Evangelical Alliance granted core participant status in Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
The Evangelical Alliance has been granted core participant status in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) investigation regarding child protection in religious organisations and settings.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to engage with this important and much needed investigation”, said Jo Frost, director of communications and membership. “We have requested to be involved in this process, to listen and learn from the experiences of victims and survivors, and to represent our members, seeking to be a voice of wisdom as the inquiry makes recommendations for child protection policies. It is vital that Christians are supported to ensure the failings of the past are not repeated in our future. We are honoured to help represent the church in the UK to be a flourishing and thriving community for all people, especially children.”
The investigation will be thematic and will review the current child protection policies, practices and procedures in religious institutions that have a significant presence in England and Wales.
Religious organisations including non-conformist Christian denominations, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism will fall under the remit of this investigation.
Religious settings such as mosques, synagogues, churches and temples are in scope. Places of faith tuition such as Muslim madrassahs and Christian Sunday schools and places where children and young people gather in connection with their religious beliefs, including youth groups and camps will also be investigated by the Inquiry.
Hearings are scheduled to begin early in 2020 and are expected to conclude by November 2020.
The Evangelical Alliance is dedicated to helping our members respond positively to the investigation. We will continue to release materials and resources to help churches and charities engage with safeguarding concerns as well as offering signposts to advice and best practice examples.
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About the Evangelical Alliance
We are the Evangelical Alliance. We join together hundreds of organisations, thousands of churches and tens of thousands of individuals for the sake of the gospel. Representing our members since 1846, the Evangelical Alliance is the oldest and largest evangelical unity movement in the UK.
We love Jesus and we want everyone in the UK to be given an opportunity to know Him.
We love His church, and we will do all we can to unite evangelicals, building confidence in the gospel and speaking as a trusted voice into society to see it changed for Him.
Working across the UK, with offices in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast, our members come together from across denominations, locations, age groups and ethnicities, all sharing a passion to know Jesus and make Him known.
