A Reflection on Safeguarding
Every Autumn, thousands of churches across the UK, from diverse backgrounds and traditions, observe Safeguarding Sunday, to raise awareness of the importance of protecting children and vulnerable people. Recently, I was invited by a church in Canton, Cardiff to give a short reflection on safeguarding, after members of the church had read an earlier blogpost I had written on the theology of safeguarding, which is now used regularly to support safeguarding courses in Wales and beyond. To accompany that earlier blogpost, and to encourage those churches observing Safeguarding Sunday, I share the reflection I gave below.
If I mention the word “goat”, what picture do you have in your head? For me, I picture the wild goats that wander the streets of Llandudno in North Wales where I grew up. But mention the word “goat” to my 10-year-old son and his friends and they won’t picture a bleating animal. Instead, they will picture Lionel Messi. Because, for young people, the term goat is used to describe a person who is exceptional in their field. Because “goat” is an anagram of “Greatest. Of. All. Time.” (G.O.A.T.). So, Messi is the goat of football, Muhammad Ali is the goat of boxing, Shakespeare is the goat of writing, and so on. But it’s not just 10-year-olds who are interested in the question who or what is the greatest or best. Every day on social media, my accounts are flooded with articles that have titles like “the top 10 towns in Wales” or the “the best 100 streets to live on in the UK”.
But this is not a new thing to our modern world. The gospel stories often describe Jesus’s disciples bickering… and what do they argue about most frequently? They squabble about who is the greatest, who is the best, who deserves to sit next to Jesus in heaven. The eucharist service is so important to Christians, but what does Luke tell us happened immediately after Jesus blesses the bread and wine in the very first communion service? An argument breaks out amongst his friends as to which of them is the best disciple.
But, in Mark’s gospel, Jesus’s response to this disagreement about who is the goat of his followers is not to rate them like top trump cards. Instead, he points to a small child. His action and subsequent words have been interpreted by theologians down the years in various ways, but the episode needs to be considered in light of the fact that children were seen to hold the lowest status in society in the ancient world. Children in the ancient near east and in the Roman Empire were all-too-often exploited and abused. So, in his usual way, Jesus was turning our ways of viewing the world inside out by pointing at a child. He was saying: “you are only as important as the importance of the least amongst you”. He was, in a nutshell, saying that, for God, everyone is the G.O.A.T. because God’s love has no boundaries.
And this is one reason why safeguarding is so essential in churches. To some people, safeguarding is a word that brings to mind just another box to tick. But in the downside-up way of viewing the world that Jesus ushered in, safeguarding is actually at the very heart of our faith. The Church is a community that defines itself on how it treats, protects, and loves everyone that comes through its doors, not least the weakest, most vulnerable, most helpless individuals.
The songs of ascent (Psalms 120-134) are the psalms that the Israelites would sing as they travelled up and through mountains. The songs reminded an oppressed, suffering people that their God was a God of love, of grace, of mercy, and, especially, of care and protection. In Psalm 121, God is described as our “keeper” and the Hebrew word used (somereka) can be translated as “safeguard”. So, the challenge is for us to live out the call of God ‘the safeguarder’ – to make our buildings and our world a place where everybody feels safe, loved, and protected.
After all, there are no “in groups” and “out groups” in God’s eyes. Recently, I was with some visitors from the Swedish diocese of Uppsala. They were describing the work their Church does on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers. That isn’t unusual in itself. Churches in Wales and elsewhere are involved in standing up for people who have left homes and livelihoods with nothing but the clothes on their back. But what was striking about the Swedish visitors was how they referred to the people that were helping. They did not call them “asylum seekers” or “immigrants”. Rather, the Swedish Church refers to them as “newcomers”. In other words, they aren’t outsiders to be kept at an arms length. No, they are immediately welcomed as new members of the community.
And that is a great model of the inclusive, wideness of God’s love and it sums up the demands it places on those of us who use Christ’s name to call ourselves Christians. There is no “us” and “them” in the Church. Christians are not another tribe to add to the list of opposing groups in today’s world – Welsh/English, remainer/Brexiteer, vax/anti-vax, right wing/left-wing, pro-choice/pro-life. God does not define anybody with boundaries and dividing lines. Jesus urged us to see beyond the tribal allegiances of Old Testament, so that we view people as God sees them. St Paul wrote that, in Christ, there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile (Galatians 3:28), but he could have added that there is neither black nor white, rich nor poor, gay nor straight, Roman Catholic nor Protestant, Muslim nor Christian, and so on
And that is why safeguarding is absolutely integral to our faith. Treating the lowliest and least with respect, dignity, and love is central to our calling – we must treat them as if they were Jesus himself. “Whoever welcomes these little children in my name, welcomes me”, Jesus said (Mark 9:37). So, every Christian has an important role to play in promoting welfare of children, vulnerable adults, and all those who come to churches and church halls. We need to help our church leaders by being aware of this call. As well as paying attention to our own interpersonal boundaries, we can undertake safeguarding courses to learn how we can most effectively live out our life-giving, compassion-filled faith. By each taking our own part, we can foster a culture of safety here to ensure we stand alongside the lowly, the lost, and the least in our world and continue to build up God’s welcoming, hopeful, and compassionate community of love and grace.
After all, our God is not a 10-year-old who looks at us and decides who is the “G.O.A.T.” and our God is not an article on the web that positions us in a top ten countdown. Instead, our God is a God who opens his arms in the shape of the cross and welcomes each and every person as the greatest of all time. And so, while the structures and processes of safeguarding may sometimes seem inconvenient, they help us become instruments of God’s wonderful kingdom – a kingdom where all individuals, especially children and vulnerable people, can flourish and be provided with the warm, welcoming, and safe place they desire and deserve.
