Women’s and Family Ministries in Australia is holding an online summit on the eve of enditnow Emphasis Day—a global Seventh-day Adventist Church initiative to raise awareness and advocate for the end of violence around the world.
The summit, on Friday, August 26 at 7:30pm (AEST), will feature guest speaker, clinical trauma professional Professor Ingrid Weiss Slikkers. There will also be a panel discussion hosted by Adventist Media’s Julie Laws with panellists Adsafe general manager Ann Beaumont, domestic violence survivor Natalie Leonard, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries director Pastor Darren Garlett and Adventist counsellor Pastor David Haupt.
enditnow Emphasis Day, on Sabbath, August 27, is this year focusing on “Abuse of power”, an issue that is difficult to address and infrequently spoken about in the Church.
Women’s and Family Ministries director Pastor Sylvia Mendez said the summit is not about finger pointing, but finding a grace-filled way to move forwards.
“To discuss, acknowledge and find solutions to becoming a safer church,” she said.
“This discussion is for all our church—abuse of power affects both men and women. It’s a discussion we need to have as a church as abuse of power happens just as much in church as it does in society. We can’t pretend it doesn’t.
“We need to be able to hold each other’s stories, believe, support and encourage. And as our speaker Ingrid Slikkers recently said, we need to be able to ‘walk each other home’. What a beautiful picture of church, where we can come alongside each other and walk each other home.”
The summit will be live-streamed on the Adventist Women Australia Facebook page and the Adventists Australia YouTube channel.
Written by Tracey Bridcutt, originally published on the Adventist Record
