Safeguarding
The smallest seed becomes a tree in which all can find safety.
Creating a Community safe from harm is essential to the life of every healthy community. Each member of the Community is called upon to guard against wrong practice and to seek advice and guidance if any practice or behaviour of leaders or members raises concern. In the first instance, this can be reported to the Leader of the Community or the Assistant Leader, or alternatively to the Protector of the Community, or in cases of concern to the St Martin-in-the-Fields Safeguarding Officer (safeguarding@smitf.org) or diocesan safeguarding team. A safe Community depends on the care and diligence of all its members.
Within our context this involves a careful and intentional respect and reverence for the full humanity and wellbeing of the others and the Community itself:
- A respect for the property of others and the spaces that we share.
- A respect for the individual and space that each individual inhabits, and a realisation that these spaces are sacred and individuals may need privacy, confidentiality, time, sensitivity, freedom from judgment and room to grow. A healthy Community maintains a sense of non-attachment, which allows for interdependence and mutual flourishing, rather than dependency and control. We are careful not to project onto the Community, or other individuals within, our own needs and agendas. By creating supportive space for others, we also create it for ourselves.
- We have a respect for the Community itself and the well-being of everyone within it, and an understanding that the inappropriate words or behaviour of one member hurts the whole and that we need to be mindful of all prejudices and unconscious bias - especially our own.
- A respect for the body, sexuality, gender, and relationships. Members of the community refrain from any form of coercion, inappropriate assumptions, aggression, or inappropriate sexual behaviour.
- A respect for the language we use and the way we address or comment on others. This will mean a guarding of the words we use when commenting or sharing online, and in the places we meet, and a refraining from inappropriate gossip. It will also mean giving others the space to speak. We treat one another with kindness allowing each person to share with trust.
We seek to live without doing harm to others and our world. This calls for an honesty and integrity in all members of the Community. We believe that a deep care, respect, and attention for all people is at the heart of our Christian calling and no aims or ends or agendas ever justify treating one another harmfully or disrespectfully. A member of the Community may be asked by the leaders to step aside from either Community for a period of time, or to leave the Community, if it is decided that they are causing harm or disrespecting other members of the Community.