As a part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the WeWillSpeakOut.US coalition will be providing you with opportunities to get engaged in the fight against sexual and domestic violence by lifting up our partners’ recent initiatives every week.
This week, WeWillSpeakOut.US Coalition member, Presbyterian Church USA, is calling YOU to put your faith into action this fall with Courageous Conversations. The initiative serves to encourage congregations to preach, teach, pray or hold a service of healing around sexual and domestic violence during the month of October.
In our recent Broken Silence survey, we found that 65% of pastors speak about the issue only once a year or less, indicating that our faith communities are far too often suffering in silence. Sexual and domestic violence isn’t easy to talk about – it’s uncomfortable, it’s complicated, and very few faith leaders are adequately trained to address it. But in a world where one in three women and one in four men experience some form of sexual or gender based violence, we have no choice but to start speaking out.
PC(USA) encourages you to be courageous. Whether you’re a faith leader, a committed supporter of the church, or even a brand new member, you can use your voice to encourage these critical conversations and break the silence once and for all.
To help you out, PC(USA) has collected an abundance of resources from webinars and documentaries to visual violence wheels to further equip and empower you to SPEAK OUT! So join Courageous Conversations this October, and work to break the silence in your own faith community and beyond.
Tell us, will you be courageous today?
