Safeguarding Sunday is a national safeguarding awareness raising campaign for churches run by the charity Thirtyone:eight.
Each November, thousands of churches from diverse backgrounds and traditions across the UK come together to reflect on their own safeguarding journey, and to highlight and celebrate all the good work that is being done by so many behind the scenes to protect vulnerable people.
Find out more on the Thirtyone:eight website.
Safeguarding Sunday this year falls on Sunday 15th November 2026, and the theme is Love Protects, helping churches explore safeguarding as an expression of care, protection and love. Resources, including service-planning materials and ready-to-use content, are available when you register, which you can do via this link.
Safeguarding Service at Christ Church Cathedral
In November 2023 and 2025 we held services at Christ Church Cathedral to give thanks for, and to commission, Parish Safeguarding Officers. On each occasion we were delighted to welcome over 200 PSOs, along with family members, to the Cathedral to thank them for their part in making our churches safe.
“It seems appropriate being here in Christ Church today to make the essential connection between Safeguarding and our Christian faith. When we engage with scripture and theology we see for ourselves how safeguarding needs to be one of the highest priorities for the church and how imperative it is for us to provide safe places for all to flourish.
The bible gives us a clear mandate around ensuring all who are vulnerable are cared for, treated fairly, listened to and responded to with compassion.”
– Louise Whitehead, Head of Safeguarding
As part of the day we ran two workshops for the PSOs, in 2023 Dr Lisa Oakley spoke about Spiritual Abuse and Julie O’Hara, Deputing Director (Development) of the National Safeguarding Team, pictured left, led a workshop on managing the risk of those who present a risk of harm, in a church context. In 2025, Kerensa Butcher who has a long history of working with Thames Valley Police, ran a workshop on Managing the risk of those who have sexually offended, and the Oxford Survivor Group ran a workshop on Trauma-informed responses to survivors of abuse.
Bishop Steven commissioned the Parish Safeguarding Officers present at Cathedral, as shown in the photograph at the top of the page, and a copy of the PSO commissioning liturgy, to be used in your own services, can be found on the resources page.
You can read Bishop Steven’s sermon on his blog, and the Order of Service can be found here.
You can find more photographs from the event on our Facebook page.
We intend to hold this sort of service every two years, but they will be held on different days to Safeguarding Sunday so that more PSOs can have the chance to attend, as well as holding their own Safeguarding Sunday services in their parishes.