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 moreWomen and children are wildly over-represented as victims of domestic violence in Australian society. Australian police deal with an estimated 657 incidents of domestic violence each day – one every two minutes[1] - and one woman is hospitalised every three hours[2]. As of September 10, 61 women had been killed at the hands of men in incidents of domestic violence in 2015 alone[3].
Our society is only beginning to come to grips with the sheer scale and impact of domestic violence in Australia. Importantly, we’re starting to talk about the extent to which this violence is rooted in entrenched patterns of gender inequality, which in turn have seen women and children poorly served by the media, police, judicial system and religious institutions.
The church, of course, is not removed from this. Sadly, the church has too often fallen far short of being the place of empathy, safety, justice and transformation that it is called to be; it has often been slow in responding decisively to protect and serve those who have been impacted by domestic violence. Moves to acknowledge and remedy this fact are afoot, and we celebrate that.
That said, the need for a continued, thoroughgoing and wide-scale societal transformation is clear. We at Common Grace, believing that the call to obey and follow Jesus is at once the call to obey, follow and embody his love for justice, aim to speak into this transformation both in the contexts of the church and wider society. The church can and should be a place of safety for all people, and a voice bringing good news for those who suffer oppression of any sort.
[1] - See http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-29/domestic-violence-data/6503734
[2] - Figure from the Luke Batty Foundation
[3] - Figures from the Counting Dead Women Australia project
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 moreLet your loving generosity be a gift of safety and inclusion for women. Your support will help pursue a world where all households and churches are places of love, safety and healing.
Make a donationWe are thrilled to announce the appointment of Ellaina Welsman as the new Domestic and Family Violence Justice Coordinator. Ellaina is deeply passionate about seeing churches commit to and make steps towards ending violence against women.
Read moreThe following Domestic and Family Violence support services are available: