They were organised after Moderator Rev Trevor Gribben resigned in November, when an internal review found “serious and significant failings” in central safeguarding functions for children and vulnerable adults from 2009 to 2022.
It emerged that failures included situations where the central church leadership did not respond when people who had suffered harm sought help, and instances where offenders returned to worship in church but were “inadequately monitored”.
The Charity Commission announced it had opened a statutory inquiry, while a police investigation remains active.
Just before Christmas some 900 Presbyterian ministers and elders gathered for a special assembly in the church headquarters in Belfast to discuss the issues.
At the assembly, PCI’s safeguarding lead, Jayne Bellingham, announced plans for a series of safeguarding roadshows in the new year for those who have responsibility for safeguarding in their local congregations.
The initial series of nine information evenings began last week in Bangor with further events planned for counties Antrim, Cavan, Derry/Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone, and Lucan, Co Dublin.
“We had a great turn out, nearly 100 people in Bangor, and I want to thank everyone from so many different congregations in the surrounding area, and farther afield, for coming,” she said.
“It was an invaluable time of information sharing, roundtable discussion, Q&As, feedback, and prayer. It was also a great demonstration of the commitment to safeguarding in our local churches.
“As the world becomes more complex, safeguarding becomes more complex, and as we move into this new year we enter a time of looking forward, and we want to ensure that day-to-day safeguarding in PCI can be the best it can be.”
Mrs Bellingham explained that since the spring of 2024 the denomination has been working with others on developing a new suite of safeguarding policies and procedures that take in the legislative changes in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
She encouraged everyone with responsibility for safeguarding in local congregations to come along to whatever information evening is most convenient to them, to hear details of corporate plans and take part in important discussions.
Other pending initiatives include online seminars following the release of new safeguarding procedures, increased training sessions, videos and other resources and potentially a safeguarding conference later this year as well as further roadshows.
At the special assembly last month, a repeated theme from various church leaders was a collective “lament” and acceptance of corporate responsibility for what had gone wrong.
However retired Armagh minister Rev Tony Davidson offered a note of dissent. He affirmed that individual and corporate justice are important.
“But we need to be careful here,” he said. “I think of all the congregational designated persons and safeguarding trainers who have kept meticulously to the letter and spirit of the law regarding safeguarding; who received training, who attended refresher courses, who provided training, who kept records, they passed on cases as instructed – and now feel betrayed by headquarters who it would appear were not keeping their own rules. This is an injustice.”