Organizers of a national Anglican conference on domestic and family violence are calling on more Christian men to attend, emphasizing the vital role they can play in creating safer communities for women and children.
The Families and Culture Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia has announced the theme for its 2025 National Conference: “Faith, Hope, and Love: a faithful church response to Domestic and Family Violence.” The two-day event will take place August 18–19 at St. Jude’s Anglican Church in Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne.
According to a July 24 report by The Melbourne Anglican, organizers of the Ten Commitments Conference are particularly urging men—including clergy—to engage more deeply in the issue. They believe greater male participation could lead to significant change in church culture and the protection of women.
“Too often gendered violence is framed as a women’s issue,” said Tracy Lauersen, National Program Manager for Families and Culture. “But it’s a church issue, a leadership issue and a justice issue that we all need to take ownership of.”
“It’s so critical that the men in our churches, especially our male clergy, are willing to see this issue as a problem, that they need to get involved in working out the solutions for.”
The urgency of the topic is underscored by data from Counting Dead Women Australia, part of the advocacy group Destroy The Joint, which reports that 23 women have been killed across the country in 2025 as of June 17.
Lauersen told the Melbourne Anglican that more work was needed to stop such tragic incidents.
“It reflects much deeper and wider cultural issues. We can’t see it as, ‘Oh, this is a problem that some people have, some individuals have’. We have to see that there is stuff going on in our culture, society, systems and organisations, and the way we’re raising men and women, that it’s a much bigger whole of culture issue,” Lauersen said.
Rev. Scott Holmes, convenor of the men’s summit and a committee member of the Melbourne diocese’s Prevention of Violence against Women, told the Melbourne Anglican of a greater need for men to realize violence against women was wrong.
“Most men do know it's wrong, but significant numbers also need to understand that the way to change things is for them to change the way they think about their investment in particular forms of masculinity,” Holmes reportedly said.
“The way they police those forms of masculinity amongst themselves, the way that they’re prepared to actually examine their own lives and the lives of other men around them, [how that’s done] can mean we see more kindness, respect, equality as part of men’s lives.”
The men’s summit will explore related research including about fatherhood and the engagement of men.
“As men of faith, I would hope that they come away with a sense that this is not peripheral to being a man of faith, but central to being a person of faith. Freedom from violence, respect equality, these things are central to what it means to be a follower of Jesus,” Holmes reportedly said.
More information about the conference is available here.
