Sacred Trust: Fostering Safe Space in Congregations

An educational series (stories and reflections) on sexual misconduct in the church.

Topics include:

• Can Adults be Abused? It's a Power Issue
• Finding Your Voice: Why Do Survivors Wait So Long?
• Crossing the Line: What is Clergy Abuse?
• Secrets and Lies: The Long-Term Cost for Survivors
• Survivors Helping Survivors: Healing Together
• Pastoral Abuse: The Congregational Story
• Alternatives to Denial
• Picking Up the Pieces: Families Suffer Too
• Healthy Boundaries, Healthy Pastors
• It's a Long Road to Justice and Healing
• Navigating Tempations
• Walking through an Investigation

We hope these stories and discussion questions will equip congregations to prevent this type of abuse from happening. And if abuse does happen, we hope Sacred Trust will equip you to be more prepared to respond compassionately and faithfully.

(12 sessions)

Sacred Trust was commissioned by Mennonite Church Eastern Canada and first appeared online at www.mcec.ca *. It is now available to the wider church at CommonWord as a downloadable PDF and as part of Mennonite Central Committee’s Abuse Response and Prevention site.