Each year, a small percentage of our congregations face a painful situation. An identified pedophile or child molester joins the congregation, or is discovered within the congregation, or is publicly revealed when criminal charges are filed. Or it might be that a parishoner tells the minister, seeking pastoral care, about a history of abusing children or youth.

Here are my observations from the UUA vantage point, drawn from working with a number of these situations as director of ministry. I jotted these down for a clergy on-line discussion, and have been asked to make them available.

1. This issue can be the third rail of church life for ministers.

   As a rider of public transit, I see warning signs along the tracks that say "Third Rail is Live, Danger of Electrocution."

   This is a conflict that is dangerous to come into contact with. But if your congregation or your ministry bumps up against it, you don't have a choice to ignore it, and you may well need help to survive.

   If you lean toward theological forgiveness and working with a child molester to set boundaries for participation in religious community, parents are likely to be outraged. Knowing the track record of pedophiles, there is every reason for them to feel that the church cannot be a safe place for their children. On the other hand, if you advocate for membership removal or a restraining order or a "scarlet letter" of public knowledge of a secret or just telling the person to leave, the advocates for compassion and forgiveness and accepting human sinfulness will be all over you. If you position yourself as the neutral guide and pastor to help them work through their issues, people will be furious at you from all angles. It's a no-win deal. This is as real as death and can't be buried.

2. Call on all the help and resources you can gather.

   Contact the UUA, colleagues, the Chat. Enlist your staff, your board, etc. right away. In the Department of Ministry there are aid funds for you to spend time with a therapist to deal with your personal feelings. Get funds committed by the congregation or district or the UUA for you to have an expert consultant available to you, and legal consult as needed. Bring an experienced expert in to talk with the Board -- don't become the overnight expert yourself. Find out what the reporting requirements are in your state. Make sure your congregation is covered by insurance, which will probably get you legal counsel if sued. Find a colleague who will "walk with you" as you go through the process, giving you feedback.

3. Respond, but don't heighten the crisis.

   Denial and delay in acting is a problem. Panic is to be avoided. This is where you can shine by being a Non-Anxious Presence. (OK, let's be realistic and say a Presence Whose Anxiety is Not Rubbing Off on Everyone Else.) The point is that there may be a crisis phase to this, but the problem is going to be long term and an ongoing part of your ministry. And the problem is long term in society already, even if it has not before become a central part of your work.

4. Avoid demonization of the identified pedophile.

   The Hebrew Bible story of the scapegoat comes to mind -- lay the sins of the community on one goat and drive it away. Remember, chances are that right now there is a child in your congregation being abused at home or at school or at summer camp. The statistics guarantee it. The identified pedophile represents the real cultural problem -- albeit possibly an egregious example of the problem, having been caught.

5. Consider the impact on lay leaders.

   People who agreed to serve as lay leader of a congregation, of a religious education committee, and other groups, who will be expected to respond, probably signed up with a different agenda in mind. Remember, although this is hard on you, it is your job. Your volunteers have even less support and help available to them than you have.

   Also, there are many, many adults who were abused as children and youth. Dealing with the problem at church can bring up emotions and opinions stemming from their personal experience. Expect a new level of pastoral care work.

6. Utilize care and safety precautions in church programs now, rather than waiting for a crisis. The UUA offers a resource, the Safe Congregations Handbook. Implement its recommendations in your congregation. There is a UUA staff team that coordinates UUA response to such cases - the Safe Congregations Staff Team. Some districts offer resources and experts in this field.

   Rev. Pat Hoertdoerfer, co-editor of Safe Congregations, who serves as children, families, and intergenerational programs director at the UUA, consults with congregations working with issues of abuse. She has written, "I remind myself and our colleagues often that in every congregational gathering there are people of all ages who have experienced the pain of abuse, people who have caused others the pain of abuse, and others who remain silent and are complicit in the harm of abuse. We need to find the courage to call ourselves and one another to justice as we heal ourselves, our congregants, and our Association. It's forever our responsibility and our call to ministry."

7. Avoid Assumptions

   Ask questions. Don't assume that a pedophile will necessarily grow out of the behavior, or be too old to be sexually dangerous, or that it would absolutely have to be a male who is abusing children.

Over the past eight years in the Department of Ministry I've consulted with several congregations addressing some aspect of this problem. They have struggled with various scenarios. These have included a prison ministry that drew a pedophile to our congregation upon his release; a molester seeking a place with a reputation for Universal Salvation (All Are Welcome); a man who molested teens at a UU institution; and, the most heartbreaking to me, and documented in detail, a person formerly in UU ministry. There is no arena where pedophilia can't appear.

My own bias is this, based on what I know now -- that an identified pedophile should not be part of congregational life. They must cease any physical presence. You can provide a ministry by newsletter, by pastoral counseling, etc. And be aware that another one, unidentified, may be shaking your hand on Sunday morning and doing good deeds in the church.