Classis Abuse Response Team
Report to Classis Hamilton
January,
2004
Dear Classis Delegates,
CART has accepted a request to conduct a training session on the prevention of child abuse for our short term missionaries. This has been requested by World Missions and CRWRC through Beth Swagman, Director, Abuse Prevention. This training will be out of the Burlington office next year on Friday, July 9. This workshop will focus less on policies and more on helping missionaries to understand the dynamics of abuse, understanding risk-behavior, seeing the signs and symptoms, and then helping them understand what to do because reporting to civil authorities is not an option.
Since the September classis meeting we made an earnest plea to all church councils who were not represented on CART to submit a name to us. We have currently five members representing five churches. Ideally we would like to have a member from each classis church. The end result of our efforts were four names from two churches. We will be approaching classis, through the Nominating Committee, for approval of those nominees willing to join CART.
As of the writing of this report, we have not received any requests for assistance from our classis churches.
At our last meeting on August 25, 2003, we decided to embark on a study on "Restorative Justice". There is a growing interest in expanding ARTs to include something along the lines of restoration/reconciliation. We will begin our study with the work of the Synodical Study Committee on Restorative Justice. In the Study Committee's report we read:
"Canada and the United States, homes of the Christian Reformed Church, imprison more youth and adults than all other western nations. Is there a better way? The justice system practiced in North America is called retributive justice, a system that focuses on blame and punishment and often depersonalizes those involved. Under this justice system, the rate of prison recidivism and the "revolving door syndrome" are high. Simply put, the current practice of retributive justice in the United States and Canada is not aptly reforming offenders and curbing crime.
However, a different and biblically based view of justice is slowly emerging from the grassroots level, called restorative justice. Restorative justice is a practice that recognizes and condemns the wrongdoing, but also attempts to engage the victim, the offender, and the community in bringing about a deep and lasting reconciliation by focusing on healing, restoration, and the future.
In order to understand and apply what the Scripture says about justice, the Criminal Justice Consultation formed a Biblical/Theological Taskforce to study Scripture and provide guidelines for the church and the Christian to "bring about more God-pleasing criminal justice practices." To learn more about this taskforce and their findings, contact John DeVries at: jeldvrie@netcom.ca."
We have contacted Beth Swagman and she is more than willing to bring two or three ARTs together for a day of brain-storming, reflection, studying, etc. We will keep Classis informed of our progress.
In His Service,
John Gilson, Chairperson
Classis Abuse Response Team
E-mail: classishamilton@bfree.on.ca