Theology of Safeguarding

Karen Allen, Safeguarding Casework Supervisor, shares these thoughts of a group having worked through the theology of safeguarding course, God Welcomes All. God Welcomes All is a four-session study guide containing new short films with activities and questions for discussion and reflection.

When we were first asked to think back on how we had changed and what we did differently since doing this course, we were a bit like rabbits in the headlights! Had we changed..? Were things different..?

However, within a few minutes of talking we realised how much we had changed. The great thing is because it’s not something we consciously think about now, it’s become an integral part of our faith and our lives, both in and outside of church.

We don’t think of safeguarding like we may have before – as just necessary admin – but as an essential element of serving – it’s taking care of people like Jesus would.

Some of the things we do differently are:

Asking before doing – can I pray for/with you? Do you want to talk about it? Do you need a hug? How do you feel about…?

Not being too full-on with new people – treading that fine line between ignoring and jumping all over them. Using caution and awareness.

One member has changed how they preach; moving from always doing a single longer sermon to doing smaller chunks of reflection mixed with other activities, to help concentration and understanding.

We created a welcome leaflet and a contact card and bought prayer cards.

Having a permanent prayer/contemplation area in church, with changing themes.

Continue to support and do more for other activities within our church buildings to reach out to the community – coffee mornings, lunches, quizzes, tiny toes group craft days, etc.

We focus differently now and recognise we have been influenced by the training and do things automatically with safeguarding subconsciously in mind.

As a group we have been even more open and comfortable in sharing our prayer needs, and we are more responsive. We follow up with each other and appreciate this safe space.

We have new people both in church and attending activities, which we believe is down to our open and welcoming ethos. This was always there, but the course helped us build on the good foundation we had, and think wider and deeper and more carefully.

We shared our experience of the course with the church council and others in the circuit, and we see changes within these which make us feel that many people are feeling the same way, moving in the same direction and have the same mission of care.

Because this course was so helpful it has made us keen and willing to do others – for example many of us will be attending the upcoming safeguarding conference on understanding and supporting memory loss and dementia. We have people in our church family and wider groups of family and friends who are affected by this; and want to be able to help them more.

We all agreed we still want to encourage others to do the training, and we would quite like some more! We felt this was a great starter and could move on to deeper understanding. The personal experiences shared on the presentations were really meaningful and the abiding reminder we were left with was that every one of us has a level of power to influence how people feel. We need to use it how Jesus would want us to.

You can find the 'God Welcomes All: How faith informs safeguarding' (Study Guide) here.