If you are a council that receives a report of abuse or misconduct and you need guidance, please click the button “Information for Councils That Receive Reports.”
If your council receives a report of abuse or misconduct, you can contact the PC(USA) Helpline for assistance at 866-607-7233. When you call, you will speak with a trained professional who will help guide you onto a path about how to respond to a report of abuse or misconduct and can provide you with helpful resources concerning how to respond.
The Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) requires that each council have its own sexual misconduct policy and a separate child and youth protection policy (G-3.0106, Book of Order).
Teaching and ruling elders, deacons, and certified Christian educators are mandated to report to civil and ecclesiastical authorities when there is reasonable suspicion of child abuse (G-4.0302, Book of Order). Click here [link to PowerPoint] to download a PowerPoint that further explains mandatory reporting in the PC(USA).
The Book of Order defines sexual abuse of another person, which is a form of sexual misconduct, as:
any offense involving sexual conduct in relation to:
- any person under the age of 18 years or anyone over the age of 18 years without the mental capacity to consent; or
- any person when the conduct includes force, threat, coercion, intimidation, or misuse of ordered ministry of position.
- (D-10.0401(c), Book of Order). Charges of sexual abuse may be brought under the Book of Order regardless of the date on which the offense is alleged to have occurred (D-10.0401(b)).
All responses to reports of abuse or misconduct will follow the procedures set out in the Book of Order, Rules of Discipline in the Book of Order and any employment policies of the local church. For additional information, please contact the Manager/Judicial Process and Social Witness, 800-728-7228, ext. 5432, flor.velez-diaz@pcusa.org
When you receive a report of abuse or misconduct, listening to someone reveal their own experience is never a comfortable conversation. The victim has trusted you enough to share this secret; it is critical that in your reaction you affirm the victim and be supportive.
The following suggestions can help you respond appropriately.
- Listen carefully and attentively.
- Avoid the temptation to assess the truthfulness of the disclosure; that is the job of trained professionals.
- Assure the person/child the alleged abuse was not his/her fault; he or she did not cause it, no matter what the abuser may have said or done.
- Reassure the person/child that he or she did the right thing in coming to you.
- Write down what was told to you so that you can pass accurate information on to those investigating the abuse.
- Adapted from Preventing Child Abuse: A Guide for Churches, by Beth Swagman. Grand Rapids, MI: CRC Publications, 1997.
If you have questions concerning reports of abuse or misconduct, how to respond, processes in the Book of Order or related issues, please contact the Manager/Judicial Process and Social Witness, 800-728-7228, ext. 5432, flor.velez-diaz@pcusa.org