Clergy, please read the following from Tim Russell, Director of Ministerial Relations.
Keeping Our Sacred Trust is online training for preventing clergy sexual misconduct. It is made available by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary. To learn more about the course, you can visit the website keepingoursacredtrust.org.
This course is designed to create awareness of what constitutes misconduct and how issues of misconduct typically arise; the relational dynamics, internal motivations, and vulnerabilities that can lead to misconduct; and the positive steps that can be taken to prevent misconduct and even the appearance of misconduct. The goal is to help course participants develop a strong and reliable “internal compass” that will help them to steer a safe course even in confusing or difficult situations.
Every clergy under episcopal appointment in the North Carolina Conference will be required to take this course online beginning in early March with a deadline to complete the course by April 15, 2013.
To get started, you will receive an email from lewiscenter@wesleyseminary.edu with the subject line “Keeping Our Sacred Trust Registration.” This email will contain your personal links to activate your account in this course and will let you create a username and password to then log on to the course. You should receive this email the week of March 4, 2013.
If you do not receive an email, please check your spam/junk mail folder in case the email was routed there. If you have any questions or encounter any problems please contact Joe Arnold with the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Joe’s email is jearnold@wesleyseminary.edu and his phone number is 202-885-8757. Office hours are Monday-Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm.
The course keeps track of your progress. You can start, stop and re-start the course as needed.
Certificates of Completion will be generated each Monday for those who have completed the course and will be sent to you and the bishop’s office as a PDF.
The Reverend Timothy J. Russell
Assistant to the Bishop/Director of Ministerial Relations