We hold everyone as human.
We hold everyone responsible.
And we build a community where harm has fewer places to occur.

Preamble

We, the Unitarian Universalists of the Chester River, as an institutional body of religious affiliation, recognize the importance of creating communities where everyone, and especially our children, youth, and vulnerable adults, are safe. We recognize that religious communities – which should be dedicated to the creation of safe environments for all their members – are particularly vulnerable to incidents of abuse because of the high level of trust, the welcoming spirit and the strong reliance on and need for volunteers.

We recognize the importance in a religious community of those very factors of trust, welcome and volunteer commitment, and the necessity to adopt requirements with explanatory guidelines, to guard against incidents of abuse.

We recognize the potential for abuse in a religious community by those volunteers, clergy or staff in positions of confidence, power and authority. We also recognize the potential for those same persons to become the victims of fraudulent claims of abuse.

We further realize that institutions operating in the best manner possible with all due concern still cannot guarantee an absolutely risk-free environment.

We recognize that in order to adequately address the need for safe environments, our responsibility is to respond to the reality of our situation and to our congregants, volunteers, clergy and staff.

In this spirit, we endorse the following Sexual Conduct Policy.

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