Readings:
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-end;
Psalm 90:1-8, 12;
1 Thess 5:11;
Matthew 25:14-30

Collect:
Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive us in new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Reflection

This Sunday is Safeguarding Sunday. It is a day dedicated by the church to revisit and renew our commitment to safeguarding: that is, to ensuring that our churches are safe places for all, and that we are equipped to prevent as well as to respond to all types of abuse. Safeguarding Sunday is also a vital reminder that Safeguarding matters, not because of our statutory duties and legal responsibilities, although of course those are important, but because safeguarding is an expression of how we love our neighbour. 

This week I have been providing chaplaincy at the General Synod of the Church of England, the church’s national governing body. One of the issues debated there was the new Redress Scheme for survivors of abuse which has been perpetrated in church. This is a scheme which will provide financial compensation – and rightly so – but it is also something rather more than that. Introducing it, the Bishop of Winchester emphasised that it ”is about more than money” and will also need to involve apology and repentance. 

For many of us, national schemes like this may seem far removed from our day-to-day experience of church (although it is also important to acknowledge that there are likely to be among our number survivors of abuse, including church-based abuse, for whom it is very close to home). But I think there are things we can all learn from the underpinning principles of the Redress Scheme.  

As I understand it, there are three aspects to redress in this context: apology, repentance, and reparation. For all of us, when we deal with things that have gone wrong, however big or small, these are helpful things to consider.  

Apology: how are we naming the problem, and the responsibility? Jesus says “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.” (Matthew 10.26) Transparency and honesty, allowing the light of Christ to shine on all things, is an important part of the Christian life. 

Repentance: how are we changing in response to the problem we have identified? What will we do differently next time? Repentance literally means “turning again” and it is a continual call to turn back to God, and to turn away from that which harms our neighbour, or ourselves, or the world we live in. Change has always been part of the life of the church. God is unchanging, but we are not! 

Reparation: how will we make amends to those who have been harmed? True repentance should translate into concrete action. In most situations, that won’t be financial reparation, as it is in the national Redress Scheme, but there will be other ways that we can and should make things right. God says, through the prophet Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58.5). Our faith, and our calling to work for the justice and peace of God’s kingdom must have practical outworkings. 

This Safeguarding Sunday, as well as renewing our commitment to good safeguarding practices as a whole church, let us be attentive to where in our own lives God might be calling us to apology, repentance, and reparation. 

Ruth Harley