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Meet the Family & Domestic Violence Team

Our Family & Domestic Violence Team came together in late 2015. Find out more about them here!

The Domestic Violence Justice Campaign Team is made up of Erica Hamence, Associate Minister at St Barnabas' Broadway, Natalie Williams, a senior policy advisor with the NSW Government, Rachel Neary, Domestic Violence Educator at Alice Springs Women's Shelter, and Andy Abeyasekera, a ministry trainee at St. Swithun's Anglican Church Pymble. Read more below.

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Erica Hamence

Erica is the Associate Minister focusing on discipleship and campus ministries at St Barnabas' Anglican Church, Broadway in Inner Sydney where she oversees discipleship and campus ministries. Erica also leads Common Grace's Family & Domestic Violence Team.

 

Rachel Neary

Rachel is a Domestic Violence Educator at Alice Springs Women's Shelter who comes from a background in international development, social work and activism. Rachel is also a mother of three and a member of the John Flynn Memorial Church.

Natalie Williams

Natalie is a social policy advisor with a professional background in law, advocacy, and public relations. Ministry-wise she previously worked with Baptist agencies Global Interaction, Hopestreet and BaptistCare NSW.

Natalie is married to Ben, is mother to baby Maxine and step-mother to Amos and Evie. She lives in Sydney’s inner west and is part of Newtown Mission - a diverse faith community passionate about following Jesus and living alongside the vulnerable and marginalised. She really hates the word “awesome”.

 

Andy Abeyasekera

Andy is a ministry trainee at St. Swithun's Anglican Church Pymble, where she works in young adult and women's ministry. She is passionate about exploring issues of gender, and hopes to help equip Christians to respond faithfully and radically to the issue of family violence.

Andy is studying Theology at Youthworks College, after completing a Bachelor of Political, Economic, and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. She currently lives in Sydney's inner-west, and is quite content to explore its cafes and graffiti-clad back-alleys for the rest of her life.

Domestic & Family Violence Justice

Faith in action

SAFER Resource for your church

SAFER is a brand new online resource produced to help churches support and prioritise victims of domestic and family violence, and know how to deal with perpetrators.

Read more

Do you need support?

The following Domestic and Family Violence support services are available:

Domestic & Family Violence

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A Model for Responding to Domestic and Family Violence

Northside Baptist Church shares their six-year journey to better recognising and responding to Domestic and Family Violence within faith communities and Christian churches. Northside Baptist is part of a unique community-wide project to respond to and reduce Domestic and Family Violence. Read their story of how this project came about.

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Longing for Change

May is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It is a time for all of us to speak up about the dark reality of domestic and family abuse that is far too common in Australia.

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Locked in a prison

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 2021, Rachel Neary encourages us to consider the women often forgotten or dismissed in their experience of family and domestic violence.