{"id":16094,"date":"2018-06-06T22:37:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T11:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=16094"},"modified":"2018-06-06T22:37:25","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T11:37:25","slug":"safe-as-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2018\/06\/06\/safe-as-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe as churches?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Address, ‘Safe as Churches?’,\u00a0NCCA Conference -Safe as Churches- Mar 2004 final<\/a> formed part of the introductory presentations at the National Council of Churches Consultation in Canberra in 2004<\/a>. I have listed it here\u00a0on my blog in order to access it online.<\/p>\n

Its concluding comment continues to\u00a0challenge\u00a0me, and us, the churches:<\/p>\n

I recently released a Bishop’s vision for the Diocese of Tasmania in a booklet form entitled “a healthychurch<\/strong> … transforminglife<\/strong><\/em>“. Some ten days later I held a Service of Prayer and Reflection for all those who have suffered abuse. This Service was entitled “Out of the Depths” and the Order of Service was published in booklet form.<\/p>\n

At the end of this Service a woman approached me with her husband and asked if I would sign both the “healthychurch <\/strong>… transforminglife<\/strong><\/em>“<\/a> booklet and the “Out of the Depths: A service for those who have suffered abuse”<\/a> Order of Service booklet.<\/p>\n

I duly signed both the booklets. I was curious, however, and I asked if there was any particular reason for having the booklets autographed. The woman replied that when she heard my “transforminglife<\/strong><\/em>” launch address and read the booklet she was enthusiastic about its content but wondered whether this would just be another document collecting dust.<\/p>\n

“But”, she commented, “now that I have seen you do the second booklet (\u201cOut of the Depths\u201d), I believe the first one. Thank you.”<\/p>\n

The credibility of the Church depends on our commitment to making it a healthy church, a safe church.<\/p>\n

May God help us to achieve this through our vital NCCA Conference ‘Safe as Churches?’.<\/p>\n

Shalom, Bishop John Harrower<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Address, ‘Safe as Churches?’,\u00a0NCCA Conference -Safe as Churches- Mar 2004 final formed part of the introductory presentations at the National Council of Churches Consultation in Canberra in 2004. I have listed it here\u00a0on my blog in order to access … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16094"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16094"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16100,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16094\/revisions\/16100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}