Photo: New UCC DM Executive Director, the Reverend Denise Thompson, and her Leader Dog Penny visit the Amistad Chapel at the Church House in Cleveland.
On April 1, 2007, the Reverend Denise Thompson will assume her call as the first Executive Director of the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries.
Thompson said in a recent interview that she was heartened to learn that the United Church of Christ is ready to take this step. “As part of our United Church of Christ identity, we say that ‘No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.’ The church is lessened, not whole, until persons with disabilities are accepted along with other marginalized parts of society.”
“Formerly from Michigan, Denise comes to us from Phoenix with a deep background in advocacy and the disability rights movement,” said the Rev. Jo Clare Hartsig, Chair of the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries board.
“Along the way,” Thompson said, ” I have encountered people with a variety of approaches and cultural experiences. Part of the creativity of this position is getting in touch with folks and talking with them and learning what’s going on at a local level to better be able to speak to people in their own language and respectfully.
She said also that she looks forward to the challenge of more fully understanding the structure and workings of the national level of the denomination. “I want to learn where the UCC DM fits in the process and to determine key players with whom we need to connect, what they can bring to the table and how we can be helpful to each other.”
“I feel that all of my work with people with disabilities has been a part of ministry,” Thompson said. As an advocacy specialist, she brings a history of developing and facilitating innovative training and educational opportunities in areas of adjustment counseling and disability civil rights. Her work has included the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Fair Housing, Accessible Information Technology and Emergency Preparedness for people.
She worked for more than 25 years in the Independent Living Movement. More than half of those years were as manager of the community integration unit of the largest Independent Living Center in Arizona. She also brings extensive experience in fund-raising, media, grant-writing opportunities and searching out grant resources for non-profit organizations. Her responsibilities as Executive Director of the Arizona Office for Americans with Disabilities Act included building coalitions and passing related local legislation. She manages her own non-profit, Creating Community Inclusion.
Thompson reflected that originally she was reluctant to become involved in any disabilities work lest she be type cast. Her resistance faded, however, when her minister observed that she might note her expertise as a career person and as a person with a disability.
“My disability is blindness,” she said. “I now am totally blind without light perception. Although the blindness community is important, most of my adult life experience has been interaction with the spectrum of people with disabilities. I try to bridge gaps among the wide variety of visible and hidden disabilities and bring all people together as a whole community.”
“I feel this calling in part,” she said, “because of my own struggles and concerns over the years of walking into a potential church home without having anyone walk up to me. I had to listen for a group of people talking then slide myself over in that direction, literally interrupt a conversation to ask if someone might help me locate a seat.”
“When I found Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix,” she said, “I felt in a way that I had come home. I felt included in a faith community for the first time in many years.”
Thompson has helped to make inclusion top priority for Shadow Rock. As staff liaison to the Growth and Hospitality Team responsible for marketing the church to the wider community, she wrote the proposal that won a recent Media with a Mission marketing grant.
Echoing the commendation of the Congregational Vitality Initiative Team in Cleveland as well as from her Phoenix church, Hartsig said, “Denise will be an amazing asset to us and to the whole church as we step together into a future of greater inclusion.”
Hartsig, who created “Any Body, Everybody, Christ’s Body,” the ministry’s new congregational study guide, said the quarter time position is part of the UCC DM strategic plan designed to complete the denomination’s vision to be a church that is multiracial, multi-cultural, open and affirming, and accessible to all. “We want to bring about full integration of the “Accessible to All” mandate in every aspect of the church’s work and ministry — national, international, conferences, seminaries, local churches, and outdoor ministries.”
Thompson has a bachelor in Social Work from Michigan State University and a Master of Divinity from Western Theological Seminary. Ordained in the Reformed Church, she transferred her ministerial standing to the United Church of Christ, Southwest Conference, upon finding the inclusive denomination several years ago.
“I affirm the UCC’s statement to “work for justice, healing, and wholeness of life.” To include people with disabilities requires our full attention,” she said. “Everybody must be included in the work and witness of God’s people on earth. We are all people of value and worth. We need to be sharing that and communicating that.”
With the leadership of the Rev. Virginia Kreyer and the Rev. Dr. Harold Wilke, the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries was established by General Synod in 1977.
This article was written by Dee Brauninger, Secretary, UCC Disabilities Ministries Board
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