Bullying can and sadly does occur within Christian organisations and churches cannot assume this kind of abusive behaviour will never happen when Christians fellowship together. The Safe Church Code of Conduct specifically notes, in point 10:

"You will not condone or participate in bullying behaviour, where bullying is the repeated seeking out or targeting of an adult, child or young person to cause them distress and humiliation or to exploit them, including but not limited to exclusion from a peer group, intimidation and extortion."

Bullying can happen to anyone, including pastors and other paid employees of the church, elders, amongst adults whether they volunteer in the church or not, amongst young people and between children. Bullying is a form of abuse.

Increasingly, bullying is taking place online and via the use of smart phones - this is known as 'Cyber bullying'. 

The following web links are provided to help better understand the issue of bullying so that people may be encouraged to speak up with any concerns regarding this issue:

• Adult bullying

• Children bullying

• Cyber bullying/abuse of children

• Victorian Government workplace bullying information