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A centuries-old, but lesser-known
faith
Pastoral Pondering: The journey and
the destination
important parts of life's road
Most
churches open,
a few closed to
Project Open Door |
Goal of Henderson House program to help churches help those affected by
abuse, to prevent future violence |
By Christie Scotty, Newberg Graphic
Reporter
Email Christie at cscotty@eaglenewspapers.com
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In recent months, Newberg’s faith community got a dose of unpleasant
realities and how to deal with them, as an awareness campaign about abuse and domestic
violence got underway.
“Project Open Door” was a targeted collaboration between Yamhill
County churches and Henderson House, a countywide shelter for abused women. The goal was
to teach churches how to help those affected by abuse and how to prevent future violence.
Through grant funding, Henderson House gained AmeriCorps volunteer Marie Gohl
to lead the project. Since September, Gohl has been calling church offices and has gone
door-to-door to tell area clergy about domestic violence, sexual violence and other abuse
issues.
In Newberg alone, Gohl contacted more than 20 churches to hand out literature
about warning signs of abuse and information on how clergy can better connect with
Henderson House. She gave Newberg Foursquare Church’s care ministry a presentation on
these topics, for example, for use as they minister to people in crisis.
Gohl said she was happy to provide a service that is sometimes lacking in
already-busy pastoral staffs.
“As far as my experience has been, (pastoral staff) have a lot of
training with counseling, but it’s harder to deal with counseling when abuse is
involved,” Gohl said.
On the whole, Newberg area churches responded well to the delicate subject,
Gohl said, although a couple churches in the county did send a different message —
that abuse wasn’t happening in their church population and they weren’t
interested in the program.
In those cases, Gohl said, she persisted by calling back later. Project Open
Door’s original goals, after all, were to raise awareness, arrange services like
parenting classes and support groups, and encourage churches to have action plans in place
in case an abused person calls for help.
Gohl said she was also surprised that in the Newberg area especially, several
churches already had contact with Henderson House and knew what services are available.
Project Open Door will likely conclude around the end of this month, marking
the end of a unique AmeriCorps program. The government program does not usually provide
grants for faith-based organizations, according to Pastor Lynn Bryson of
McMinnville’s Seventh-day Adventist Church, which sponsored the project.
“I’ve been working with approximately 20 other people across the
state of Oregon who are doing projects with a shelter or domestic violence and my project
is the only one that is doing community education in the churches,” Gohl said. |
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From July 12,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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