Your Church is unique. It's a place where anyone can come and feel welcomed, loved, and part of a community. But with that openness comes responsibility, especially towards safeguarding vulnerable people.
It’s easy to think that abuse and neglect don’t happen in our churches. But the sad truth is that they can and do happen. In some cases, failure to safeguard people from abuse has had devastating and long-lasting consequences on people’s lives.
Thanks to the many brave people who have experienced such abuse and spoken out about it, we're now much more aware of the risks. Today, many churches are working hard to get these things right and safeguarding is now a familiar word to most people who work and volunteer in Christian ministry.
However, to truly create places that are safer for all, we need to create open cultures where abuse has nowhere to hide. To do this you need to ensure everyone in your church is aware of the part they each have to play in supporting the safeguarding arrangements you have in place and to be alert to the risks of abuse both from within and outside the church. Safeguarding Sunday will help you do that.
What difference can one Sunday make?
On Sunday 19 November 2023 thousands of churches from across the UK will be marking Safeguarding Sunday together. But it’s not just about making a statement. It's your chance to consider the journey your own church or denomination is on with safeguarding. You can reflect on where you may have got things wrong in the past and think about how you are supporting those who have been hurt or harmed.
It’s your chance to highlight all the good work being done behind the scenes and to show your church and your community that you are committed to protecting vulnerable people and creating safer cultures and communities for all both now and in the future.
Whatever the tradition or style of your church, if you have just a few minutes or can dedicate a whole service, with a bit of thought and planning you can show how safeguarding is an important part of the
Christian message of justice and hope.
Whether it’s including a prayer, preaching a sermon, or showing a short film, everything counts.
Churches who take part in Safeguarding Sunday see:
- GREATER positive awareness and understanding of safeguarding among church members.
- An INCREASE in the number of people feeling able to talk about their abuse for the first time.
- MORE volunteers coming forward for safeguarding roles and to help with children’s/youth work.
- An INCREASED number of people completing safeguarding training and criminal record checks.
- And the number of Safeguarding Leads feeling supported in their role by the church is BIGGER!
People who took part last year said: 'It made safeguarding sound everyday and accessible for people in the church, not a big scary or threatening thing, just a normal part of what we do, which is exactly how it should be.'
'It was a powerful service, and many people took part. It contributed and reinforced to the culture we want to create! We can’t thank you enough. So powerful!'
To find out how you could take one Sunday to make your church a safer place go to: thirtyoneeight.org/SafeguardingSunday