them?” they ask, eyes full of tears.
• A longtime church member with a terminal illness tells his pastor he has scheduled an assisted death and asks if the pastor will sit with him as he dies, and conduct his funeral. The pastor must now decide: Is his presence an act of compassion, or a silent approval of a choice the Bible cannot bless?
• Meanwhile, a hospital rolls out a new AI system that determines treatment priority based on data points—age, health history, life expectancy. A pastor is asked to pray over a woman denied a ventilator by a machine. He wonders, “Have we replaced human dignity with an algorithm?”

To help equip and educate the Church to respond to the evolving needs, Anglicans For Life’s (AFL) 2026 Life Forum events (held in January, Sanctity of Life month) focused on Thinking Biblically about Bioethics… from Conception, at the End-of-Life, and in the Church. 

In preparation for this event, Fr. Keith Hartsell, a priest from Grace Anglican Church, Oceanside, California, called AFL President, Georgette Forney, and said that he was bringing a group of teenagers to Washington, D.C. to attend the March for Life events. He wanted information about the Life Forum that we were hosting and wondered if his group was welcome. Obviously, she said yes – AFL has a heart for teens, especially teens who desire to know more about God’s heart for Life. 

22 students and 9 adults attended in January, and despite Georgette’s initial fears of the topics being “over their heads,” the students dove in and thanked Georgette for forming topics that challenged them and encouraged them to think deeply about life issues.

Anglicans For Life is the only Life-Affirming ministry in the Anglican Communion that educates and provides pastoral resources on the issues of abortion, assisted suicide, adoption, sexual risk avoidance, and bioethics. 

Fr. Keith’s Students gave testimony of their experiences, which I hope will encourage everyone to dive into topics like these with students (knowing that God has called you and He will equip you!!!), seek God’s heart in them, and to challenge the culture. 

• “The bioethics seminar was incredible! I learned so much, especially about organ donors and the moral laws surrounding them. My entire group is still debating about those topics and about IVF, which not all of us knew much about beforehand. My mind and heart were challenged when learning about and understanding the emotions surrounding IVF and why so many turn to it for help. Thank you so much AFL!!” – Anonymous
• “The trip to Washington DC was AWESOME!! I have learned so much about abortion and life, and about all the options that people can turn to for assistance. My lungs have grown from all the time we got to explore DC and check out museums, and my heart has as well, because the girls’ room gathered to watch Unplanned, which helped us to understand the why behind women going in for abortion. We also got to go to a seminar on bioethics and a Pro-Life convention, and we are all motivated to actively support life. Thank you so much!!” – Heidi Anderson (age 16)
• “My name is Genevieve, I am a high school senior, and I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given to attend the 2026 March for Life and Anglican bioethics seminars. The biggest question on my heart since then has been: What does it really mean to be consistently pro-life? When it comes to having a consistent pro-life ethic, I have been strengthened in some beliefs and challenged in others —whether they be embryo adoption, pro-life legislation, or the application of the Imago Dei principle. Reflecting on my time in DC, the speakers I learned from, and the ideas I’ve wrestled with, has affected my pro-life worldview and will affect my actions and advocacy as I grow into adulthood. I am thankful for the ability to go on this trip and inspired to keep learning more about bioethical issues facing my community and culture.” – Genevieve Helfrich (age 18) 

When I asked Fr. Keith himself to answer the following questions, he encouraged any youth leader thinking of engaging their students in conversations like these by saying… 

• Why should we encourage young people to be involved in the life movement? We believe that it is important for teens and young adults to be involved in the Life Movement because the culture will intentionally use language to de-humanize the unborn and build a foundation for our young people that denies the truth of science and Scripture when it comes to the beginning of life and sacred value. In our case, the youth got involved without any adult leadership. The youth had to encourage the adults to participate. Our group of 31 who travelled to DC and raised the funds began with one high school girl, Genevieve, who had a passion for the Life Movement and urged her peers and their parents to get involved.
• How do you practically do that in your own faith community? In our community, the students began to organize events at the local Planned Parenthood that involved leading worship on the sidewalk, holding signs that encouraged mothers and fathers to choose life, sidewalk chalking Life messages, and running diaper drives. One young man began a “Buff for Babies” effort of doing 1 pushup for every day of pregnancy.  

What a blessing the next generation is to this world. They are WORLD CHANGERS! I know it and believe it. If you’d like to become involved in the pro-life movement and have questions about how to do so, please reach out to us. We have resources to equip you, people to guide you, and we believe you were made for this!