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	Online Course Helps Churches Deal with Sex Offenders By Adam Gorlick Boston Globe August 3, 2007 http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/08/03/ online_course_helps_churches_deal_with_sex_offenders/ Holyoke, Mass. — It was a moment of shock for members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, N.H.: one of their congregants was accused of sexually abusing an underage relative. Rather than panic at the prospect of having a child molester in their midst or spend months wondering whether they should fit him in or kick him out, church leaders gave the man one chance to remain: He had to sign an agreement to stay away from any church setting where there were children, limiting himself to events like adult education classes and one-on-one meetings with the pastor. He refused, and decided to leave. But the ultimatum let the church stick to its mission of trying to minister to all while keeping its children safe. "We had a policy in place," said Sandra Greenfield, who was the church's director of education at the time and now holds a similar job at the South Church in Portsmouth, N.H. "There was no confusion about how we were going to handle the situation." Eight years after that incident, Greenfield and other Unitarian Universalists have created an online course with the Holyoke-based New England Adolescent Research Institute to help churches set guidelines for dealing with a member accused of a sex crime or a convicted sex offender who wants to join their congregation. "This should be a piece of every congregation's overall policy, and we're nowhere near that," said Rev. Debra Haffner, director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing. "The majority of congregations in the United States do not have any plans in place to deal with this issue." Haffner, a Unitarian Universalist minister in Westport, Conn., who helped design the course called "Balancing Acts," said she works with at least two congregations of varying denominations a month grappling with whether to accept a sex offender. One of the most heavily publicized situations she dealt with was in Carlsbad, Calif., where members of the Pilgrim United Church of Christ voted in May to set guidelines for dealing with registered sex offenders after a convicted child molester wanted to join the congregation. Pilgrim's pastor, Rev. Madison Shockley, declined to discuss the policy or say whether the man is attending services. Balancing Acts, named for the harmony churches must find between protecting their congregants and ministering to all, is designed specifically for Unitarian Universalists. But its ideas can easily conform to other denominations, and its creators are hoping preachers from all faiths find some use in it. And for those who might feel uneasy asking for help about such a sensitive topic, the free course's online availability might provide a sense of anonymity that could encourage people to use the resource. "Not everyone is likely to pick up the phone and ask someone about how to deal with these issues," said Joan Tabachnick, director of educational initiatives at the New England Adolescent Research Institute and a national consultant on sexual abuse issues. "The key was to create something that was available and accessible to everyone." The course suggests following some guidelines that have long been in place at the Manchester Unitarian Universalist church. If a convicted or accused offender wants to take part in religious activities, the church should determine how much of a risk he may be to children. From there, church leaders can create a list of restrictions, called a "limited access agreement." Such arrangements might range from making sure an offender is escorted at all times while in a church to allowing him to only attend adult worship services or confine him to one-on-one meetings with a minister where no children are around. Balancing Acts also encourages congregations to adopt rules such as making sure that at least two adults are always with a child and trying to keep children in wide open spaces as much as possible. "Every place of worship needs a safe-congregation policy," Haffner said. "If not, you have an offender who shows up, the congregation is alarmed and nobody knows what to do. Then there's a split in the congregation where you have people saying 'Jesus called us to welcome everyone,' and others saying 'if a pedophile comes in, I'm quitting.'" Some signs of a congregational split have surfaced at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Reno, Nev., where a convicted sex offender wanted to worship in December. The church had no policy for dealing with the situation, and the congregation has since been debating how to fit the man into their community — if at all. "I wouldn't be surprised if some people leave if we do decide to include him," Senior Pastor Carl Wilfrid said. "But others have said they'd leave if we don't include him. There have been people terribly afraid for their children, and I don't fault them at all for that. But I also recognize the struggle to serve this man." It's a struggle that's so far taken seven months, and Wilfrid says his congregation has grown spiritually from the experience. He isn't sure that having a policy before the sex offender showed up to pray would have made things easier, "but it's certainly a good idea for congregations to start thinking and talking about these issues," he said.
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