When love requires our voice
By Pastor Della Ludwig, on behalf Commission on the Status and Role of Women | Email
Editor’s Note: We encourage you to read Bishop Héctor A. Burgos-Núñez’s letter, “A Pastoral Word in the Wake of the Cornell University Investigation,” from October 2, 2026, and continue the conversation about sexual violence and the Church’s response. Click here to read the letter.
As October’s maples brighten along Finger Lakes roads and the cooling evenings draw us home, most of us look for warmth and rest—yet for some among us, home is the least safe place to be. This is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, an invitation to notice suffering that often remains hidden behind familiar doors. Recent rape allegations involving seven former Cornell University students have also brought painful questions about sexual violence into our regional conversation. As Christians, how will we respond?
The Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) is bringing particular attention to violence against women. That focus holds room for every survivor: people of every gender can experience abuse, and each deserves safety, dignity, and compassionate care. Nor does abuse always leave a bruise. It may take the form of threats, sexual coercion, relentless humiliation, emotional manipulation, isolation from friends and family, or control over money. A person’s world can grow smaller, their choices fewer, their confidence worn thin, while those around them see little to disturb the surface.
Our United Methodist Social Principles give us clear direction. They affirm the right of women and girls—and men and boys—to live free from domestic abuse and violence and call the church to help secure those protections. They condemn sexual harassment, abuse, and assault, including rape; affirm consent; and make clear that faithfulness to marriage does not require remaining in a physically or mentally abusive relationship. These convictions belong in the everyday life of our congregations.
John Wesley’s General Rules begin with doing no harm and doing good. Together, they ask something more of us than keeping our own hands clean; they invite us to consider what love requires when a neighbor is being harmed.
Jesus tells of a wounded traveler and those who pass him by. The Samaritan draws near, tends his wounds, and makes provision for his care. We might pause there, beside that road. When suffering interrupts our comfort, will we draw near?
Sometimes drawing near begins with a sentence. “That comment demeans women.” “We should not make someone’s suffering into a joke.” “No one deserves abuse.”
Locker room talk, unwanted sexual remarks, jokes that reduce women to bodies, and questions that blame survivors can make disrespect feel ordinary. These are harms worth interrupting. We need not wait for something worse before speaking.
Ephesians 5:11 calls us to expose the works of darkness, and 1 John 3:18 asks us to love through action and truth. We may fear awkwardness, disagreement, or saying the wrong thing. Still, love asks us to speak.
When someone shares an experience of abuse, we can listen without interrogation, take their account seriously, and ask what support they want. We can help them connect with trained advocates, respect their choices, and place safety before appearances.
In the months ahead, watch for word from your siblings in COSROW. We are gathering resources and shaping a training curriculum to help local congregations recognize and interrupt abuse, and our first event of 2027, a spring Zoom conference in February, will bring this issue front and center. Together, we seek to advance Upper New York’s capacity to listen, protect, and act. Isaiah offers an image of what we might become for one another: “Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land” (Isaiah 32:2). May our congregations become such places—where love takes sheltering form, where those experiencing violence are heard and supported, and where our promise of care is made real.
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (GCSRW) is inviting congregations to use the "Say Something Sunday" resource as a starting point for reflection and conversation about sexual violence and the church’s responsibility to support survivors and foster safe communities. Click here to access the resource.
