The Department of Women Ministries’ Advocacy for Victims of Abuse (AVA) project is spearheading Covenant Domestic Violence Awareness Sunday. Also supporting the project through the development of special resources are the departments of Ordered Ministry and Christian Formation, as well as the Commission on Church Music and Worship, and the Covenant Resource Center.
Focusing on domestic violence is a way churches can let members who suffer abuse know that the congregation cares and wants to help, says Ruth Hill, executive minister of Women Ministries. According to government and other studies, the rate of abuse is roughly equal in households that attend church as those that do not.
Those statistics paint a disturbing picture, Hill says:
- One in four women will suffer some form of abuse in their lifetime
- A woman is battered every 15 seconds.
- Wife-beating results in more injuries that require medical treatment than rape, auto accidents, and muggings combined.
- Child abuse occurs in up to 70 percent of the homes that experience domestic violence.
- Young women ages 14-24 are the largest population of domestic violence cases.
- One in three girls will be in a controlling abusive relationship before she graduates from high school.
- One in four girls are sexually abused by a non-stranger before the age of 14.
Many churches already are planning to celebrate World Communion Sunday on October 1. Hill says combining the two makes sense.
“Globally, one in three women will be raped, beaten, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. On World Communion Sunday, we can remember all these women and millions of children who are abused daily,” Hill says.
Resources will be available at the AVA website beginning next week and subsequently added, says Hill. They will include sermon samples, text suggestions, bulletin inserts, a liturgy, and a prayer of faith that would serve as the congregation’s declaration of commitment toward helping the abused.
A newsletter focusing on the day will be mailed Friday and will include comments from Dave Kersten, executive minister of the ordered ministry, exhorting pastors to step to the forefront in helping the abused.
Congregations also are encouraged take a special offering to benefit AVA, which is in its second year of a three-year initiative. The money will help fund the preparation of a 25-hour curriculum for clergy.
People who have been abused often turn first to clergy for help, but many ministers say they feel inadequate to help or know how to refer to someone who can.
“When pastors begin to speak about domestic violence, they communicate compassion to people in their churches as well as their willingness to be equipped,” says Hill.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
