The Prosecutor for Violence Against Women of the Spanish Attorney General’s Office, María Eugenia Prendes, will inaugurate an intensive training day that the entity GRACE will give to evangelical leaders in Madrid (Spain).

Two days before, the state prosecutor will also meet with Mesa Salmo 15 (Psalm 15 Table), a new group formed by Spanish evangelical leaders concerned about sexual and power abuse.

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GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, an entity established in the US) is a respected international organisation that trains, equips, educates and researches with the aim of achieving effective protection and adequate accountability that empowers Christian communities to recognise, prevent and respond to abuse, especially when these are committed by spiritual leaders.

This visit to Spain (20-23 January 2026), with a full agenda of awareness-raising, training for Christian leaders, meetings with the press and political representatives, is organised by Mesa Salmo 15, a platform formed in 2025 by Spanish evangelical leaders with different profiles (pastors, a family therapist, a lawyer, a doctor, a journalist, an expert in bioethics) who are members of local churches in several cities in Spain.

Secular media have recently reported about the group’s efforts to convince parties in the Spanish parliament about the need to better protect members of churches from sexual abuse (see below). News agencies and media outlets such Servimedia, Europa Press, Religión Digital are among those who have highlighted Mesa Salmo 15’s vision.

Among the aims of Mesa Salmo 15 and GRACE, represented by CEO Laura Thien and investigator Robert Peters, is to plan a line of collaboration, in Spain and internationally.

Intensive training for leaders

On 22 January, GRACE will hold an intensive training day for church leaders (pastors or leaders of organisations) at the Amistad Cristiana church in Madrid.

Grace will also meet with legal professionals (lawyers, criminologists, police officers, etc.) on 23 January 2026 the Evangelical Church at Calle Victor de la Serna.

They will also to Valencia on 23 January to meet with some twenty pastors and leaders of Christian organisations in the Levantine city. As in Madrid, the aim of the meeting will be to offer answers to the problem of abuse that can occur in evangelical churches.

For contact with the organisers, this is the organisation’s email.

Encounters are also being planned between the main political parties and the GRACE team during their visit to Spain.

The need identified

The initiative arose just under a year ago, in response to the evident need to address the reality of cases of sexual abuse in evangelical churches in Spain. These are isolated cases, but they were becoming increasingly frequent, raising the need to go beyond the prevention protocols that had been developed and implemented.

The group of evangelicals leading the initiative adopted the name Mesa Salmo 15 based on the content of this psalm by David, which speaks of integrity, justice and protecting the innocent.

As a platform, they have received explicit backing from several entities in Spain: the Spanish Evangelical Alliance, Aglow Spain, the Seneca Falls Platform, Foundation Pontea and the Protestante Digital news website.

Mesa Salmo 15: what are they doing?

In July, the group of evangelical leader drew up a manifesto that has been signed by around 200 churches, denominations, Christian organisations and pastors in Spain, titled ‘For an honest, just and restorative church’.

They have then continued with the task of raising awareness, training and working on protocols with churches, as well as addressing specific cases of abuse while offer a caring response to victims.

In the course of this work, Mesa Salmo 15 have seen the need for advice from organisations with more experience in the field, and have contacted GRACE, which later agreed to visit Spain to establish an open agenda for collaboration.

Strengthening the law

They have also identified the need to amend Spain’s Sexual Abuse Act, specifying that even when there is a sexual relationship between adults without explicit opposition, but mediated by abuse of authority or manipulation, consent should be considered flawed and therefore invalid.

In this regard, the Mesa Salmo 15 have a draft proposal that they want to present to the political parties in the country.

Their initiative to reform Spanish legislation aims to include an aggravating factor of sexual abuse in proven cases of abuse by spiritual leaders. In addition to other punishments, courts should be able to impose a ‘special disqualification’ from exercising spiritual leadership for a specified period of time, and that the convicted person should “compensate the victim for moral and psychological damage”.