Dear Calvary Members,
As members of the Episcopal Church, we are part of the global Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion is a global Christian denomination made up of more than 80 million members in 44 churches across over 160 countries. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the ceremonial head of the Anglican Communion.
This week, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned following revelations about the longstanding cover-up of abuse by John Smyth, a barrister in the Church of England who ran Christian summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s. Smyth abused over 100 boys and young men, subjecting them to physical, psychological, and sexual harm.
The abuse itself is horrifying, and the failure of church leadership to address it for so long is equally devastating. As members of the Anglican Communion, we are all deeply affected by this news, which places us among other church bodies that have caused immense harm and disappointment.
News like this reminds us of the seriousness of our Baptism. We must, as we do at the inception of our life of faith, continually renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God and the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.
I have asked Rev. Olivia Hamilton and Sally Engelbert to share with you the ways we here at Calvary are resolved to cultivating and maintaining safe places for all of God’s children at Calvary Episcopal Church. May we live as people of integrity who strive for justice and peace and safety among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being, with God’s help.
Faithfully,
The Reverend Allison English
Rector
From Rev. Olivia
I echo Rev. Allison’s sentiments of grief and lament as stated above. As a priest at Calvary entrusted with the care of children, it is my goal to provide a safe space for kids from many backgrounds. In all facets of parish life, but especially in the Brood foster care ministry (where many kids have experienced harm at the hands of adults) it is critical to create environments of safety and trust.
To that end, all of our volunteers are background checked and Safe Church trained. As a youth leader, I make sure to communicate openly and transparently with parents when pastoral issues arise, and to create an environment in our church and the wider community where the dignity of children is respected and where their needs are fiercely advocated for and upheld.
I believe that at Calvary we are creating a place of belonging for our youth, and it’s critical that we continue to do that with an emphasis on policies and procedures that ensure safety for all.
From Sally Engelbert, Director of Children and Family Ministries
At Calvary, we work hard to safeguard the children, youth, and volunteers in our programs. We do this by completing background checks on any person volunteering in our children’s and youth programming and requiring each volunteer to complete a universal Safe Church, Safe Communities training as provided by the Diocese. This training familiarizes all our volunteers with the organizational rules around program procedures, healthy boundaries, and mandated reporting. In this way we are all able to look out for each other and notice when something needs to be addressed. For instance, in our Sunday School rooms we schedule two adults into each classroom to hold each other accountable and to witness our safe interactions. We have glass panels in all of our classroom doors to optimize transparency in our actions. And we expect appropriate boundaries to be maintained by both children and adults, such as keeping your hands to yourself and using respectful language. We want everyone to feel welcome and safe in our spaces and discussions and this is one way we work to meet that goal for our children and volunteers.