UNITED STATES
Lancaster Online
EARLE CORNELIUS | Staff Writer
SPEAK OUT CAMPAIGN
How do churches deal with issues of domestic or sexual abuse within their congregations?
“Not well,” says Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz.
Amstutz is a longtime restorative justice coordinator with Mennonite Central Committee. Most of her career has been devoted to resolving issues between crime victims and offenders and helping churches in conflict.
Lately, however, her work has expanded to include aiding church members who are victims of domestic and/or sexual abuse and helping churches whose members are dealing with those issues. It is part of a three-year campaign — titled “We Will Speak Out” — begun in 2015 by a movement of faith-based groups.
The goal of the campaign, Amstutz explained to a gathering at the Parish Resource Center last week, is to raise awareness, care for victims, encourage law enforcement, change the culture of tolerance and inaction and ultimately provide resources to church leaders to help them support and assist those within their congregations who have been abused.
Anne Winslow, 53, of Lancaster, understands what it means to be a victim. A survivor of sexual and domestic abuse, the student at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Montgomery County, says her goal is to help people who have been victimized and to raise awareness within the church.
‘Nobody wants to talk about it’
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