Churches respond to challenge of domestic abuse

29/12/2009 10:45:00

The Evangelical Alliance, which surveyed 230 of its member churches on domestic abuse, found that 81% of churches feel they have a responsibility to address the issue in their communities.

Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, said: “Domestic abuse is a huge problem in this country, but it is an issue churches often find difficult to tackle. We are encouraged that so many churches are seeking to respond in practical ways and we hope that more will be motivated to engage further". Churches donate £6.5 millionpounds every year towards tackling domestic abuse, as well as counselling 71,000 victims and providing up to 370,000 nights of accommodation, a news survey has indicated in the run-up to Christmas – the most violent time of year in the home. “Domestic abuse often increases at Christmas, so we would particularly encourage churches to be ready to respond at this time.” The survey found 30% of churchesgive an average of £540 a year to charities supporting victims of domestic abuse, while 43% of churches also donate gifts such as food, toys and clothing to refuges. If these figures are typical of churches in the UK, including an adjustment for church size, then the UK church provides £6.5 million to domestic abuse charities and organisations a year. More than half of churches (55%)are providing counselling to victims of domestic abuse – to a projected total of around 71,000 people per year in the whole of the UK. Sixteen percent of churches have provided on average 290 nights accommodation each year to victims. Again, if this is typical of UK churches, we can estimate that churches provide approximately 370,000 nights’ accommodation per year to those suffering domestic abuse. Both church goers and non-churchgoers recognise that the church can be a source of support, with almost a third of churches seeing people who were not members of the congregation asking for help.

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