RICHMOND — Virginia Baptist churches will have an additional resource to assist them in dealing with sex abuse in their congregations when a key committee releases a report this summer.
The Baptist General Association of Virginia's Christian life committee will complete its annual report, entitled “Protecting Our Churches from Sexual Predators,” sometime in July, said committee chair Bill Nieporte, pastor of Red Bank Baptist Church in Nassawadox.
The report will be printed in the BGAV's Book of Reports, which will be available just prior to the annual BGAV meeting in November. However, Nieporte said his committee is developing a web site on which will be available all the CLC's reports for the past 10 years, including the most recent on sex abuse. That site—whose address will be announced later—should be up sometime this summer, said Nieporte.
“This topic [sex abuse] is very timely,” said Nieporte in explaining why the CLC chose to address it. “We were considering either this topic or ways churches can help members use the internet responsibly. But every committee member knew first- or second-hand of sex abuse situations and we realized this issue is much bigger than we realized—or than it should be.”
Nieporte can be contacted at [email protected].