Cynthia Pilichos, Anglican Church Women Diocesan Board and Anglicans Powering Potential
Have you heard of the “Red Zone”? Do you know what it refers to? Some of you reading this column may know of a red zone in the game of football, but that is not the red zone being referenced here.
This “Red Zone” has to do with sexual assault on university and college campuses. By the time you are reading this issue of The Diocesan Times, the 2023/24 academic year will be 4 weeks old, plus a few more days. Students will be 4 weeks plus into what is considered a 6 to 12-week period of time when the majority of sexual assaults on campus take place. It is a space of time known as the “Red Zone”.
More than 50% of reported sexual assaults on post-secondary campuses occur within the first three months, especially the first six to eight weeks, of the fall semester of the academic year. While these crimes can affect anyone, first-year women specifically are the most vulnerable population by far during this “Red Zone”.
Our Diocese encompasses many post-secondary institutions, and we are known and recognized across the country for our Maritime universities and colleges. We have a positive reputation for offering a great post-secondary experience (for undergraduate students in particular) on our many campuses. A number of our clergy are university chaplains. We have this image of wide-eyed, excited, first-year students embarking on this amazing experience before them, following the Labour Day weekend, as they take up post-secondary studies.
However, is this image we have a realistic one? Or are we looking at campus life through rose-coloured glasses, unaware that many of these same students, especially the first-year female ones, are experiencing unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances, as their initiation into campus life? Will these students be feeling thankful over the forthcoming Thanksgiving weekend?
Fortunately, there is work being done on campuses to create a culture of consent and respect as students navigate so many new experiences. Fostering and embedding a culture of consent and respect is as important as any of the other features of collegiate life. It is not just a “feel good” extra if we get around to it. A culture of consent and respect needs to be an integral value of campus life.
All too frequently, in our society, victim blaming is the approach to addressing sexual assault. Female identifying persons are far too often blamed for being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, wearing the wrong clothes. Interacting with someone’s body in a sexual way without consent is a choice made by the perpetrator – not the survivor. Sexual assault is never the victim’s fault.
Proactive work to create a culture of consent and respect on campus, however, is almost always spear-headed by survivors of sexual assault. If you have an opportunity this forthcoming Thanksgiving weekend to engage with any post-secondary students, ask them if a culture of consent and respect is being fostered on their campus, and if so, give thanks for that. More to follow in the November 2023 column about the fostering of a culture of consent and respect.
As Canadians and persons of faith, we know that we have much to give thanks for, even in the face of many natural and person-created challenges, of which sexual assault is surely one. Respect for one another is imbedded in the Golden Rule, a central theme of many world faiths. There is so much in scripture encouraging us to love and respect one another, and to give thanks always and everywhere. This is the season when we gather with family and friends to offer our thanks to God for his goodness towards us.
When it comes to thanks, the Anglican Church Women Diocesan Board is inviting you, all of you, to a special Celebration of Thanksgiving (and Remembrance) for its over 50-year history as a Diocesan Board, encouraging and supporting the ministry of Anglican women, all Anglican women, in our Diocese.
With the following theme: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5: 16 – 18), the Anglican Church Women Diocesan Board invites you all (not just the women) to a Celebration of Thanksgiving and Remembrance, with Bishop Sandra as our Celebrant and Rev. Dianne Parker our Speaker, on Saturday, November 4, 2023; 2:00 – 4:00 pm (Service with Reception to follow); at the Parish of St. Margaret of Scotland, 3751 Robie Street, Halifax, NS. Please let the Board know of your intent to attend via an e-mail to: [email protected] by Oct. 25/23.
We look forward to seeing you on November 4th where the thank offering will be for Brigadoon Bound. Contributions are welcome in advance, payable to the Anglican Church Women Board, Brigadoon Bound in the memo line, addressed to Jan Connors, A – 301, 5524 Heatherwood Court, Halifax, NS B3K 5N7, if contributing by cheque, or via an e-transfer to [email protected] (see the poster in this issue). The Board never ceases to give thanks for the generosity of its many contributors to its outreach projects – for the fall of 2023, Brigadoon Bound Beckons. Thank you for your support.
