Safe Church

Last Saturday, the Diocesan Youth Movement hosted a training session for those who work with young people in the Church on Safe Church practices at St Mary's, Kerrisdale.

The workshop built on our diocesan sexual misconduct training and allowed us to deepen our knowledge and understanding of how to create safe spaces for ministry with children and young people within our ministries. It was led by Marion Little, Canon Pastor of the Diocese of British Columbia. The content was put together by the Canadian Red Cross as the "Prevention in Motion" programme and is used as a training standard by other organizations that work extensively with children and youth in Canada. Marion translated this programme into the theology and language of the Church context in order to make it relevant to our ministry with children and youth.

Throughout the day, we learned about the problem of violence against children and youth. We looked at the definitions and impact of different forms of violence against children and youth, ways to protect them from violence, how to handle disclosures of violence and what we can do to help create safe environments for children and youth. We also looked at factors that can increase the risks of violence to children and youth. These include children and youth in institutions, in a disaster setting, using the internet, sexual minority youth, children and youth with a disability, aboriginal children and youth, marginalized children and youth, and refugee children and youth.



As a Christian community, we are called upon to protect and care for vulnerable people in our society. This vocation includes the cultivation of a safe environment in which children and youth can explore their faith. Since children and youth also participate in the whole church environment, their safety is a concern and responsibility of the whole church community. When I first arrived at St Philip's last year, I worked with Church School coordinator, Erin McDougall and members of staff to create our own set of Guidelines and Practices for Promoting the Safety of Children and Youth.

The Church aims to create a place of sanctuary where people are invited to connect with God, with each other and with the world. If we can create this safe place for children who are the most vulnerable amongst us, then we can create it for everyone. One of the most hopeful parts of this training session, in which we dealt with some very difficult issues was the following statement from the UN World Report on Violence against Children:

"No violence against children is justifiable, and all violence against children is preventable."