Pastors and church officials of the Kiribati Uniting Church (KUC) were involved in a two-day workshop facilitated by the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) in collaboration with the KUC.
The workshop was held at the KUC Women Fellowship Center’s boardroom and brought together KUC pastors and church officials including the KUC Moderator and the Secretaries for Mission, Finance, and Education.
The workshop served as an introduction to the Child Protection and Safeguarding guidelines in relation to the vision and mission of the church. As participants, the church officials also shared their thoughts on how the KUC could shift from being spiritually centered to a more liberating church, recognising the emergence of contemporary issues as part of its mission-agenda considerations.
The KUC Secretary for Mission, Rev. Maleta Tenten, raised a challenging view on how the KUC can see to the need of providing protection and the safeguarding of children, despite every well-meant effort, “If the Kiribati Uniting Church wants to build its own crisis center, are we, therefore, ready to make it happen?
“It will need an extra financial budget which can in turn become an extra financial burden to our church members.”
The workshop also engaged church officials and clergy members in an in-depth conversation and sharing to validate the solidarity of the church on protection and safeguarding children.