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	Synod Sends Strong Message on Abuse ninemsn [Australia] October 17, 2006 http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=153242 Sydney's Anglican church has sent a strong message to the public on the issue of child abuse and sexual misconduct within its ranks, voting unanimously for a new disciplinary ordinance. Clergy and laity gathered in Sydney for the diocese's annual synod passed the ordinance, put forward by Diocesan Professional Standards Unit director Phillip Gerber. The ordinance, born out of a series of recommendations put forward by the national synod in 2004, outlines a series of processes for receiving, investigating and handling complaints of child abuse and sexual misconduct within the church. Key in the new procedures was the appointment of a non-church member to a committee for reviewing complaints and the workings of the mechanism, Mr Gerber said. The relevant appointee would be "someone of eminence and experience in the area, a person of integrity who is prepared to give up the time to serve on the committee and have that external input," he said. The synod standing committee would approach someone within weeks, and the new processes would hopefully be in action by Christmas, he said. The discipline ordinance was the consolidation of 10 years of experience on the controversial issue of abuse within the church, and would send a message of accountability to both church members and the general community. "I would say that we put the final major plank in place in terms of having good processes for receiving, documenting and dealing with complaints of abuse and child abuse and sexual misconduct," Mr Gerber said. "It's the final sort of structure we've got in place so we can hopefully say to the churchgoing public 'If you feel a minister or a church worker has done the wrong thing we will deal with that properly and transparently, and without doing too much harm to you in the process'." Progress had been made within the church, Mr Gerber said, sending a clear message to would-be abusers that it was a serious matter with consequences. "I'm not saying that that will stop it, because realistically there will be people who will want to do the wrong thing, and they'll try and do the wrong thing," he said. "But as best we can, I think, we've systemically we've done about as much as we can do at this stage to either stop it or deal with it when it arises." The process would need some fine-tuning and review as the issue evolved in five to 10 years time, he said.
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