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| A resolution was introduced – and adopted – at this year’s Annual Conference establishing a conference-wide safe sanctuary policy. Specifically, it requires that every local church have a safe sanctuary policy in place by Dec. 31, 2008. To implement this policy, the resolution also called for the Conference to provide training, workshops and sample policies as well as guidance to local churches as they work to develop their own individual policies. Though the general policy isn’t new, the timetable and deadline is. Back in 1996 the General Conference of the United Methodist Church adopted a resolution, which was re-adopted in 2004, that called for every local church and Annual Conference to strive to make churches “safe places, protecting children and other valuable persons from sexual and ritual abuse.” To comply with the deadline of the resolution, the Rev. Willie Teague, director of Connectional Ministries for the S.C. Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, established a task force to help develop the guidelines for the policies, as well as ways to provide the training and guidance to local churches as they establish their own policies. That task force includes the Rev. Kathy James, congregational specialist; the Rev. Dawn Compton, chairperson of Children’s Council; Bill Click, chairperson of the board of education, and Teague. That committee will also gather a group of Christian educators to help plan the training events. Also consulting with the task force is Joy Melton, an attorney and author of several safe sanctuary books including “Safe Sanctuaries for Youth: Reducing the Risk of Abuse in Churches” and “Safe Sanctuaries: Reducing the Risk of Child Abuse in Churches.” Melton will help the task force develop the policies for the annual conference. Those policies will include recommendations for local congregations in their quest to provide safe sanctuaries. The current plan calls for the Safe Sanctuary Policy to be received and adopted during the March 2008 meeting of the Council on Connectional Ministries. |
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Q. What has the Conference expected us to have in our Church's policy? A. The Conference is currently developing policies and will have them ready in March of 2008. Q. How does our Church start to implent the Safe Sanctuaries policy? A. Training for Safe Sanctuaries will be held in March, April and May of 2008 in all twelve districts. As soon as dates and locations are conferemed they will be posted here. |
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Every congregation is encouraged to send a team of persons to attend the training, including the pastor, members of Pastor/Staff Relations Committee, Trustees, Education and/or children, youth coordinators. Because space is limited, we ask that your team consist of no more than 6 people. The training will cover a basic overview of the conference Safe Sanctuary policy with recommendations for local churches. Concerns of small, medium, and large congregations will be addressed, in addition to churches with weekday children’s programs and churches who already have a policy and want to discuss the implementation of that policy. If you cannot attend a training in your district, you are free to attend another training. Below is the schedule for Safe Sanctuary trainings in the districts. Saturday, March 15, 2008 Sunday, March 16, 2008 Saturday, March 29, 2008 Sunday, March 30, 2008 Saturday, April 5, 2008 Sunday, April 6, 2008 Saturday, April 12, 2008 Sunday, April 13, 2008 Sunday, April 20, 2008 Saturday, April 26, 2008 Sunday, April 27, 2008 |
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If you need to talk to someone about Safe Sanctuaries please contact your Congregational Specialist or Dawn Compton dcompton2@sc.rr.com |