Events

PASCH 2011 Conference

Emerging from the Shadows: the Church and Justice

          Our upcoming conference, be held May 12-15, 2011 in the Vancouver area, will explore innovative approaches to particular concerns of our PASCH membership: care for children who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence, evaluation of faith-based batterer intervention, and implementing global outreach to prevent violence against women.

          Dealing with the first of these will be Juan Carlos Arean, senior program director of the Family Violence Prevention Fund.  He has been a prime mover of Fathering After Violence (FAV), a national initiative to enhance the safety and well-being of women and children by motivating men to renounce their violence and become better fathers (or father figures) and more supportive parenting partners. FAV is a conceptual framework to help end violence against women by using fatherhood as a leading approach.

Mr. Arean has been influential in developing a program that provides supervised visitation services across the United States and has also worked as a sexual assault prevention specialist at Harvard University. He is co-author of various articles and educational tools for men, including Breaking the Cycle: Fathering After Violence, and an on-line tool-kit for engaging men and boys in violence prevention.

Juan Carlos is an active trainer who has led hundreds of workshops and presentations throughout the United States, as well as in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Russia, Sweden, Austria, and at the United Nations.

The second plenary presentation will divulge the information which we have so long awaited: what has been learned from intensive research into faith-based batterer intervention groups. For years sociologist Nancy Nason-Clark (chair of the department of sociology at the University of New Brunswick) along with her talented team of researchers, has been reviewing closed files, interviewing individual participants every six months, observing actual sessions, discussing perceived results with members of the outside community. Led by Nancy herself, the team will share their findings and present some of the conclusions in the form of a docu-drama.

There will be opportunity to discuss considerations such as: how do the faith-based projects differ from community-based programs, how effective are they, what can be learned from them, where is there room for improvement, where is there the most evident success? What relevance do the findings have to the Gospel insistence that God can change sinful conduct?

Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark is a social scientist by profession who has a very important story to tell. For over 20 years, she has been writing about what happens when abuse strikes families of faith. Through her books, her international speaking engagements, the workshops she conducts and the articles she writes, the message is clear: there is a holy hush hovering over most religious congregations when it comes to talking about abuse. Nancy’s creation of the RAVE Project is based on her desire to shatter that silence NOW! By combining the language of the spirit (religious-based resources) with the language of contemporary culture (community-based resources), every pastor and every congregation can be part of the solution to abuse. Nancy served as the editor of the Journal of Sociology and Religion and is author of numerous books on domestic abuse, such as The Battered Wife and No Place for Abuse..

A decade ago, at the international General Assembly of the World Evangelical Fellowship in Vancouver, an African woman stood at the podium and asked “when will this Assembly address the issue of violence against women? There are men in this very chamber who are abusing their wives!” That woman was Eva Sanderson, and she received a standing ovation. Out of that challenge, the Women’s Task Force on Violence against Women of the World Evangelical Fellowship was born.  Now she is to return to Vancouver, again to issue another challenge.

Eva is one of the many unsung heroes of Africa who has confronted the problem of AIDS in her country officially and non-officially. She has served as Chairperson for the Board of the Pan Africa Christian Women's Alliance (PACWA), is a member of the International Council of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), is Chairperson of the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and is Honorary Co-Chairperson of the AD2000 & Beyond Movement. A 63 year old black Zambian, Eva is very involved in politics at every level, including a term as a member of Parliament..

A nurse by profession, she was working in a clinic in Zambia when the AIDS epidemic surfaced. Today, along with practical and spiritual solutions,  she uses her influence at policy-making levels, practical levels and personal levels to seek to free her world from the scourge of the pestilence that comes, including AIDS.. Eva Sanderson is very passionate about helping small scale farmers in Zambia move forward. She has now turned her amazing energy to agriculture, motivating small farmers in the Kitwe area to begin farming with more sustainable and profitable methods. We expect Eva to make us look with new eyes at the potential of the Gospel in its many world-wide aspects.

August 2009 Training Event: Working with Christian Batterers and Victims

What we thought would be a small local training event simply overflowed! Participants came from the United Kingdom, Idaho, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. One participant was from Macedonia, and various parts of New England were represented. On August 7 we met at Eastern Nazarene College to consider how to work with Christian batterers and victims. Both secular care providers and persons in active ministry were invited, and a wide range of persons were present.

Board member Julie Owens led off with a presentation on the psychological and spiritual mind-set of an abused Christian woman. Julie detailed her confusion, disillusionment and dislocation from much of what she had previously held dear. At her second session, she further explained the changes that will be experienced by the victim and her community, as well as steps that can be taken toward healing.

Tyrone and Barbara Schroyer told of their adaptation of the Duluth model of intervention for Christian offenders. Ty told of his own abuse of a former girl friend, and his determination to behave differently. In time he became a staff member of the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project and started teaching others the insights that he himself has gained. His teaching style is clear, direct and forthright while his wife’s is more gentle, philosophic and relational. Their interchange with the audience was lively and highly informative.

A panel including the Schroyers, theologian William Spencer, classicist Catherine Kroeger (explaining how the Greeks viewed the metaphor of “head”) and moderator Lurena Lee (director of DPH outreach to communities of faith program) discussed aspects of male dominance and propensity to abuse. The audience responded with excellent questions, observations and insights.

Notes on some of the presentations are available here:

• Changing Men Changing Lives Brochure
• Equality Wheel
• Power and Control Wheel

These are also available by writing to: Peace and Safety in the Christian Home, 1095 Stony Brook Road, Brewster, MA 02631.

Our schedule for the day looked like this...

Working With Christian Batterers and Victims

Eastern Nazarene College, August 7, 2009

• 8:30 sign in and registration (register in advance, online)
• 9:00 The Duluth Model adapted for abusers who profess a Christian faith – Tyran and Barbara Schroyer
• 10:00 break
• 10:15: Understanding the Christian victim and her world view: why she will never be the same again -  Julie Owens
• 11:15 Break
• 11:30 Strategic use of scripture as support rather than roadblock – Catherine Kroeger
• 12:00 Lunch
• 1:00 Panel discussion: Addressing issues of hierarchy, male dominance and scripturally based equality – Tyran and Barbara Schroyer, William Spencer Catherine Kroeger. Moderator: Lurena Lee
• 2:15 break
• 2:30 Paths toward healing for the victim and her faith community – Julie Owens
• 3:15 wrap-up
• 3:30 dismissal

Cost for the event is forty-five dollars. The student rate is thirty dollars, and a limited number of scholarships are available. The cost includes a light breakfast and lunch.

On the following day, August 8, there will be an opportunity for interaction and discussion of the issues that have been raised. It will be held at the PASCH home site in Brewster on Cape Cod. There is no charge to attend this event.

Battered but not Broken

From NuRevelations
Time: Sunday, March 29, 2009 from 10am to 1pm
Location: Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, 291 H.E. Holmes Dr., Atlanta, GA

Has a past relationship left you misused and abuse?

Domestic violence should not happen to anybody. Ever! Period! But it does - and when it does, there is help. Maybe you have lived with abuse, maybe it happened just once; maybe you work or live next to someone who is being abused right now. If you know someone whom you think is being abused - a friend, family member, co-worker, client, patient or parishioner invite them to attend this free program, sponsored by the Family Life Department of the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church.

This program is designed to begin the healing process to:

• Undo the Damage
• Become a Victor
• Don't Exist...Live Your Life by Divine Design!

Visit the NuRevelations website for more information.

Sybil Palmer Bellos Lecture at Yale University School of Nursing

Featuring Keynote Speaker
The Honorable John DeStefano, Jr.
Seven Term Mayor of the City of New Haven

"The health implications of common exposure to violence in New Haven"

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 3:30 pm
School of Nursing Lecture Hall, Room 118
100 Church Street South, New Haven, CT

Innovation Through Collaboration

Building a Community Response to Family Violence

April 29 - May 1, 2009, the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence will hold a national conference in Columbus, Ohio.

This three-day event, being held at the Columbus Hilton at Easton Town Center, has five programming tracks that target five key sectors, or 'touchpoints,' in our communities where victims may reach out for help - Business, Faith, Health Care, Legal and Victim Services.

In addition to general sessions, conference participants can select from over 55 breakout sessions and master classes. Each track will offer sessions that highlight promising practices, emerging issues, and collaborative efforts in addressing family violence in our communities. Cross registration across the tracks is not only allowed but encouraged!

Visit the conference website at www.ccafv.org/conference for more information.