‘Read the Bible through the lens of trauma’

Six hundred people from 32 countries and six continents met online for this year’s ‘Church as a Refuge’ conference. Among the themes talked about were ‘reading the Bible through the lens of trauma’. Naomi Dawson reports:

The ‘Church as a Refuge’ conference was born out of a desire to help churches better understand power, control and abuse within the church. Jacqui Wright and Cliff Turner (both health-care professionals) planned and hosted the conference. This conference was not just academic, but real, personal and tragic for so many involved. Having benefitted from the teaching of Dr Dianne Langberg, Jacqui wanted the wider church to benefit from her teaching too.

Three hundred people had originally registered for the conference in London in May 2020 but, due to the pandemic, it was postponed. The organisers see the Lord’s timing in this as, one year on, it was no longer a small in-person conference. It had become much larger, and was now a two-day, online, international event.