ACNS - Anglican consultation: "Our churches can be places of safety and healing"

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Posted On : June 25, 2011 8:49 AM | Posted By : Admin ACO
ACNS: 
<http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2011/6/25/ACNS4888>http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2011/6/25/ACNS4888 

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<http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/ACO--SCC>ACO - SCC

Anglican consultation: "Our churches can be places of safety and healing"

> By ACNS staff in Canada

With imagination, empathy and will, our churches can be places of 
safety and healing. This was the conclusion of the Revd Dr Marie 
Fortune's keynote address on the first day of the Partnering for 
Prevention conference taking place 23 to 26 June on the campus of 
Victoria University in British Columbia, Canada.

The conference, organised by the Anglican Safe Church Consultation, 
has gathered 60 safeguarding officers and other Anglicans and 
ecumenical partners concerned with power, abuse and gender issues in 
the church.
Dr Fortune reflected on the long history of the powerful exploiting 
the vulnerable and of impunity in church settings but affirmed that 
the silence has been broken and there is now no going back.

There were no easy answers to the causes of abusive behaviour, she 
said, but a number of factors contributed to its perpetuation and to 
the failure of those in authority to protect vulnerable children and 
adults. These included the absence of a critical and robust sexual 
ethic grounded in concern for the well-being of our people.

She also listed the desire on the part of leadership to avoid scandal 
and to "protect one's own and oneself" rather than "do justice and 
healing". Sometimes unquestioning allegiance to a particular person 
in leadership was a factor.

While frequently our church safeguarding policies were formulated in 
legalistic terms, Dr Fortune encouraged participants to trust in 
their Christian tradition and its resources and to ground their 
responses in their theology. "We have biblical resources to help us", 
she said. "We have ethical norms and guidance within our faith tradition."

Dr Fortune described how any inclination to protect the institution 
of the church needed to be transfigured into an approach that 
protected its people and served justice and healing. Justice-making 
needed several elements to be in place, she said, from making safe 
space where truth could be told, through to accountability, 
restitution and vindication.

Participants in the conference representing eight Anglican Provinces 
will be attending keynote lectures and workshops on issues such as 
safeguarding education; policies and procedures; bullying; pastoral 
ethics and relationships; and the healing of parishes.

We hope that the development of relationships across Provinces during 
this conference will strengthen work within the Communion as a 
whole", said Mr Garth Blake, convenor of the Anglican Safe Church 
Consultation. Sharing of resources and fresh learning will contribute 
significantly towards creating safe churches and communities.

> Notes:

* The Anglican Safe Church Consultation is a growing 
international group of people committed to the physical, emotional 
and spiritual welfare and safety of all people involved in churches 
throughout the Anglican Communion.

* For further information about the Partnering for Prevention 
conference, see 
<http://safechurch.anglicancommunion.org/resources/index.cfm>here.

* The Anglican Communion Office serves the Anglican Communion, 
comprising more than 85 million members in 44 regional and national 
member churches around the globe in more than 130 countries. 
<http://www.anglicancommunion.org/>http://www.anglicancommunion.org/