CANADA
Anglican Journal
By Diana Swift on May, 09 2016
The Anglican Communion’s Safe Church Consultation emerged from painful revelations in the 1990s that Christian churches—supposedly places of trust—were sometimes magnets for bullies and predators and sites of misconduct and abuse.
In 2008, the consultation addressed this phenomenon at Creating a Safer Church, an international conference in Woking, U.K., and in 2011, a second international conference, Partnering for Prevention, in Victoria, B.C., continued the scrutiny of religious structures that perpetuate abuse.
In a revitalized commitment to improving the welfare of all people in Anglican churches across the Communion’s provinces—clergy, parishioners and community members alike—renewed efforts in education, training and screening are under way to ward off abuse and when, inevitably, it happens, to quickly respond.
And the scope of efforts now extends well beyond sexual misconduct to the bullying and mistreatment of a broad range of victims. “Initially the focus was on preventing abuse of kids, youth and vulnerable adults, but as we got started, we realized we needed to help parishes prevent abuse in all forms, regardless of the victims and the abusers,” said Lorraine Street, a program and staffing risk-management consultant providing support and resources for SafeR Church, a project of the Halifax-based diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
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