Domestic Violence Handbook Helps Clergy Face Unwelcome Truth
Breaking the Silence: The Church Responds to Domestic Violence by Anne O. Weatherholt is a handbook about domestic violence from a spiritual perspective. Here clergy, church leaders, parish nurses, volunteers, and others will learn to recognize the signs of domestic abuse and learn ways that church communities can offer help to those who are caught in abusive relationships.
The publication of Breaking the Silence syncs up with Domestic Violence Awareness Month that is observed every year in October. Domestic Violence Awareness Month evolved from the first "Day of Unity" observed in October 1981 by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Breaking the Silence is action-oriented in that it includes a checklist to determine if a relationship is potentially violent; clergy resources for counseling, worship, and congregational outreach; information for youth; and pages that can be customized with local and national contact numbers.
Every day, women from all walks of life are intimidated, beaten, and sexually assaulted by their intimate partners. You already know someone who has felt the terror and intimidation of domestic violence. According to a 2006 Harris Poll quoted on the National Domestic Violence Hotline Statistics in June 2008, approximately 33 million or 15 percent of all U.S. adults admit that they were a victim of domestic violence.
According to Weatherholt, the Episcopal Church has been responding to the issue of domestic violence and providing materials for education and awareness since the 1980s through progressively passing resolutions through the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
In 1985, the Episcopal Church passed a resolution that instructed "each diocese to ‘provide and promote programs at each internal level that will raise Episcopalians' consciousness of violence in their lives and in the institutions of church and society...'"
This first resolution dealt with working to change the attitudes and behavior grounded in the many forms of violence: poverty, racism, human and national relationships, drug dependency, ecological insults, crime, domestic brutality and other forms of destructive behavior.
In 1988, another resolution was passed through the General Convention that dealt solely with domestic abuse:
"...the General Convention passed a resolution specifically designed to direct each Diocese to: (1) establish and conduct training workshops for clergy and laity to identify the signs of battering and sexual abuse of women and children; (2) produce a register for the clergy and laity of available resources within their communities, such as support services, shelters, and entitlement programs; and (3) encourage clergy and laity to consult with and refer victims to professionally trained counselors and support groups."
Anne O. Weatherholt, an Episcopal priest, has served on the boards of Heartly House Shelter in Frederick, Maryland, and Citizens Assisting to Shelter the Abused (CASA) in Hagerstown, Maryland, and has done staff training on the spiritual side of recovery from domestic violence. She serves on the Family Violence Council of Washington County, Maryland. A chaplain for Maryland State Police, she writes a weekly column for Hagerstown Herald Mail. She has published many articles on the topic of domestic abuse.
Breaking the Silence: The Church Responds to Domestic Violence
978-0-8192-2320-3 * $16.00 * Paper * 136 Pages * 5 x 7 * September 2008
Headquartered in New York City, Church Publishing Incorporated is the official publisher of worship materials for the Episcopal Church in the U.S ., and publishes a variety of trade books through its Seabury, Church Publishing, and Morehouse Publishing imprints.
Tear sheets and/or advance notice of publication is encouraged and appreciated.
Thank you for your interest in our publishing program.
Contact: Sharon Hinchberger, 212-592-9416, shinchberger@cpg.org
Church Publishing Incorporated, 445 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Published on: 2008-10-08
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