Date: 17 November 2022
Safeguarding Sunday will be marked in churches across the diocese this weekend.
This annual awareness-raising campaign gives churches the opportunity to show their communities that they take their safeguarding responsibility seriously and to explore together, as a church, what safer places look like.
This year’s theme is: “One Church, One Day, One message: Protecting Vulnerable People. Together.”
Members of the Diocesan safeguarding team will be speaking at three churches about their work at services in Thames Ditton, East Molesey and Bookham.
As part of the parish response to the Past Case Review 2 process, Bishop Andrew is encouraging all parishes to run a Safeguarding Sunday to inspire communities to create a church which is a safe space for all.
"We all share in a vision and ambition where all our churches are a sanctuary and haven,” says Jane Huttly, the Acting Head of Safeguarding and one of the team who’ll be out at the weekend. “We’ll be speaking about the ‘why’ of safeguarding. How can the church be a safe space? Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. We’re aiming to create churches where people can thrive and be the people God created them to be. In other words, seeing safeguarding as an outworking of God’s plan and blessing for his Church,” she says.
Safeguarding Sunday is an initiative coordinated by the charity Thirtyone:eight. Two thousand churches across the UK have already signed up to hold a Safeguarding Sunday at any time during the year, not just this Sunday, and it’s not too late to register.