Jesus said, "let the children come to me for to such belong the kingdom of heaven..." That is the basic reason we welcome the children and youth to our places of worship, learning and fellowship in the Church. However, recent news and media reports of the crisis in the Roman Catholic church have raised our awareness that sexual, verbal, physical and emotional abuse can happen in the church and indeed has happened over the years to many people who must carry scars on their hearts and spirits for the rest of their lives. On many Sundays in our sanctuary we baptize and welcome little children. We promise to love them, to care for them, to teach them and to honor them in every way as they grow and mature. Our current education ministries with our children and youth are planned, managed and executed in ways that honor the teachings of Jesus and the Good News He offers us all. We also work very hard to make Plymouth a physically and emotionally safe environment for our children as we fulfill these baptismal promises. Unfortunately, child abuse of any kind does not discriminate and knows no boundaries. Children are abused regardless of age, race, gender or social-economic class. Children can be abused in a home, a school, a car, a public place and yes, even in a church. This reality requires Plymouth to have policies and procedures in place to reduce as much as possible the chance of our congregation's children or youth being abused in any way during their involvement in our church. We need the people who work with our children to be loving and nurturing in all the appropriate ways that children deserve and must have in order to thrive. There are several reasons that we have implemented a Child Abuse Prevention Strategy, many of which have a scriptural basis... Our church must be a community of faith that offers a safe haven and sanctuary where children and youth can seek advice, help and nurture. Our church must be a place where more than just the facts of child abuse can be taught. We also teach and proclaim our Christian values: compassion, justice, repentance and grace. Our church must be a place where children can come to learn and develop inner strength and the spiritual foundation they will need to feel truly connected to God. Our church must be the place where children and adults are able to learn how to respond to painful and confusing events using the wisdom of the Scriptures. As difficult as it is to think about, we cannot ignore the possibility that abuse could happen here For the sake of our children, we feel that we now have in place all the necessary policies and procedures to protect our children from any harm. We also need to provide for protecting our volunteers from false allegations. The policies and procedures we now have put in place include: Every adult who works with Plymouth children and youth in any way (church school teacher, helper, driver, work camp advisor, youth advisor, etc.) must agree to a criminal background check, the results of which will be known only to our pastor and the Safe Sanctuary Team. Every church school class, youth event, overnight, car ride, etc. will provide appropriate supervision. All Sunday school rooms will be equipped with windows or open doors. A new person or persons to our congregation must be active with us for at least six months before they will be allowed to work with children or youth. Applications will be required and reference checks will be done. All workers must be at least five (5) years older than the children or youth they are working with. Mandatory training will be held for all volunteers to empower them to recognize and report abuse. All workers will sign Covenant Statements regarding these policies and procedures. These policies and procedures were approved at a special congregational meeting held following worship on Sunday, September 25, 2005. Plymouth Church is grateful to the Safe Sanctuaries Task Force which initially developed the Safe Sanctuary policy: Cathy Balke, Jodi Cowie, Barb Hoffman, Gail Holmes (Chair), Marianne Mollway, Mark Rickenbach, Jane Rowe, Laura Stalder, Petra Streiff, and Pastor Charles Wolfe.