Document Library

Divided Families

Civil conflict, eviction from informal settlements and demolition of homes, drug and alcohol abuse, incarceration, migration in search of work, and family breakdown are just some of the circumstances that can split families apart.

The stories gathered in this newsletter 'Divided Families' describe some of the causes of separation and the pain and loss that go with it. But they also speak of innovative and hopeful projects undertaken by Anglican churches and Christian organisations which set out to heal and restore, offer practical support, and make life more bearable for those who have been cut off from their loved ones and those who would normally provide for the safety and daily needs of home and family.

Count Every Child

This newsletter, the final IAFN publication for this year, raises issues about birth registration and identity. A birth certificate "is a small paper but it actually establishes who you are and gives access to the rights and the privileges and the obligations of citizenship."

Violence and the Family - July 2011 

“Violence in the home is a violation of God’s wish for humanity.” This is how Bishop David Chillingworth, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, begins his editorial for the third IAFN newsletter in the series on Violence and the Family.
This edition shows how churches in many part of the Communion are responding to the challenge of violence in the home. Participants’ in the recent IAFN Oceania consultation on Violence and the Family (see the Oceania Action Plan for the Churches) were quick to put their learning into practice and have been raising awareness of the issue and working to prevent it in their own contexts.

Violence and the Family: Action Plan for the Churches to tackle Abuse - Report of IAFN's Oceania Consultation

This is not simply a report. It is an Action Plan. It emerged from the third regional Consultation on violence and the family initiated and promoted by the International Anglican Family Network. The Consultation took place in Aotearoa New Zealand in partnership with the Family Centre, Lower Hutt, and brought together delegates involved in Anglican family ministries across Oceania. The Action Plan sets out the six steps that participants took in order to make themselves ready to act. Those same participants believe that it is in the power of every Province, diocese and parish to do the same. So they offer this Action Plan as a tool for other groups to

Violence and the Family

This newsletter on Violence and the Family is the first of a series of three issues on this theme. It includes articles from different regions of Africa, from Pakistan, Australia and UK. All make clear the prevalence of violence within the home, both between couples and against children, and the newsletter gives a wider Communion context to the work of the consultation for the Oceania region held in October at the Family Centre, Lower Hutt, Wellington.

The Family and Trafficking Trafficking

is a world-wide problem, driven by the same forces that drive the globalisation of markets, with no lack of demand and supply. In varying degrees and circumstances, men, women and children all over the world are victims of what has become a modern day slave trade. Almost every country of the world is affected either as a source, transit, and/or destination country for women, children and men trafficked for the purposes of sexual or labour exploitation. This Newsletter looks at Anglican and other Christian initiatives across the world, such as the Anglican Church of Southern Africa's response to increased trafficking around the Football World Cup, raising awareness in rural communities in India, and the care and support of

Reconciliation and the Family

The Church preaches a Gospel of reconciliation. But what work does it do to help alleviate breakdown in relationships and discord within families and society? This newsletter helps to answer this question, with articles from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, bishops from the Congo and Mozambique, the Melanesian Brotherhood, parish priests in Argentina and Kenya, church workers and organisations in Israel, Ireland, Hong Kong, Columbia, Canada, Australia and England. There are amazing stories of forgiveness from people who have suffered horrific violence; of patient work to help parents whose relationship is breaking down and to support their children; of schemes to turn swords into ploughshares; and of efforts to help child soldiers, who ar

Death and the Family

This is a difficult subject. The articles in this newsletter tell of how the churches in many parts of the Anglican Communion seek to respond to death. There are stories of almost unbearable grief and loss: both on a personal scale within families and where large-scale disaster through war or hurricane brings tragedy to whole communities. But the newsletter also tells of Christian faith and hope, of compassion and help for the bereaved, and people facing the pain of separation from their loved ones and clinging on to belief in the risen Christ.