Safe Ministry

At churches of Christ in NSW & ACT, our commitment to expressing the love of Christ leads to the view that all people should be able to live and work in an environment that is safe and free from abuse or harm of any kind. At Penrith Church of Christ, we continue to be on a pathway to resource all our church with effective solutions to minimise harm, promote healthy culture and prioritise safe environments.

We partner with the NSW/ACT Baptist Churches to train and resource our churches to minimise and prevent harm. Safe Ministry Package documents found in our Documents and Forms section.

Our church of Christ ministers and chaplains are expected to be people of integrity and as such are held accountable to our Code of Conduct.

Penrith Church of Christ

Safe Churches Team

Secondary Title

The responsibilities of the Safe Church Team include:

To provide oversight of the church’s Safe Church program, including Safe Church Policy and procedures.

To provide oversight of the management of Safe Church/Child Protection concerns/reports.

To receive and act upon concerns or complaints within Penrith Church of Christ

To contact the Safe Church Team in complete confidentiality please email the Safe Church Team Lead at safechurches@cofcpenrith.org

or Phone Matt on 0439 407 148

Alternatively, you can contact the team on safechurchesteam@cofcpenrith.org or call 0404 358 254

Matt Evenden

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We need some new volunteers.
If you believe that you would be a great representative of our Safe Church's Team, please reach out to Matt at safechurches@cofcpenrith.org or
Phone: 0439 407 148

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Dieter Matthaeus

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Judy Martin

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Safe Church Health Check Information Session Video

This is a recording of the Safe Church Health Check Information Session held at Georges River Life Church on 14 November 2019. The Information Session covers the theological underpinnings of the Safe Church Health Check (0:00 – 19:40), the legal requirements the Safe Church Health Check is designed to address (22:45 – 46:00) and an overview of the contents of the Safe Church Health Check (46:00 – 1:40:51). There is also a question and answer time. (1:40:51- 1:49:06)

Safe Church Health Check Information Sessions

The Safe Church Health Check has been developed to assist local churches to promote a culture that reflects the love of Christ, protects individuals from harm, and fosters missional engagement with their local community.

The recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended ten Child Safe Standards and the NSW Office of Children’s Guardian has recently announced that compliance with the Child Safe Standards will soon become mandatory for all organisations working with children and young people in NSW. The Safe Church Health Check is a comprehensive review tool which will assess your church’s safe church practices against the Child Safe Standards.

Baptist Insurance Services have advised that their insured constituents will need to declare that they have appropriate safe church policy and procedures in place in order to have continuing public liability insurance coverage for sexual abuse claims for incidents occurring after September 2020. Baptist Insurance Services strongly encourages each church to participate in the Safe Church Health Check as it will assist your church to have confidence in making the required declaration.

To help explain this important initiative and what it means for your local church congregation, we hosted a series of information sessions in conjunction with the launch of the Safe Church Package.
Creating Safe Spaces is a training program offered across Baptist Churches in NSW and ACT, delivered in partnership with Churches of Christ NSW and the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV).
Credits to Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT for the use of this material. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0