Since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Uniting Church WA has responded to more than 100 claims of historical child sexual abuse within our former institutions, and colleges. For some this might be a hard thing to comprehend, but it is important to acknowledge if the church is to live out its faith of caring for the vulnerable and working towards justice.
This September marks Child Safe Week, Sunday 5 to Saturday 11.
“We all have a part to play.”
The Uniting Church in Australia’s National Safe Church Unit has released a new Child Safe Principles poster for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members.
Grace Williams, artist and a proud palawa woman from the South-East nations of lutrawita, has created powerful artwork for a new Principles for a Child Safe Uniting Church in Australia poster, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members and communities.
As many congregations are seeking different ways of keeping in touch with their members, Margaret Johnston, Culture of Safety Research Officer at the Uniting Church WA, gives us a timely reminder that, through your good intentions, you might be in breach of copyright.
Rev John Cox is the inaugural Director of the Uniting Church in Australia’s National Safe Church Unit. John previously served as Executive Officer of the National Royal Commission Response and Engagement Task Group, the group that guided the Uniting Church’s national response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
He shares some thoughts on his new role.
The Uniting Church took a proactive stance to engaging with the Royal Commission and the work of the national task group was to make sure that the commission had what they needed from the church, and that the church learned from the commission.
In the last year of the commission’s work the national task group transitioned to be more forward facing—asking itself the question, how do we implement what we’ve learned in and through the life of the church?
The idea of a national safe church unit grew out of that. It’s a unique collaboration between all of the synods and the Assembly, so it is owned by the councils of the church, which gives it a level of responsibility to drive change in and through the life of the church.
The new body is about cultural enhancement in the life of the church; how do we understand ourselves as church, what does safety mean and how do we live that out?
Our role is to resource the church to provide safe contexts in which people are nurtured and can engage the possibilities of faith in Christ. This is the call to be a Christian community. The unit’s work is intended to sit right across the church, not just the congregational life but also the agency and the school life of the church.
So, this work is about supporting the church to be who we are called to be through the creation of strong evidence-based policy frameworks and resources, further collaboration across the church to create consistency in processes and enhance our education and training, and sharing information to create the checks and balances the church needs to ensure safety.
I think across the life of the church we have people in congregations, lay and ordained, whose experience and understanding is that this could never happen here.
The Royal Commission said one of the biggest hurdles to adequate reporting on child sexual abuse was the belief that the person working at the next desk could never do something like that.
That’s a challenge for the church, as we understand people of faith to be people of integrity as we know them in a particular sphere.
My experience is that it’s not so much the looking back and saying, ‘I don’t believe that’. The struggle I think is here and now—yes, we accept that that happened there and then—but that would never happen now!
The checks and balances certainly help, but in my view safe church culture rests with every member of the church owning a responsibility to ensure that it’s a safe space.
Helping the church to understand that a percentage of abuse is perpetrated by people intent on undertaking that behaviour but there’s also abuse that happens when boundaries are lax, when opportunities are presented—is going to help us to be that safe community.
The dissonance between what I heard and experienced at the commission and what I understand the church to be called to be—this is what drives me. You hear stories and you think to yourself, ‘how on Earth could we allow ourselves to not be who we were called to be, to allow that to happen?’
I understand some of the contextual differences that contributed to abuse, the power and position of leaders, the place of children… so I understand functionally how that happened. However, this has not magically stopped… and this is not who we are.
We have moved a long way since some of the stories I’ve heard—but I strongly believe that following Jesus involves being a community of Christ in which people are nurtured and loved by God and by each other, and that being a safe church is one significant part.
Top image: Rev John Cox, Director of the Uniting Church in Australia’s National Safe Church Unit
This article originally appeared in Journey, the publication for the Uniting Church QLD.
The Federal Minister for Families and Social Services, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP has notified the Uniting Church in Australia that the church has met the requirements to commence participation in the National Redress Scheme for people who experienced institutional child sexual abuse.
The scheme, operated by the Commonwealth Government, allows survivors to apply for counselling, a Redress payment of up to $150 000 and a direct personal response from the institution involved. Information on who can apply is set out on the National Redress Scheme website.
Dr Deidre Palmer, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, has released a statement during National Child Protection Week. National Child Protection Week runs from Sunday 2 to Saturday 8 September, and aims to promote the safety and wellbeing of children. Read Deidre’s statement below.
The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Stuart McMillan, has urged church members to help ensure the church’s commitments to child safety are honoured as a result of the landmark Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
At the Royal Commission’s final sitting in Sydney today, Chief Commissioner Justice Peter McClellan AM warned that the sexual abuse of children is not just a problem from the past.
Justice McClellan said: “Poor practices, inadequate governance structures, failures to record and report complaints, or understating the seriousness of complaints, have been frequent.”
He went on to say: “If the problems we have identified are to be adequately addressed, changes must be made. There must be changes in the culture, structure and governance practices of many institutions.”
It is everyone’s responsibility to provide an environment that is safe from sexual abuse for all our children.
The media coverage in February of The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings from Rome, has once again focussed the attention of many.
In Western Australia, the Synod’s Royal Commission Task Group continues to meet regularly, refining our current practices and policies, as well as identifying areas and actions for future improvement. Coupled with this is the need to ensure all aspects of the church’s life are compliant of the new requirements.
As an individual, what can you do?
Most importantly, be actively involved in ensuring the safety of everyone participating in our church community, particularly children. You may need to speak-up, if you see or hear anything which makes you uncomfortable or doesn’t seem quite right.
The president of the Uniting Church in Australia, Stuart McMillan, has welcomed the commitment by the Federal Government to develop a national approach to redress for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.
“This commitment by the Government is important, because a nationally consistent approach has been identified as best meeting the needs of survivors,” said Stuart.
“The Royal Commission recommended a single national redress scheme and it’s a principle that we strongly support.”
“The Government previously thought a single national scheme was too complex and difficult to resource, so we acknowledge and thank the Government for its principled change of position towards a national approach.”
The Uniting Church is committed to creating a safe and caring place for its members, those who come seeking help, those who are hurting and those in need.
In some cases, that very reaching out and unconditional love by its members has meant the Uniting Church and its agencies have been open and accessible to those who have abused our children, elderly and vulnerable.
It is the duty of care of the Uniting Church members to ensure the spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing of all people it ministers to. Church leaders and members need to support and encourage each other to create and maintain safe church ministries.