Repair the Harm to Children Campaign Launched

The Boy Scouts of America recently settled a lawsuit related to accusations of sexual abuse of children. The United Methodist Church—one of the parties in the suit—is committed to caring for the children who were harmed and to preventing abuse in the future. The Northern Illinois Conference Trustees and Council on Finance and Administration, in collaboration with Bishop Dan Schwerin and the conference staff, created the Repair the Harm to Children Campaign to respond to the victims’ needs.

Creating safer and more welcoming spaces

One of the goals of the Northern Illinois Conference for 2022 was to ramp up our Safe Sanctuaries training and increase the number of volunteers who have gone through this valuable course. Online training through Safe Gatherings is an ongoing tool for this training. In addition, eight Safe Sanctuaries Trainings were held in 2022 throughout the summer and fall to train over 1,850 lay and staff. This brings our number of people leaders in the past 2 years to over 2,790!

DYK: Providing safe spaces

You are phenomenal! This year we challenged all church leaders to ramp up their Safe Sanctuaries training and increase the number of volunteers who have gone through this valuable course. We started the year with a report of 1,362 trained volunteers, and as I write this article, eight months into the year, we have gained 800 more trained volunteers raising the number to 2,162 leaders working with children, youth and vulnerable adults.

New Facility Agreements Between Congregations, Boy Scouts of America

United Methodist leaders and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) have reached an agreement about new Affiliation and Facility Use Agreements between congregations, scouting units and the BSA.

Rainbow Covenant Book Gets Revamp

The Conference Board of Global Ministries (CBGM) announces the release of a new conference mission-giving book called “Mission Links: Living the Beatitudes” which replaces the Rainbow Covenant book.

DYK - Safe Sanctuaries

During the first quarter of 2021, the Northern Illinois Conference Insurance Board, under the leadership of our Director of Risk Management and Ministry Protection Dwayne Jackson has undertaken the mission of ensuring that every church in the Northern Illinois Conference has a process of screening and training for church volunteers who work with children, youth, and vulnerable adults. Thank you to all those churches who have filled out the survey and take this responsibility seriously.

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