Safeguarding

God calls his people “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Protecting the vulnerable, caring for one another, responding faithfully to harm, and practicing appropriate accountability are essential to our life together as God’s people. 

Because the Church belongs to God, its leaders bear a particular responsibility to care for his people. Acts 20:28 calls leaders to watch over themselves and the flock entrusted to them, reminding us that faithful care requires both pastoral watchfulness and appropriate accountability. 

Safeguarding and ethics are part of the Church’s work of discipleship. They help us prevent harm, maintain healthy boundaries, address concerns faithfully, and pursue truth, accountability, repentance, and, where possible, restoration. In this way, they strengthen the spiritual health and well-being of God’s Church.

Through clear policies, effective training, pastoral care, and fair accountability processes, we seek to cultivate churches where the vulnerable are protected, every person is treated with dignity, concerns are taken seriously, and all can worship, serve, and grow in safety. 

May God grant us wisdom, courage, humility, and compassion as we seek to be faithful stewards of his Church to care well for all those he has entrusted to us.

The Rev. Canon Sergio Sapunar

Canon for Safeguarding and Ethics