United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries » 2006 » November
Guidelines for Working with Persons with Disabilities
Written by Harold H. Wilke
Abingdon Press, 2000
A Ministry for Families of the Mentally Ill
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Written by C. Walton Giddy
Westminster/John Knox Press
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Written by Lillian V. Grisham
This book presents a first person account of Lillian Grisham’s experience with a five-year period of depression.
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An Annotated Bibliography
Compiled by the Health and Welfare Ministries Program Department, United Methodist Church
UCC Disabilities Ministries has published many excellent, but largely under-utilized, resources. The following is a brief description of these resources:
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Written by Harold H. Wilke
Publisher: Abingdon Press (February 2002)
ISBN:0687072840
Lively Memories of Embracing God’s World.
“No Steps to Heaven” begins:
The scene is upper Manhattan, Broadway at Reinhold Niebuhr Place, Union Theological Seminary. Union’s president, Donald Shriver, walks jauntily down the steps to the bustling street and sits down in a wheelchair brought for the experiment, thus putting himself in the place of a student with a handicap. Gazing up from his wheelchair at that imposing entrance and those five insurmountable steps, he says, “OK, carry me in,†Read the rest of this entry…
Written by Harold H. Wilke
“We have a history of keeping people ‘out of sight, out of mind.’”
“Even more people are becoming alienated, and ever more of them are coming out into the open.”
“They are part of our society, not apart from it. More sharply than ever before, the idea of “mainstreaming†— keeping persons who differ from the norm within the main current of social life — is becoming a part of Western thinking.
Rita Fiero, Editor
Disaster Preparedness and Disability” pamphlet contains many links for specific disabilities.
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Written by Virginia Kreyer
Story of the clergy woman with a disability who set the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries into motion in 1977.
Self-published. Contact Michelle Hintz in the UCC DM office in Cleveland, 216-736-3838
Written by persons with disabilities – UCC DM
Order from UC Resources at 800-537-3394
Meditations for Families Experiencing Mental Illness
By Project Religious Outreach of the Alliance for the Mentally III of Ohio 979 South High Street Columbus OH 43206 (614) 444-2646.
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Book: With Mental Illness: Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, Helping Someone, and Care Givers
Written by Rosalynn Carter & Susan Golant Times Books.
This book is useful for clergy, families, social workers, doctors, and consumers.
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Written by Richard Dayringer, Byron Eicher, Myron C. Madden, & John J. O’Hearne Haworth Pastoral Press 10 Alice Street Binghamton NY 13904.
The book offers definitions of depression, characterizations of effective interventions, and a discussion of the counselor’s role.
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Written by Shirley H. Strobel, NAMI P.O. Box 753, Waldorf MD 20604.
This is a curriculum designed to sensitize adults in church congregations to people with severe mental illness. Can be used as 12 one-hour lessons or six two-hour lessons.
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Four sections of useful information follow an introduction and a fact sheet about mental illness.
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Church and Society, Vol. 81
Journal Articles
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This resource discusses the importance of using “People First Language” when speaking or writing about mental illness.
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By Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen, H. Newton Malony, & Jennifer Shifrin Pathways to Promise 5400 Arsenal Street St. Louis MO 63139.
Annotated listing of articles, booklets, books, and videotapes. Earliest publications listed are from 1978; most citations are from mid and late 1980s. Includes key references from various faith communities. Paper – 9 pp.
From UCC DM Newsletter Archive, Book Beat
Spiritual Pathways to Mental Health in Midlife and Later Years by Harold G. Koenig, M.D. Haworth Pastoral Press 10 Alice Street Binghamton NY 13904.
A book with appeal for middle-aged and older adults and their families as well as mental health professionals, chaplains, and other clergy. It promotes understanding of the spiritual needs of older adults, and the impact religion can have on facilitating mental health and successful aging. It covers major psychological problems older adults face and offers discussion on how religion can be used to help alleviate these problems. Cloth/Paper-554 pp.
From UCC DM Newsletter Archive, Book Beat
Opening the Church to All God’s Children
Written by Brett Webb-Mitchell
About the dance of relationship between those our society has labeled “disabled” and “non-disabled.”
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Growing Attitudes
A man’s curiosity won out as I waited for several mobility-cane users to enter the Services for the Visually Impaired (SVI) seminar. The man, just passing by, struck up a conversation with me.
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Have you ever ridden a horse? Have you felt the powerful muscles beneath you, the gentle swaying of the horse’s rhythmic walk, the freedom of movement as the horse carries you forward? You realize you are smiling and your smile is contagious to all those around you.
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Published by The Haworth Pastoral Press, Inc. 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580, the Journal was started in response to the growth of interest in spirituality and religion in health and healing, in chronic illness and disability.
The purpose of the Journal as stated in its statement of Vision is the following: to provide an interfaith, interdisciplinary forum that will reflect and support the growing dialogue between religious/spiritual perspectives and clinical/scientific perspectives in supporting people with disabilities and their families. But we also hope to provide an equal place ‘at the table’ for the voices of people with disabilities and their families as they encounter and address services and supports in the worlds of faith and health.
Our goal is that the Journal will provide a bridge for research, policy, and practice that can unite clergy, chaplains and pastoral counselors, religious educators, and theologians with health care professionals and researchers in their work with people with disabilities and their families to develop more holistic supports and inclusive communities….
“The Journal … believes that health and disability are not opposite conditions. Health is conceptualized as a state of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. It is not the absence of disease or disability. Disabilities in one area may co-exist with substantial well-being in other areas of health. People are neither completely healthy nor completely disabled, but rather are people first whose personal well being reflects individual strengths and limitations” (Journal, Vol. 3, No.2, 1999).
Below are very brief descriptions of five articles from Journal, Volume 3, Number 1, 1999.
The Journal of Religion, Disability, and Health, published by The Haworth Pastoral Press, Inc. 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580, was started in response to the growth of interest in spirituality and religion in health and healing, in chronic illness and disability.
From UCC DM Newsletter Archive, Book Beat
With themes of faith and forgiveness, justice and healing, and a unique sensitivity to language, Jim Manley’s hymns grow out of his own journey.
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Finding us in the daily struggle, Dr. Carlson’s music draws us forward with courage but never lets us diminish commitment.
When I was about to retire from the Church of the Beatitudes staff, a colleague said, “Dosia, you’ve left your mark on this church.” Now, that could be a compliment, but he was laughingly pointing out the gouges on my office door left by my electric scooter.
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A gifted theologian, priest, and author, Henri Nouwen lived the final years (1986- 96) of his life at Daybreak, a L’Arche Community in Toronto, Canada. When Nouwen left the academic world for Trosly, France, he was seeking a place to be closer to the heart of God.”
In The Road to Daybreak (Doubleday), Nouwen chronicles his spiritual and personal journey through a year of orientation (in Trosly) to this international network of L’Arche homes. Nouwen joined Daybreak in August 1986. His life, ministry, and writing would be shaped by this experience. This book offers a daily diary of Nouwen’s personal reflections during this year, and an introduction to the spiritual dimension of L’Arche and its founder, Jean Vanier.
In Adam (Orbis Books, 1997), Nouwen tells of this 25 year old man, who did not speak, or display facial expression. Nouwen bathed Adam most mornings, helping him to prepare for his day. Nouwen describes the building of a friendship, how Adam became the impetus for his day, and how these two came to live a life of mutual support. He tells how others were changed by their encounter with Adam. Nouwen writes after Adam’s death in February, 1996, “Adam gave me a sense of belonging… Without having touched Adam, I don’t know where I would be today.”
Nouwen taught at the University of Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard. By 1991 and the
publication of In the Name of Jesus (Crossroad), Nouwen was moving from an academic life driven to be popular and powerful to a life lived out of his vulnerability. This book is a speech given in Washington, D.C. to burgeoning priests. Nouwen comes as a popular speaker to address the nature of Christian leadership. He brings with him, Bill, from Daybreak, who chooses to speak, as well. It was a day to remember, for the audience.
Henri Nouwen died in September, 1996, just seven months after Adam died. I had the
privilege of hearing him speak at a L’Arche gathering in Washington, D.C. where he spoke of being at home. He described home as being a place “where God will bring what you need.” Upon arriving at Daybreak, Nouwen started trusting God to do just that, and then he began to discover home with the help of Adam like no other time in his life. Nouwen teaches us that all humans share in common a vulnerability. He believed that people with disabilities, by their own life experience, offer unique insight to this vulnerability that an able-bodied frame of reference might miss. Thanks, Henri. We miss you! (Reviewed by David E. Denham)
By Nancy L. Eiesland, forward by Rebecca S. Chopp, Abingdon Press.
Drawing from a variety of social scientists, theologians, and linguists, Nancy Eiesland claims that low social position and status are the primary handicapping conditions among people with disabilities rather than personal failure to “adjust.” She then calls for a liberation theology that shifts the definition of the disabled from individuals who “need to adjust” to a minority group who can make both a theological and pastoral contribution.
You are invited:
What are some of your experiences, insights, growings from relating as a camper with a disability or as a camper with cabin mate who has a disability? Other stories.
What are some of the innovative program and grounds changes that have been made at your conference camp to welcome campers and/or leaders with disabilities. Please submit a 150-400 word article for possible posting or add a comment.
Tell us about your experiences. How have you approached your seminary about the issues surrounding seminarians with disabilities?
What about a theology of disability course at your seminary? Comments invited all around.
What are some of the things your conference has done in the area of disabilities ministries, inclusion coaches, and/or accessibility board?
How have you managed the geographical space among your board members?
This space is for sending in insights, tips, unresolved and resolved CWP situations in churches. You may have presented an accessibility-awareness concept or alternative solution to an attitudinal or architectural accessibility dilemna relating to your disability that you wish to share. You may have a story to tell. Please do so.
As churches use the new Accessible to All material, you will have suggestions for other churches going through the A2A process and new ideas that are working for you. You may also have follow-up plans. We invite you to share these gems here. Thanks.
Words of Wisdom and Comfort for Women Living with a Brain Disorder Commonly Known as Mental Illness Edited by Norma Mengel. Order from
UC Resources
800-537-3394
A Memorial to Dr. Wilke from UCC DM
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Resources for Guide and Support Dogs in Emergency
The care and safety of Guide and Support Dogs in an emergency situation is more demanding than for a pet.
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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Entering the World of Disability
Author: Robert F. Molsberry
Author: ALBERT A. HERZOG, JR.
This synposis was prepared by David E. Denham.
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