Melissa Hays Smith, a deacon candidate, will lead the review

By Christie M. Wills

Diocesan leaders are making a renewed effort to ensure that churches are a healthy and safe place for children.
Melissa Hays Smith, a child therapist in private practice, has agreed to lead a review of the diocesan Healthy and Wholesome Youth Ministries policy. The review will look at how well the policy is working and what improvements could be made.
Recent events in one diocesan church underscore the importance of having a working policy in place. On September 20, Christ Church, Blacksburg member and Journey to Adulthood leader Jonathan Utin was arrested and extradited to Ohio on allegations of sexual misconduct with a child.
While no parishioner has made any specific complaints about Utin to the Rev. Elizabeth Morgan, interim rector at Christ Church, someone recently had come to her with concerns about an incident involving Utin that had taken place elsewhere 30 years ago.
In response, she alerted the bishop and the church completed background checks on all church members working with youth, but no red flags were uncovered.
After the arrest, Morgan and staffers contacted all parents of Journey to Adulthood (J2A) children to share as much information as possible and discuss any concerns. Morgan also spoke with print and television reporters and sent out a parish-wide email to notify members of a parish meeting after Sunday services on September 24. Several Blacksburg police detectives, guidance counselors and Child Protective Services employees attended the meeting.
“It is important that you know that the parish is a safe place for anyone to come forward with any information or concerns,” wrote Morgan.
At the time of press, Morgan had not received any information indicating abuse of children at the church.
Blacksburg parishioners realize that the spiritual crisis of dealing with the unfolding situation will take a long time to work through.
Junior warden and J2A parent Lisa Hammett said that she has heard parishioners express a wide variety of emotions including anger and betrayal. Some also felt grief, as though there had been a death in the church family.
“In a sense, someone has died. The person we thought we knew is gone, so some of us mourn that,” said Hammett.
“A number are concerned about [Utin’s] current pastoral care and others are angered by that. We’ve learned that there is no correct point of view, no right or wrong reaction,” she said.
Christ Church held a Children’s Sabbath on October 22 to underscore their continued emphasis on protecting children. The sermon and program spotlighted the gifts of children and how best to protect them. Adults received an overview of the Healthy and Wholesome training program.

“If there is a silver lining to what has happened in Blacksburg it is that it renews the call for training of all adults that work with youth and that training needs to be accessible,” said Hays Smith.
In reviewing the diocesan sexual boundaries policy, Hays Smith will bring her 20 years of experience in behavioral healthcare management and supervision. She also is a candidate for the vocational diaconate and is serving at St. James’, Roanoke.
“My long term interest has been in advocacy for children and adolescents. This is an obvious area for me as a deacon to proclaim to the world that the church takes the safety of children seriously,” she said.
While no policy will ever be foolproof, the diocesan policy does contain important safeguards that reduce the opportunity for abuse. For example, the policy states that an adult should never be alone with a child and that youth activities should be held in rooms with windows in the doors or with doors open at all times.
According to a 2005 Annual Council resolution, all churches in the diocese were to have adopted the diocesan Healthy and Wholesome policy or develop a policy of their own by January 2006. It is unclear how many vestries have adopted policies but the bishop has asked churches to send a copy of their policy to the diocese once it is adopted.
In addition, Hays Smith will be looking at ideas to make the policy better fit the needs of small churches. A small church that only occasionally has babies in its Sunday nursery, for example, may have trouble staffing the nursery with two adults as the policy requires. Hays Smith would like to see the creation of a diocesan advisory committee to help churches work through such issues.
“No one wants to be confronted with these issues but our children are worth it,” said Hays Smith.
“The prize of taking the training is being prepared to catch the warning signs of abuse that might otherwise go unnoticed,” she said. //