Category Archives: Articles
Safeguarding at St Mary’s Church
To get in touch with the Safeguarding team at St Mary’s Church, please click here
You may have heard the news that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has resigned, following the publication of the Makin Review into the Church of England’s handling of serious abuse by John Smyth.
In the light of this, I just wanted to assure you how seriously we take safeguarding in all its forms at St Mary’s, Redbourn. Everyone in any position of responsibility at St Mary’s is required by the Church of England nationally to undertake regular and good quality training to keep up to date on safeguarding, and I am so grateful to Jan, our Parish Safeguarding Officer (PSO) for her help and assistance in recent years to ensure that we’re on track with all relevant training and DBS checks.
Additionally, we’re very well supported by the Diocesan Safeguarding Team, who offer excellent training and also good, professional and wise advice and support on every aspect of safeguarding at St Mary’s and any concern we may have. You may be surprised at the number of conversations we have but they are friendly, helpful and very quick to respond.
If you have any concerns about anything to do with safeguarding, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with myself or Jan our PSO.
These are difficult times for the church nationally as we come to terms with the legacy of what has happened. We stand with those who have suffered abuse of any kind and we pray that justice will be done. And we commit and recommit ourselves to ensuring that all our churches will be safe and welcoming to absolutely everyone who comes through our doors.
Finally, thank you especially to the congregation of St Mary’s for everything you do to help us look after each other here within our church community. I hope that it helps give others confidence that we are a safe and welcoming place to be for all, where all are valued.
God bless, Rev’d Rachel
The Church Development Tool: a way of planning together
Please take part by 12th October 2024
This year we are running the Church Development Tool survey in this church.
It’s a quick, anonymous survey that we’re inviting everyone in the church to complete, to help us understand ourselves as a church and shape our prayers and our planning for the year ahead.
The survey will help us answer three questions:
- What should our focus be? Your answers will help us decide about what we could be doing more of or less of as a church.
- How do we like to express our faith and grow our faith in this church? Your answers will help us spot our strengths and how we could grow in our faith journey together.
- What groups of people do we have in our church? The survey will also ask you for some demographic information, such as your age group and ethnicity. We ask these questions so that we can check how far the makeup of our church mirrors the makeup of the local community. This will help us check what groups we’re reaching already and where there are opportunities.
What we find out will help us see where we’re doing well, and help us discern areas where God might be calling us to do something new or different.
It’s important that as many people as possible in the church answer the survey, so that we get an accurate picture.
Click below to complete the survey online or ask Revd Rachel for a paper copy.
Please respond by Saturday 12th October.
Thank you!
St Mary's Church, Redbourn 