We will speak out

Violence against women and girls: it's still a shocking problem.

I've long been passionate that the church should lead the way in trying to change our culture and address this issue, rather than lagging behind others or ignoring it altogether.

I was pleased to hear today about a new Anglican initiative to 'speak out'. Not sure why I heard in an email from a Canadian friend, but maybe that says something about the level of awareness (or lack of it) in the UK!

The Archbishop of Canterbury recently welcomed senior church leaders and international development agencies to Lambeth Palace to pledge that the church will play a part in ending sexual violence, and to launch a Tearfund report, 'Silent No More' (see photo).

Read more about this here, and you can download the 'Silent no more' report and pledge your commitment to it here.

While at theological college I helped out on a domestic violence helpline, and chose to do some research on Christian responses to domestic violence for a theological college essay. That was eventually published as a Grove booklet for Home is Where the Hurt is. The booklet is out of print, but the text is still available, for download: click here (scroll to the bottom of the lists of articles).

In whatever way, we will, we must, 'speak out', to see an end to the sexual violence which blights the lives of so many women and girls all over the world.