United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries » 2003 » September
What does it do? How does it go about it?
The Reverend Doctor Hugh V. Nash has served Zion UCC in Perry Hall, Maryland, for the past 17 years. Prior to coming to Zion UCC, he served in other denominations as a pastor for a grand total of 25 years of service.
Read the rest of this entry…
General Synod XXIV Minneapolis was a joyous celebration of ministry for the UCC Disabilities Ministries and for the Mental Illness Network. From that first resolution passed by General Synod in 1977 to today, we celebrate the emergence of leaders with disabilities.
During the last six years, the UCC DM has been blessed by the presence and leadership of outgoing co chairs, Rev. Jeanne Tyler of Nebraska, and Rita Fiero of Connecticut. They have inspired us from a wealth of experience and knowledge. Thank you on behalf of the church for guiding us to new vistas for identifying, developing, and nurturing leaders with disabilities.
Our gratitude goes out as well to the Rev. Bob Dell of Illinois, the founder of the Mental Illness Network in 1992. Our celebration of MIN is a tribute to Bob’s pioneering effort in developing a church wide network of support for individuals and families impacted by mental illness/brain disorders. Bob has led MIN and pioneered Pathways to Promise, an ecumenical organization that addresses mental illness issues. To honor Bob, at this General Synod, the MIN established the Robert and Joyce Dell award. Bob and Joyce are its first recipients.
We celebrate this chapter in the history of the UCCDM. A line in the disability movement declares that “a ramp is not enough.” The ministry of those mentioned here and of others is a witness that when we open ourselves to the variety of ways that disability is manifested, the entire Body of Christ finds new meaning to the word “wholeness.” May the meaning of wholeness for the people of God continue to unfold before us.
We look forward to increasing our understanding of being boldly hospitable as a church. We will continue to strengthen our church as we support people with disabilities from the earliest ages to the most senior moments of life.
David Denham, UCC DM Consultant
From UCC DM Newsletter Archive
One of the more devastating aspects of mental illness is the social stigma that attaches to having a brain illness. While other illnesses elicit responses of concern and offers of assistance, too often mental illnesses are used to ridicule. For instance, a recent article in a news magazine touted over priced shaving soaps. The piece warned customers not to mix and match scents or “you will smell like a schizophrenic.” This is not acceptable and must not be allowed to stand.
Since we as a church that is seeking to be open and inclusive of all, including those who have illnesses and disabilities, we must challenge every instance of this egregious violation of persons’ God given integrity. Write to your magazine and newspaper editors, call your TV/radio station, confront speakers, refuse to allow this de humanization to continue. You may send particularly offensive examples to me at uccmin@hotmail.com. I will circulate them to others so that we may join voices in protest.
From UCC DM Newsletter Archive
Rita Fiero, RN, is immediate past co chair of the UCCDM board.
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Jeremiah 29:11
People with difficult speech, twisted bodies, or damaged brains have an authentic voice much of which is prophetic. From within experiences of disability and chronic illness, we offer the insight that God enters our being at the point of pain and vulnerability. We can model the transcendence of limitations of body or mind as the most powerful way to survive and grow toward wholeness.
Hope for disabilities ministries flourishes in many places because we believe God in Christ, the Indiscriminate Host. The church has a committed group of wounded healers. For more than 25 years, UCC Disabilities Ministries has striven to honor Jesus’ teaching of the inclusion of society’s marginal, children and adults with disabilities and chronic illness. For more than ten years, the Mental Illness Network has educated the church about the plight of people with brain disorders.
Inclusion is our right as children of God, also made in God’s image, and as members of a faith tradition of servanthood. We need a new and revolutionary, an extravagant and radical, an extreme and uncompromising hospitality in the church if we are to remain faithful to the message of the Indiscriminate Host.
We must admit to not recognizing the justice issues that impress the experience of disability euthanasia, genetic engineering, community based care alternatives to institutionalization and insurance parity for brain disorders on equal par with other medical conditions. We need to take seriously Christian education for children with disabilities and a seminary certificate program in Disability Ministry. Let us reach beyond an all inclusive view of disabilities ministry. God still gives us hope through improbable people.
From UCC DM Newsletter Archive
