What is the church’s main response to abortion? If we’re honest it can often be described in one word: silence.
Addressing this problem, Brephos – a new project of the Centre for Bio Ethical Reform UK – hosted a landmark conference on the 16 October called ‘Breaking the Silence’. It sought to equip pastors to speak out about this multi-faceted and painful issue. Over 100 church leaders gathered at London’s Emmanuel Centre to listen to expert speakers from different fields.
First to speak was John Wyatt, Professor of Ethics and Perinatology at University College London. He explained what abortion was and gave a number of startling statistics, most notably that almost 200,000 babies are aborted in the UK each year. Wyatt encouraged Christian’s to be both prophetic – speaking the truth against abortion – and also incarnational – showing love, grace, and compassion to those whose lives have been impacted by abortion.
One particularly moving talk was from Pauline Peachey, who shared her painful story of abortion and how she found forgiveness and healing in the gospel. Pauline has since established Post Abortion Support for Everyone (PASE), a support group for anyone who has been hurt as a result of abortion.
Another challenging talk was from Jonny Fan. Jonny, from Chengdu in China, saw images of abortion on the Internet and felt he had to do something. For the past three years he has been using the nation’s Children’s Day as an opportunity to hand out brochures urging mothers not to abort their unborn babies. Though he has encountered strong opposition from the authorities, he spoke of his determination to speak out about this injustice. After Jonny spoke, a number of the delegates prayed for him and his work.
The day ended with Dave Brennan, founder of Brephos, giving a sample sermon on abortion. He fittingly applied the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan to the unborn. Brennan taught that the unborn is our neighbour and that Christians should act, even if there is a cost. During his sermon a number of attendees were visibly shaken as they heard about and saw the grim reality of abortion.
The conference certainly succeeded in its aim to challenge Christians to no longer be silent, but to find our voice to speak out against abortion.
