THE perception that safeguarding is a “foreign concept” being imposed by the West is among the challenges facing the Anglican Communion Safe Church Commission, it was revealed on Monday. Three members of the commission, established in 2016 to promote the safety of people within Churches of the Communion, were present at a briefing to introduce a new publication: Safe Church: How to start guide. The chair of the commission, Garth Blake, an Australian barrister, said that the work was a response to requests from bishops at the Lambeth Conference. We don’t have any culture around safeguarding [but] a culture of silence. How do we begin?”The commission produced guidelines that were approved by the Anglican Consultative Council in 2019 (News, 3 May 2019).

Source: The Times November 21, 2023 09:48 UTC