Submitted by the Presbyterian Church USA
During the PC(USA) online worship service, Rev. Danilie C. Hilerio Villanueva preached a powerful message speaking out against domestic violence and raising awareness of the pain and despair suffered by those impacted by domestic violence daily. Below Rev. Villanueva provides the church with ways that we can end gender-based violence!
“To end violence against women, we need to tackle oppression to all men, women, BIPOC/LGBTQIA. We need to provide an inclusive educational framework to interpret our relationships through the healing hands of God. It’s not an easy quest; it’s an invitation to reread our collective histories, personal narratives and ancestral traumas. We need wholeheartedly to reframe our perspective on how we portray victims and perpetrators. We definitely must respond: ‘No more of this!’ and allow our hands to perceive the hurting of these individuals and walk with them from oppression into the Kin-dom of God.
To end violence within the family is an act of love and justice that the church has been called to do. It is in the sacred space of the family where we talk about our faith and teach our values, it is in the sacred space of our faith communities that we learn to live in love, seeing God’s image in the other.”
- Rev. Danilie C. Hilerio Villanueva, moderator of the Sínodo Presbiteriano Boriquén en Puerto Rico
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