domestic violence

by Angela Mayer

When Angela Mayer grew up in the Lutheran church, she says violence was a topic that wasn’t talked about. It was only when she was delivering food donations to a women’s safehouse in the 1990s that she first understood the need for awareness.

The LCANZ is calling for responses to the Religion and domestic violence: Exploring men’s perpetration report. The report provides members of the church with an opportunity to receive and be guided by people’s experiences of domestic and family violence.

Early in my ministry, I was asked to conduct Alison and Tony’s wedding. Alison and her family were long-time members of my congregation, while Tony had moved to the area for work.

When we think of domestic and family violence, many of us might think that this criminal behaviour could not and would not exist within the families of our churches: that this horrible issue is a dark stain on the lives of people we don’t know … not people like us.

We all find ourselves, at some time, as a bystander to uncomfortable or confronting situations.

by members of the LCA’s Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Taskforce, Hidden Hurts Healing Hearts campaign

Have you ever heard stories of violence or abuse from your community or from within your family? These stories are often hidden and rarely talked about. People who have suffered abuse, violence or controlling behaviours are often silenced and ashamed.