Our parish has implementing a Safe Church program. While it is a mandate of the Diocese of Huron that we do this, we have a greater mandate. A mandate that was set for us by the prophet Micah. That mandate is to ‘do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.’

As a Church we know all to well the pain of our past. Today’s Church is carrying the emotional and financial burden for the sins of our past church. We realize that as a community, and as individual in it, we have responsibility to be a people of kindness and justice. The church also realizes that there is no 100 % problem free system that will eliminate any risk to those who come to be among us. That does not, however, mean that we will not take full measure to try our hardest to ensure a safe and secure environment for all of God’s children. The goal of this Safe Church plan is to protect the vulnerable. Realizing our failings of the past, this is an endeavour to give us a secure future.

This program gives us more than just a sense of security. The program opens for us the channels of communication with those who volunteer in this place. That is to say, instead of merely asking someone to do something, we now offer a full description of what the objectives and responsibilities of the ministry are. This process gives us the opportunity to sit and talk with all who are joining the ministry team. We should all be excited about the opportunity this now gives us. As is the case with so many other things in this great community we are setting out on a new and open course. We are seeking to have an open and honest conversation about what it means to minister as a Warden, as a parish council member, a reader, a server, a holy roller, a greeter and the list goes on. This was a great way to see all that we are doing. We now have over 40 different ministries identified in the parish. We are also certain that as time goes on that number will increase as well.

Each ministry has been evaluated to be low, medium or high risk. For each there is a different set of criteria that apply. The full process, which would be used for high risk ministry, has ten steps. (These are available in the Diocesan Guidelines). In the early stages of this process at the diocesan level, there was much conversation about the police services check. It should be noted that this is only one step and is not necessarily the most important one. It does however offer a strong deterrent to those who have offended in the past. An offender is less likely to ask to teach Sunday school if he/she knows that there will be a check into whether or not there is a previous offence. 

Our hope and prayer is that if we all work together, we can in openness and with integrity make this a place that is safe for all. As we know that we have failed in the past, we know that we must try harder to provide a secure and safe future. We pray that God will be with us as we move forward together. We will work to “do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.”

If you are joining a new ministry or if you have questions about this program please contact John Anderson at   jlander@mnsi.net   or call our church office.