Policy regarding responding to the safety of the congregation and potential threatening situations and/or persons.
The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta honors the inherent worth and dignity of all members, friends and guests. Equally UUCC holds a thoughtful and important voice and stance on the important issues of social justice and civil rights in the greater Augusta community. UUCC wants to maintain a welcoming open door, a voice that is heard, while having some oversight to the safety of the congregation, minister and staff. To this end, the following policy has been developed to respond to the potentially threatening behavior during Sunday morning services and church activities throughout the week.
A policy regarding disruptive behavior was adopted in May of 2005 to address emerging concerns regarding situations or persons whose behaviors disrupts and challenges congregational safety. This policy addresses situations where imminent risks to the congregation require an immediate response.
There are many situations where it is neither appropriate nor expedient to try to assess risk and engage with people who are angry and/or threatening behavior. This would apply to an unknown person or a known person who is acting in a way that is dramatically out of character.
Procedure:
If there is a person inside or outside of the church engaging in an escalating, angry, questionable, or threatening behavior, the following steps will be followed.
- Err on the side of safety. Call 911 to report the situation immediately. The police are trained to assess the risk and threat level and intervene accordingly. The police would prefer to respond when someone is walking away rather then when someone has entered the church to harm.
- If a potentially threatening person is outside the building on church property or the edges of the property, encourage members to stay indoors. Assign a church leader to keep an eye on the person. Do not confront the threatening person.
- If a potentially threatening person is in the building, try to lead the person out the nearest door by using active listening and agreement.
- If needed, ask someone to lead children away from a potential threat if this can be done safely without further escalating the situation.
- Inform the minister of the situation as soon as possible.
Multiple groups in the church will review this policy at the start of each Church year in the fall. Those groups are Minister, DRE, Board of Trustees, Committee on Ministry, Committee Chairs, Worship Associates, Usher Coordinator and regularly scheduled greeters. These are the people who will look to each other to work together to respond to any threat.
There will always be a phone available in the kitchen when the church is open.