Province of West Central Europe

On Thursday 21st November the Safeguarding co-ordinators of the Province of West Central Europe met in Mindelheim. There are five countries in our Province, and each country has different laws and ecclesiastical protocols in this area. It is necessary for us to prepare policies for each of our countries to reflect the different laws and requirements. Brother Jim Jolley, a member of FMSI in Geneva, facilitated the meeting. Bro. Jim was a member of the Congregational Working Group that prepared the Draft Congregational Policy on Safeguarding. 

Each country was represented by the Brothers who manage Safeguarding issues in their respective countries: Brothers P.J. McGowan and John Hyland (Ireland), Ronnie McEwan and Colin Chalmers (United Kingdom), Maurice Taildeman and Robert Thunus (Belgium), Gerard de Haan (The Netherlands) and Alois Engel (Germany). During the meeting, the Brothers identified tasks that we need to attend to in order to prepare policies in our countries. We also wish to ensure that each country can achieve “audit standard” in our Safeguarding practice.