IN FOCUS
Safeguarding during lockdown: 7 top tips for churches by Peter Wright
In March, as the nation began its period of lockdown in response to Coronavirus and churches closed their doors , the Archbishop of Canterbury told ITV News the Church of England has “reinvented” itself in response to the crisis and was providing “comfort and hope”. Archbishop Welby said the Church was offering vital support in “difficult times” and said “ten times as many people” were watching online services compared to the numbers of people who were going to church in person.
As churches consider a wide range of alternatives for maintaining contact with each other and providing the much-needed support to those who may be vulnerable and/ or self-isolating within their communities, we must not forget that we need to do all these things safely. There is a huge opportunity for the Church to reach out to their communities at this time, but there are also risks. This is not a ‘tick box’ exercise, but one that may make all the difference between helping to keep people safe and unwittingly creating additional risk.
Throughout history the church has consistently changed and adapted the way it communicates its unchanging message. Even in these recent and unsettling times, we’ve seen the church reinventing the way it does ‘church’ by embracing technology to reach out and minister to its community through various online means.
As a charity we exist to equip, empower and encourage the Church and others to create safer places for all, so we’ve put together our top tips to help you in these challenging and changing times:
As we’re faced with the unprecedented changes taking place in society one thing does not change. The need to consider best practice in safeguarding is as important now as it has ever been.
‘There is a huge opportunity for the Church to reach out to their communities at this time, but there are also risks.’
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