The Broken Vessel

Abuse in faith settings is a misuse of power that produces long‑lasting harms. Clinical and pastoral literature identifies physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual, and economic abuse as drivers of complex trauma with neurobiological and psychosocial sequelae, including PTSD, dissociation, depression, altered attachment, and substance use. These harms are aggravated in churches when Scripture or office is weaponised, when clergy are perpetrators, and when institutional loyalty produces minimisation or cover‑up. A comprehensive 2019–2022 PCA Ad‑Interim study on domestic abuse and sexual assault frames abuse theologically as oppression and power‑misuse, grounds moral analysis in the Westminster Larger Catechism (duties of superiors; aggravations that make sins more heinous), and recommends durable changes: train elders, create visible reporting pathways (including confidential/anonymous options), use competent third parties for complex cases, remove accused persons from duties and child access pending investigation, inform congregations about mandatory reporting, and consider a permanent denominational office for abuse prevention and response. Trauma‑informed pastoral care prioritises safety, funds and coordinates professional care, and refuses “quick fix” reconciliation pressure; genuine repentance must be observable over time.

The Presbyterian story contains both contested renewal and structural reform. Charles G. Finney’s 19th‑century innovations (e.g., the anxious seat, public prayer by women, rejection of total depravity) catalysed disputes within the Presbyterian family, signaling how theological change can empower some while marginalising others. In 1788 American Presbyterians revised Westminster Confession 23:3, rejecting magistrate enforcement of doctrine and endorsing religious liberty; this pivot from a coercive to a “nursing father” model helped normalise a voluntary‑church landscape. A distinct stream of Reformed dissent (e.g., Covenanters, later Reformed Presbyterians) practiced political nonconformity grounded in Christ’s kingship, accepting civil exclusion to preserve conscience. Together these strands argue for plural accountability and caution against any single office or polity monopolising repair.

Accountability Without Institutional Capture, Ethical and institutional design, matter when power fractures trust. An accountability typology distinguishes answerability (A), blameworthiness (B), liability (C), and attributability (D). Each type triggers different behaviors and reforms: rule‑following and transparency for A; blame management and professionalisation for B; legal compliance, reporting, and independent investigation for C; and character/virtue formation with public‑office constraints for D. Liability regimes often fail under “many hands” problems, making it critical to pair legal compliance with organisational reforms that distribute responsibility and prevent concentration of decision power in conflicted hands.

Operationally, robust church policies share elements can be repeated across churches: posted and confidential reporting channels; a Church Advocacy Group plus a Session‑level Crisis Intervention Team; mandatory background checks and abuse‑prevention training for staff and volunteers; immediate protective measures and timely reporting to civil authorities in cases involving minors or criminal conduct; and the use of independent investigators or child advocacy centers for leadership‑level or complex cases. Validated tools such as the Danger Assessment support risk triage. Intervention Programs show mixed recidivism results; accountability and safety planning should not depend on abuser self‑reports. Within Reformed case‑law approaches, extreme abuse is treated as functionally equivalent to desertion in producing forced separation—authorising pastoral and legal steps, including separation or divorce, to protect life and conscience.

Restorative approaches can complement, but do not replace, legal processes. LOUDfence, a survivor‑led public ritual begun in Ballarat, Australia (2015) and adapted in Cumbria, UK (2020), uses coloured ribbons and written messages tied in public or sacred spaces to signal solidarity, validate survivors, and catalyse culture change. UK organizers (Survivors Voices / Reshapers CIC) operationalized the model with step‑by‑step facilitation guides, press packs, an interactive map, and virtual ribbons—enabling cathedrals in Rochester and Carlisle to anchor national campaigns during a Safeguarding Season (Oct 10–Dec 10) that includes All Survivors Day (Nov 3), World Children’s Day (Nov 20), the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (Nov 25), and Human Rights Day (Dec 10). Institutional adopters include the Archdiocese of Cardiff, which combined opening liturgy with listening teams, neutral spaces, information stands, and digital participation options. Practical safety measures recur: assemble a survivor‑sensitive local team, partner with survivor orgs (e.g., NAPAC, Survivors Trust), secure visible accessible sites, provide materials and a rota of trained listeners, signpost to support services, and pre‑plan ribbon repurposing for post‑event artwork.

Parish‑level practices that center the silenced include synodal‑style spiritual conversations (three‑round small groups designed for deep listening), guided lament rituals that treat public grief as theological practice, healing gardens or LOUDfence installations, and facilitated closed symposia that remove clerical status markers to enable equal, victim‑led encounter. Skilled facilitation, neutral venues, counseling backup, and confidentiality protect participants and prevent retraumatisation.

Sustainable change requires converting organisational reflexes. Recommended practices include pastoral supervision and appraisal, “self‑binding” pledges by clergy, transparent appointment and handover processes, and 360‑degree reviews. Appreciative Inquiry and synodal methods build capacity beyond deficit‑driven restructuring and create public, auditable commitments. The United Church of Canada’s century‑long work to deconstruct imperial and clerical inheritances—culminating in milestones such as the 1986 Aboriginal apology, 1988 ordination of LGBT persons, and the 2006 Song of Faith—illustrates an ongoing pairing of a hermeneutic of suspicion (exposing harm, complicity, privilege) with a reparative lens (truth‑telling, restorative processes, and reparations). Suspicion without repair risks paralysis; repair without truth risks repetition. A plural, networked approach—church, survivor organisations, civil authorities, and independent facilitators—prevents any one institution from claiming to “fix” what it helped break.

“Sidelined” and Making Room Cultural narratives shape how communities imagine space for the sidelined. The 2024 Tubi Original Sidelined: The QB and Me—directed by Justin Wu and written by Mary Gulino and Crystal Ferreiro—adapted Tay Marley’s Wattpad novel The QB Bad Boy and Me (over 30 million reads; a top Wattpad Books title). Released November 29, 2024, the film’s premise—youth marginalised by institutions and expectations—resonated enough to mobilise a record streaming audience. That cultural signal aligns with the need to amplify sidelined voices in ecclesial settings. Search results that conflate “Presbyterian” and “sidelined” can surface both this film and historical theological disputes (e.g., references to Finney), underscoring the importance of framing: when communities seek space for those harmed, precision about context prevents misdirection and keeps attention on lived experience.

At the congregational level, consistent correlates of growth include active evangelism and outreach trainings, newcomer assimilation through small groups, strong children’s and youth education, frequent visitation/follow‑up, perceived warmth and meaningful worship (church personalism). Context moderates outcomes: large and urban churches are more sensitive to population change; small and rural congregations less so. Across traditions, attendance increasingly reflects consumer “fit” dynamics rather than mere denominational loyalty. These findings imply that prioritising outward‑facing practices—care for the harmed, accessible small‑group pathways, and genuine hospitality—aligns both with moral repair and with the ordinary conditions of ecclesial health.

Guardrails Against Talking Over How communities reason about power and obedience shapes whether harmed people are heard. A Christian tradition of virtue ethics (Aquinas’ synthesis of telos and natural law) stabilises duties to persons and helps resist purely outcome‑driven rationales. Utilitarian frameworks, while valuable for prioritizing welfare (e.g., poverty relief and effective altruism), can conflict with person‑centered commitments and special obligations; tension is most visible in bioethics and in debates about ends vs. means. Cognitive science adds that “surveillance cues” and concepts of a punitive vs. loving God can nudge compliance and prosociality, but can also heighten in‑group bias or aggression depending on context. These dynamics warn against relying on spiritualised control to produce conformity.

Practical Roadmap: Making and Protecting Space

Build visible, confidential reporting avenues; publish them online and onsite. Pair with a survivor‑led Church Advocacy Group and a Session‑level Crisis Intervention Team with clear remits.
Default to independence for complex or leadership‑involved cases: external investigators, child advocacy centers, and multi‑agency coordination; remove accused persons from duties pending outcomes; report promptly to civil authorities for minors or alleged crimes.
Adopt trauma‑informed pastoral practices: safety first, funded referrals to medical and mental‑health professionals, no reconciliation pressure, and time‑tested demonstrations of repentance before restoration is considered.
Institutionalise formation and accountability: pastoral supervision, 360‑degree reviews, transparent appointments and handovers, and public self‑binding pledges; use Appreciative Inquiry and synodal processes to create auditable commitments.
Create survivor‑led public space: implement LOUDfence with trained facilitators, neutral venues, and partnership with survivor organisations; align with the Safeguarding Season calendar (Oct 10–Dec 10; All Survivors Day Nov 3; World Children’s Day Nov 20; Nov 25; Dec 10) and register events for national visibility with groups offering resources and interactive maps.
De‑monopolise repair: convene plural forums where church bodies, survivor groups, civic authorities, and independent facilitators share responsibility; avoid internal-only reviews.
Communicate civic engagement within legal bounds: provide information, encouragement, and aid without endorsing candidates; train leaders on Johnson Amendment constraints and on the five influence mechanisms to prevent drift into partisan capture.
Align ministry with empirically supported growth correlates that center people: small‑group assimilation, youth education, follow‑up, and tangible local service—all of which also create safer, listening spaces for those previously sidelined.

Where vessels are cracked by power, repair begins by making room around the fracture. In Presbyterian and wider ecclesial contexts, history, law, ethics, and data converge on the same practical truth: safety and voice for the harmed require independent processes, survivor‑led spaces, and plural accountability. Outward‑facing habits—listening, accompaniment, and public restorative practices—counter institutional inwardness and better reflect the communities churches seek to serve. Cultural signals, from streaming hits about being sidelined to renewed attention to dissenting traditions, reinforce the urgency. The work is not to let any one institution “fix” the break, but to build a durable ecology of care in which those sidelined define the space they need—and are met there.

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The broken vessel: Power, Harm, and the Work of Mending it in Churches

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