Safe Church Welcomes 2019
A new year is a good time to reflect on the past year, to look ahead, and to set goals for the future. 2018 was a busy and productive year for Safe Church Ministry. There were many highlights:
- We welcomed a new ten hour per week staff member in Canada, Miriam Spies!
- We successfully hosted a bi-national conference with about 90 people from 26 different classes attending;
- we created new resources, Responding to Abuse: A toolkit for Churches and a new promotional video for Circle of Grace;
- we created a new fund to support grants for the position of a safe church classis coordinator.
- Safe Church received a lot of attention at Synod 2018; this resulted in positive actions, including new data related to Safe Church as a part of the annual yearbook survey, and a study committee reviewing abuse of power (misuse of positional power can provide a context for abuse).
In light of all these positive things, we still have a long way to go. There are CRC congregations that still don’t see the need for a safe church or abuse prevention policy. Only one fourth of our classes report having a safe church team. And there are many people attending our churches each week who are suffering, who have experienced abuse and feel alone with no place to turn. We will work hard; and we will pray that the Lord would add his blessings to our efforts in 2019! We hope that you will also take some time to reflect and to find new ways to join with us in our work of equipping congregations in abuse awareness, prevention and response. A good place to begin is by reading your Safe Church newsletter each time it comes.
THANK YOU! for all that you do. Safe Church depends on people like you.
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