Sex Offender in CA church

[Angel]

I am a UCC member, and I'm not sure where to go with this....

However, I am not a survivor of abuse, (and my son is 1yr old, always near me) so it is relatively easy for me to say "All are welcome here"

NY times article

CARLSBAD, Calif. — On a marquee outside and on a banner inside, Pilgrim United Church of Christ proclaims, “All are welcome.” Sustained by the belief that embracing all comers is a living example of Christ’s love, Pilgrim now faces a profound test of faith.
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Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times

The Rev. Madison Shockley is leading his church through a discussion about whether it should admit a convicted child molester.

In late January, Mark Pliska, 53, told the congregation here that he had been in prison for molesting children but that he sought a place to worship and liked the atmosphere at Pilgrim.

Mr. Pliska’s request has plunged the close-knit congregation into a painful discussion about applying faith in a difficult real-world situation. Congregants now wonder, are all truly welcome? If they are, how do you ensure the safety of children and the healing of adult survivors of sexual abuse? Can an offender who accepts Christ truly change?

“I think what we have been through is a loss of innocence,” said the Rev. Madison Shockley, Pilgrim’s minister. “People think of church as an idyllic paradise, and I think that is a great part of that loss.”

Pilgrim’s struggle mirrors those of other congregations, of various faiths, across the country.

Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that over the last five years pastors had called him to seek advice about how to deal with sex offenders who had returned from prison and wanted to return to church.

The Rev. Debra W. Haffner, director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing in Norwalk, Conn., said she received one or two calls a month from congregations facing a crisis similar to Pilgrim’s.

Having a policy to deal with sex offenders before a crisis occurs is the best way to avoid turmoil, Ms. Haffner said. But such a policy still may force a congregation to decide under what circumstances an offender can attend, a discussion that can shake many churches to their core.

“They are conflicting ministries,” the Rev. Patricia Tummino said about reaching out to sex offenders, to children and to adult survivors of abuse. Since the late 1990s, Ms. Tummino’s congregation, the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Middleboro, Mass., has dealt with two known sex offenders. “You can’t be all things to all people,” she said.

(more on NY times site)

"They will know we are Christians by our love" ???

-John