Safe Church, Safe Communities: Our Shared Commitment

Holy Creator, we offer our gratitude for the opportunity to live in community, where we can take comfort in others and be nurtured when needy, fed when hungry, and protected when threatened. Guide us as we strive to protect those in our midst who are most vulnerable and innocent, respecting the dignity of all humans, so we can more fully and appropriately love our neighbors and ourselves. Help us to be examples in the world in the likeness of your son Jesus, who spoke truth to power, gave hope to the hopeless, and loved selflessly. We humbly ask for all of this through the gift of your Holy Spirit. Amen. 

A Collect for Safe Church

I love curating resources for congregations, dreaming together about the ways people can grow as disciples and share Jesus’ love with the world. I listen carefully to where God is at work in their congregations and then wonder about where God may be calling them next. Sometimes that is ministry with children and youth, other times it is in support of the seniors for whom it is getting increasingly difficult to attend church on Sunday. Our call as followers of Jesus is not just to invite people to meet us in our buildings, but to go out into our broader community partnering in the God’s work in the world. 

How we do both those things matters. Whether it is in the church, a Sunday School classroom, during a Vestry meeting, at a food pantry, or on a Eucharistic visit to someone’s home, one of the primary ways we share God’s love is through a commitment to keeping each other safe. That means reading and following the model policies for children and vulnerable adults, and it means completing the required courses for Safe Church Safe Communities.

Safe Church, Safe Communities is an updated series of online learning courses facilitated by Praesidium Academy. These courses provide participants (Learners) with information needed to protect the children and other vulnerable populations in their personal lives and the ministries in which they serve. It is a fundamental way in which we welcome and care for all people.  

Safe Church Safe Communities training is required for all clergy, employees, lay leadership, and volunteers who work with children, youth, and vulnerable adults. This training must be renewed every three years.

And while this training is integral to our ministries, we also recognize that it can be daunting. In our commitment to make it more accessible this year, several updates have been made to the ways in which you can complete the training.

ONLINE

Access to the online courses through Praesidium Academy has been streamlined into three categories: clergy, employee, and lay volunteer. In each of these categories, a step-by-step guide to enrolling in Praesidium Academy is provided, along with direct links to each of the required modules. There is even a checklist that can be printed and kept next to the computer, allowing you to check off your classes as they are completed.

IN-PERSON

We recognize that online training may not be the best fit for everyone. Whether it is due to challenges with technology or the need for additional pastoral support during the training, in-person training may be a better fit. In-person training is offered a minimum of twice a year to increase access to this vital piece of our ministry together. 

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:12 & 26-27

Each member of God’s church has a unique role to play in the church and in the community that they serve. We bring our gifts and our skills to our shared life together. Those gifts are vital to congregational health. 

We also bring our past experiences, our pain, and our worries. Our faith communities provide us a place to heal and be nurtured. In the opening prayer there is a line that specifically speaks to this.

Guide us as we strive to protect those in our midst who are most vulnerable and innocent, respecting the dignity of all humans, so we can more fully and appropriately love our neighbors and ourselves. 

Guide us God, so that we can more fully and appropriately love our neighbors and ourselves.

More information about Safe Church Safe Communities training can be found through this link. If you would like to check your completion status, please contact diocesan registrar, Alyson Terry, aterry@edsd.org