April is Child Abuse Prevention Month

Child abuse is usually not just one physical attack or a single instance of failure to meet a child’s most basic needs, although it may be. Usually it is a pattern of behavior taking place over a period of time. It involves intentional acts committed by a parent, caregiver or person in a position of trust who threatens to harm or harms a child’s physical or emotional welfare. Child abuse and neglect cut across all ages, races, genders, creeds and socioeconomic groups. It is a violation of the covenant that we have to care for the “least of these.”

Learn more about this important issue. 

We pray for children

PCAN lifts up prayer for health and wellness for all children. Read these prayers.

Featured resources on child abuse prevention

We Won’t Let It Happen Here! Preventing Child Abuse in the Church

Lois Rifner and Susan Keil Smith

Second Edition. A training model for all who work with children in the church to assist them in becoming aware of child abuse; explore how Christian faith provides support for keeping children safe; learn about prevention and learn to respond effectively when child abuse occurs. Prepared with assistance from the Child Advocacy Office.

Order online or call (800) 524-2612.

Free • PDS #7265102002

Surely Heed Their Cry: A Presbyterian Guide to Child Abuse Prevention, Intervention, and Healing

Bonnie Glass MacDonald

Published by the Presbyterian Child Advocacy Network

A Presbyterian guide to child abuse prevention and healing. This comprehensive guide contains information on abuse identification, abuse prevention and educational material.

Order online or call (800) 524-2612.

$5.00 • PDS #257-93-010

Weeping in the playtime of others

The Rev. Eileen W. Lindner, PCAN Leadership Team member, National Council of Churches, New York, NY

Hurricane Katrina has forever altered the physical landscape of much of the Gulf Coast. The enduring consequences for the people of that region will be decades in their resolution. Presbyterians throughout the country have joined other Americans in generosity in giving to direct aid, resettlement and prayer for those who lost life, hope and possessions in the aftermath of this massive storm. As a nation we will need, in the period ahead, to reflect not only on the natural disaster of the hurricane but the human disaster brought on by insufficient attention to aging levees and infrastructure, inadequate emergency preparations and the enduring inequities of class and race which visited sorrow on those least able to find the resources to respond. There is much for all of us to do as we ponder the meaning of Katrina and the ways in which we came to see ourselves as a nation. [Read more]

Decade of the Child (2001-2011)

When a child is baptized, the faith community welcomes that child into Christ’s body, the Church.

We promise to care for and nurture her into the covenant life of discipleship.

At the Lord’s Table, we are fed together and are called to respond to God’s Word. The Decade of the Child is a time to examine the full meaning of that promise, as individuals and as a community.

Caring for all children, both those within and those beyond our church walls, is a just way to respond to God’s grace and live out our promises.

Learn more about the Office of Child Advocacy and the Decade of the Child.

Subscribe to receive Child Advocacy updates