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February 2023 SMR News
Welcome to the February Newsletter!
And as usual, a special hello to the numerous people new to the role of SMR - welcome to the madhouse of Safe Ministry! :)
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Lots of good info in this edition:
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- Face to face training - March
- SMR 101 - Zoom workshops
- "How Long?" Service
- Faithfulness in Ministry Conference
- Keeping records up to date
- Year 12 young people who turn 18
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Face to face training
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The next batch of this year's face to face training events will open for registrations later this week:
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Saturday March 18th.
- Figtree Anglican Church - Essentials
- Mt Druitt Anglican Church - Essentials
- Mittagong Anglican Church - Refresher
- Belrose Anglican Church - Refresher
Useful info:
- Applicants for face to face training need to have an account on the Safe Ministry Training website, log in and enrol in the course.
- Once they complete the course, they will be emailed their certificate a day or so later, and a copy of their certificate details sent to you, their SMR.
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Please encourage those in your church who would benefit from face to face training to get in and enrol - and be prepared to assist them if necessary with the technology.
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New and new-ish Safe Ministry Reps - Zoom Workshops
The next SMR 101 Zoom workshops will happen in March.
If you are new (or new-ish) to the role of SMR, then invest a hour in this workshop and reap the benefits!
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No booking or rego required - just boot up your device at the right time and click the appropriate link below. Have your questions and a notebook ready!
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Two days/times - identical content.
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How Long?
7pm, Thursday 2nd March, 2023
The Bridge Anglican church
cnr Broughton and Bligh streets, Kirribilli NSW 2061
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Hope and Healing is a service of lament, hope and healing for survivors of abuse, and for those who care for someone who has experienced abuse.
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Please speak with your Rector about promoting this event in an appropriate way,
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Faithfulness in Ministry Conference 2023
This doesn't impact directly on SMRs - but I know some of you will get questions about it from your pastoral staff.
FiM is a one day, triennial conference run by the Safe Ministry Team on behalf of the Archbishop. It is a kind of compulsory in-service training for licenced clergy and authorised Lay Ministers. Their spouses are also invited.
The conference program is repeated daily for five days in different locations in the week June 5-9. Attendees choose one day to attend. If you are interested in more information, the conference website is here: https://fim.church
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All the people required to attend will receive multiple emails about registration.
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One of the old stories hanging around about the conference is that it can serve in the place of doing Safe Ministry Training for those who attend. That is NOT, repeat NOT true.
The conference has no connection to Safe Ministry Training, and all your pastoral staff attending FiM still need to keep up their SMT as normal.
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Keeping Safe Ministry Record up to date
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I know I sound like a broken record with this, BUT...
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I still come across too many churches where their Safe Ministry data is badly out of date.
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With this being peak SMT time in the year, it is more important than ever to keep on top of your WWCC, SMT and SMC data in your Records.
If you get behind now, it will be really hard to catch up down the line.
There are no real short cuts to doing this, so please do make sure that you knuckle down and keep that data current!
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Year 12 people who turn 18
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Recently an SMR raised this question in our SMR-only Facebook Group:
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"Year 12s that turn 18 during the year - how are they treated at Youth Group etc (do they still fall under child rules as they are in a child-like role?).
While I understand that as soon as they turn 18 they must have adult requirements to assist in leadership of other ministries (eg Sunday school etc). However, how does it work if (for example) they are a participant at youth group and incidentally assisting to run one of the games (under an official leader) for the younger teens (assumes they are not being counted in leader numbers etc - the leader just asks them on the night to help run a game)ie - do all year 12s who attend youth group who will be turning 18 during the year need to pre-emptively complete all SMT etc in the lead up to their birthday "just in case"?"
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It's a good question, and we tossed it around at our ODSM staff meeting last week.
Because all of you are not in the SMR FB Group, here's my answer:
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Any Year 12 students who turn 18 in that year and are members of the youth group do not need anything additional by way of SM accreditation. BUT... if they are involved in leadership in any way, eg: leading a bible study or discussion group, running the program regularly, etc then they will need WWCC, SMT and SMC clearance. In the end the right balance should be achieved by working out a suitable local policy with your Senior Minister and Youth Ministry leader(s).Hope that helps!
Like I say: Hope that helps... :)
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SMR Facebook Group
A reminder that we have a private Facebook group just for SMR's
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- A safe and private place for SMR's to ask questions, support each other, share ideas or solutions to problems, etc
- The address is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/173114257798286
- Involvement in this group is entirely optional - but it is proving to be a useful extra channel for SMR's to chat amongst themselves and pose questions to me.
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Keeping up to date with news
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An archive of all SMR Newsletters (since we moved to our new system) is available here.
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That's it for this edition! Back soon with more info about what is happening in the Safe Ministry scene.
If you are no longer the SMR for your church, please unsubscribe using the link below and drop me an email to let me know.
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