The Twenty-third General Synod will be held July 13-17, 2001, in Kansas City, Missouri. The first day of General Synod, Friday, July 13, (Yes, that’s right! It’s a Friday, the 13th, but we don’t have triskaidekaphobia!) The United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries will host a luncheon at which we will honor our past, celebrate the present, and look toward the future of Disabilities Ministries. Be sure to sign up for our luncheon, at a cost of $14.50 per person, when you receive your General Synod materials.

Disabilities Ministries is offering the workshop, “Disability Issues: Ecumenically and Locally-It’s about Time-Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” on Saturday, July 14, at 3:45 pm. at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center. A panel from UCCDM will lead a discussion of how practices to address issues of physical disability, mental illness, and cognitive disorders can be strengthened ecumenically between the UCC and Disciples, and implemented locally within congregations. Come and join us there. Anyone needing information about the workshop should contact David Denham at 713.861.6670 or revbaseball@aol.com.

This year, UCCDM will be presenting awards, one of which is an award named after the first national staff person to hold the position Consultant in Disabilities, the Rev. Virginia Kreyer. Virginia, ordained in the UCC, has been a pioneer in the disability movement. In the 1970s, she organized a committee to address disability issues in the New York Conference.

At the 1977 General Synod, the body passed a resolution calling upon the wider church to establish the National Committee on Persons with Disabilities (now the UCC Disabilities Ministries). Virginia was called upon to develop this group and to serve as its consultant. She served in that capacity through the 1995 General Synod.

Virginia has blazed a trail in the UCC, which has opened pathways for other persons with disabilities in the denomination. The UCC is deeply indebted to her. This award recognizes her lasting contributions, and she will be the first recipient of the Virginia Kreyer Award. It will be awarded in the future to others who make such lasting, pioneering contributions on behalf of persons with disabilities in the life of the UCC.

Virginia is retired and lives on Long Island. Her skills and gifts as a clergyperson (who has a disability) tell us that disability is no obstacle to serving God. We look forward to the opportunity to honor this remarkable person. This award, and the other awards, will be presented by UCCDM at the UCC Local Church Ministries dinner on July 14.

There will be a UCCDM presence through an exceptional and compelling art exhibit offered by our Mental Illness Network (MIN). The artworks come from the National Alliance for Research for Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). Also, stop by and visit us at our booth space in the exhibit hall.

Prior to General Synod, July 10-12, the first general meeting of MIN members will be held in Hartsburg, Missouri. To obtain information and register for this event, contact Bob Dell at 414 E. Pleasant Ave.; Sandwich IL 60548, or <bob.dell@ecunet.org>.

The UCCDM has much to celebrate, many reasons to rejoice. Within the structure of the wider church, it is part of and coordinated within the covenanted ministry, Local Church Ministries, as well as being part of and seated within the other covenanted Ministries, the Office of General Ministry, Wider Church Ministries, and justice and Witness Ministries.

General Synod will occur within the joint communities of the UCC and our partner denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). We will be meeting together for common time, for worship, and for workshops. The local Disciples of Christ, Kansas/Oklahoma, and Missouri Conferences accessibility committee is at work on the behalf of persons with disabilities. The General Synod registration form offers a place to indicate a need for their assistance.

Registration materials are available from the UCC Web site home page at <www.ucc.org> and from General Synod Registration; Office of Associate General Minister; United Church of Christ; 700 Prospect Avenue E; Cleveland OH 44115-1 100. Come and participate in this exciting event and opportunity.

Please stay an extra day), following General Synod, for the annual meeting of the UCCDM on July 18. We will be meeting at the Marriott Downtown from 10 am. To 3 p.m. A lunch will be provided. All are welcome as we make plans for this growing ministry. If you plan to attend, contact Peg Slater at 216.736.3838 to confirm.

From the UCC DM Newsletter Archive

Written by Jose Malayang, Executive Minister of Local Church Ministries.

Our vision as a United Church of Christ is broad and has so many components-to become a multiracial, multicultural, open and affirming church, accessible to all. The last-named one universal accessibility-admittedly has just not been given enough emphasis and attention. We’ve been focusing on the exciting possibility of M and M (multiracial and multicultural, and expending energy on the controversial ONA (open and affirming), but we’ve not been paying enough attention to the A2A (accessible to all).

Previous writers of this column, including members of the Collegium, have rightly been affirming our denominational commitment to the particular vision of all-inclusive accessibility. More importantly, they have affirmed, with personal stories and experiences, their own beliefs in our ministry to, with, and for persons with disabilities, both in the United Church of Christ, in its various ministry settings, and in society at large. But we still have a long way to go. Too many churches in this land-United Church of Christ facilities included, of course-are unwelcoming or downright inhospitable to folks with disabilities (name any form of them).This attitude may not be intentional, though, on the part of some who are without the needed resources to make their buildings accessible.

I did a workshop once on a welcoming church. I focused on the topic of “walls” in our churches, walls we physically build, as well as nonphysical barriers we erect. The objective was to help the participants recognize and name barriers in their local churches that seem to say to people, both members and visitors alike, “You’re not really welcome here,” without really intending to say so. The group members also looked at numerous models of hospitality reflected in a number of Bible passages.

Participants were asked to identify both physical and nonphysical barriers in their churches. Accessibility was at the top of the list-the admission and recognition that most church facilities have sanctuaries, as well as other rooms in their church plants, that are simply not accessible, for example, narrow passageways and aisles, no elevators to or from fellowship halls, no accessible rest rooms, and no equipment for, or assistance to, the deaf or blind.

For some, an unwelcoming due is the absence of welcoming signs. Signage is important, both outside and inside the church building. My cousins related an experience of visiting a church in my city. They found the church all right, got into the building somehow-and proceeded to get lost inside. No signs inside the big building indicated how and where to find the sanctuary. Buildings should have clear signs inside as well as outside-to the sanctuary, the fellowship halls, church offices, classrooms, rest rooms- helping and informing people where to go and how to get there. It should be said here that many of our churches have become more and more accessible with elevators or similar mechanisms, equipment for the hard-of-hearing, large- print bulletins, and even copies of the New Century Hymnal in Braille.

Then there are nonphysical barriers-from theologies and ideologies to traditions-walls created by liberal or conservative labels or reputations, or a generational difference. (With regard to the last one, I remember visiting a church on the West Coast built primarily for retirees-very accessible, indeed, but with no rooms or facilities or programs for children! “Young families and children are not welcome here,” is what that church was saying loud and dear.)

There are other nonphysical barriers in our churches like praying the Lord’s Prayer only one way and turning others off. Or the prayer of our Lord, like the doxology, is not printed on the bulletin, making nonparticipants of “unchurched” people or those who have not been around for some time. I’ve heard of worshipers, even pastors, who refuse to come to a particular church that sings only from one particular hymnal-either because it’s old and obsolete, or it’s too new and has “strange” (usually meaning inclusive or different) language in it.

My family and I were in Chicago one summer many years ago to attend an alumni gathering and were invited to attend Sunday worship with a newly-gathered Asian congregation meeting in a chapel of a large inner city church. In the absence of directional signs, we found ourselves in the main sanctuary. The ushers of this non-Asian congregation (owners of the facilities) met us at the door and one of them said, “You7re in the wrong church,” and then directed us to the Asian congregations meeting place. Wrong church, indeed! An inhospitable, non- welcoming church it was, but sadly bearing the Name of the One who said, “Come unto me, all… ” or “make disciples of all nations.” A church that does not practice universal accessibility- and knows it!-is truly the “wrong church:’

A friend of mine from Toronto, Canada, a former seminary classmate from Indonesia, came to my installation in June 2000, in Cleveland. To mark the occasion, he gave me a gift, a book by Jean Vanier, Becoming Human. In a chapter titled “From Exclusion to Inclusion: A Path to Healing,” the author cites the story in Luke (chap. 16) about the poor man Lazarus and the unnamed rich man; after death, the former ended up with Abraham (heaven?) while the latter suffered in Hades. Separated by an economic chasm in human life, they were spatially separated in the afterlife.

The writer addresses exclusivism in human society: “There is an endless list of those whom we may exclude; every one of us, we may be sure, is on someone’s list: the homeless, the sick, the dying, the young, the old, the weak, the disabled, the stranger, and the immigrant, those with AIDS. . . .” Vanier writes of the fear of difference that leads to lack of concern about others who are dissimilar:

Who are the different? They are the people who suffer poverty, brokenness, disabilities, or loneliness. They cry out to us for help, these millions named Lazarus. Often, they five in discomfort while others live in comfort. Their cries become dangerous for those of us who five in comfort. If we listen to their cries and open our hearts, it will cost us something. So we pretend not to hear the cry and so exclude them.

But listen to their cries we must and open our hearts we will, even if it costs us something, as it should. Otherwise, it’ll cost us our faith, our witness, and our proper sense of humanity. And we don’t want that. The Local Church Ministries seek to partner with other settings of the church in listening to the cries for universal accessibility-and doing something about them. Multiple staff teams and various program units have in their mandates a ministry to, with, and for people with disabilities. Advocates, constituency groups, and members of our Boards of Directors add their “war cry” and hold us accountable to such a vital and urgent ministry. The mission imperative of becoming a church that is truly “accessible to all” is the ministry of all of God’s people. May it be so?

Sidebar: Indeed, there are many barriers or walls, both physical and nonphysical, in any given church that show it to be an unwelcoming place, intentionally or not. In a church that seeks to become an inclusive faith community, so much of what we are and what we do, unfortunately, excludes others, or says so, loudly or subtly without meaning to.

From UCC DM Newsletter Archive