safe

safe

/seɪf/

1.

protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost.

noun: safe; plural noun: safes

1.

a strong fireproof cabinet with a complex lock used for the storage of valuables.

I know when I feel safe, and yet that feeling, one so hard to describe, is unlike any other. For me, it is a deep knowing, the comfort I feel in the arms of a loved one, the people with whom I can speak freely, laugh wildly, or cry uninhibited by the fear of judgement. It is that safety that allows me to be vulnerable (or woundable as is the root of that word), trusting that I can be seen, known, heard and held by those around me.

I wonder where you feel safe. Perhaps at home with family, or with friends, or when reading your favourite book, or in the silence of your own company, or with God. As we reflect today on Safeguarding Sunday, on the importance of safety in the life of the Church, I wonder if this is a place where you feel safe. ‘A place where you feel protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost.’

The Church of England, which, as you may be aware, is wrestling quite publicly with the question at the moment, has a safeguarding policy called ‘Promoting a Safer Church’. Note that it does not say safe but safer. The title acknowledges the reality that we cannot be perfect, we cannot, if we wish to be open and inclusive of all, be the ‘strong fireproof cabinet with a complex lock used for the storage of valuables.’ But we can be safer. We can, with God’s help, work to nurture a space where our doors and hearts are open, and the valuable lives and experiences of the wounded and woundable are less likely to be harmed or lost.