Dear Friends, we would like to update you on the Safe Church process.
Dear Friends, we would like to update you on the Safe Church process.
Safe Church (formally the two programs called Safeguarding God’s People and Safeguarding God’s Children) is the safety training program within the Episcopal Church for laypersons, deacons, priests, and bishops. Our training and policies are intended to provide a framework to allow all people to live more fully into our Baptismal promises to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being.
In 2018, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church adopted a new series of model policies related to the safety of children, youth, and vulnerable adults. To supplement these changes in policies, the Church Pension Group (CPG) established a task force to create new Safe Church training for the entire church. It has been almost twenty years since the establishment of our last training videos and much has changed in ministry and our lives together! Church Pension Group began to load the new training in July of 2021 and will complete the upload of all new training by the end of the year. They currently have three of the final eleven new training courses published alongside the new model policies.
In the past, Church Pension Group published the safe church training in two locations – first, through a series of DVDs that could be purchased and used for in-person training events and second, online through a provider named Praesidium, a national company that provides workplace training to various non-profits, church organizations, and businesses. In the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, we have historically made use of both tools. CPG announced that the new training would only be available in an online format, not DVDs. Thus, beginning in 2020, we began a shift towards entirely online training for all persons. With the advent of the new training availability, we have now fully completed that shift, and all training going forward will take place online through the (also newly updated) Praesidium Academy web platform.
Finally, part of the 2018 General Convention Model Policy adoption, was a requirement for each Diocese to perform a Safe Church audit every three years. This means the Diocese of Oklahoma must turn in a comprehensive report, including congregational data, of Safe Church training in the Diocese. To this end, we are asking each congregation that has not already done so, to establish a Safe Church administrator and to communicate that person to the Diocese no later than September 30th, 2021. We will work closely with these individuals to train and gather information for the Safe Church audit in January of 2022.
The following information is intended to clarify the process to set up training for members of your congregation going forward. Please know this isn’t an “instantaneous” transition – meaning the information will change as new training, including Spanish translations, become available and as we work towards publishing our new Diocesan policies – however, the PROCESS should remain the same.
For any questions about Safe Church please contact Kate Carney Bond, kbond@epiok.org, or Judith Rodriguez Delgado, jdelgado@epiok.org.
Click for Safe Church Instructions
Click here for the training spreadsheet
Click here for the Safe Church Administrator form