While celebrating 20 years of marriage and the “power of love,” Bishop O.C. Allen III and Rashad Burgess renew their vows with an elegant and magical ceremony.
20 years ago, Bishop Oliver Clyde Allen III — who is now a Senior Pastor and founder of Vision Cathedral of Atlanta and CEO of iElevate+TV — and Rashad Burgess — who is now a Vice President for Advancing Health and Black Equity Gilead Sciences Inc. — got married in a private beach ceremony, way before same-sex marriage was legal.
Revered as trailblazers in the world of LGBTQIA+ churches, the couple grabbed their children, Joshua, 11, and Caylee, 10, and said “I do” again on Sunday (July 16).
After gathering 600 guests at Atlanta’s luxury hotel, The Whitley, Allen told PEOPLE, “It meant the world for us to finally bring all our family and friends together after 20 years of marriage to celebrate love. In a world with so much division, we seek to be the bridge that brings people together through the power of love.”
Allen added, “We were both excited and emotional, especially when they opened the doors to the ceremony, and we saw all of our family and friends there to celebrate our 20 years of marriage.”
While the couple wore uniquely designed gold and white tuxedos by Octavius Terry, their requested their guests dress in “all-white haute couture.”
After meeting in 1999, Allen and Burgess would reconnect shortly before getting married in 2002. In 2005, as Black members of the LGBTQIA+ community, they opened their church with the intention of creating a safe and inviting space for others to worship.
In February, Bishop O.C. Allen told Today, “When people of color, Black people couldn’t find solace in white LGBTQ spaces, we created our own. We created our own of everything, whether it was our own fraternities and sororities, our own institutions, our own churches.”
Meanwhile, while dishing on the secret to reaching 20 years of marriage, Bishop Allen says it’s got a lot to do with good communication, support and unconditional love. Together the couple explained, “We never got in the way of each other’s success because we always believe that we can be better versions of ourselves because we are in each other’s lives.”
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