UCC Disabilities Ministries

Our Church’s Wider Mission: It’s Who We Are

Written by the Rev. Marja Coons-Torn, Conference Minister, Penn Central

In my letter to the conference this month, I suggested that I would love to be invited into our congregations to talk about Disabilities Ministries.

One of the places that our gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission are making a difference is in the world of “abilities awareness.” That’s the phrase my friend Tyler would like us to use instead of “disabilities awareness.” Tyler, an active member of a UCC congregation in Iowa will be at General Synod this summer to receive an award for his video, “I’m Tyler! Don’t Be Surprised”. Ask me about how you can see it!

Because of gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission, along with the generous time committed by the volunteers of our UCC Disabilities Ministry, we are able to put up a website with wonderful, free resources, like the handbook Any Body, Everybody, Christ’s Body.

You can visit that website at www.uccdm.org and find other resources as well. You can get worship resources for Access Sunday, which is celebrated on the second Sunday in October. You can learn about serious brain disorders [sometimes called mental illness] and find a list of children’s books you can use in your church school. The site encourages networking, and offers links to other resources.

Back here in Penn Central Conference, through the gifts of volunteer Kara Druckenmiller, we are offering our first ever camp for children and adults with autism or other challenges. Our outdoor ministries program, for all kinds of children and adults, is partially underwritten by your gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission. We believe that when we touch people’s lives at camp, we are creating a future for the church.

In addition to your generous gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission, I’d like to invite you to consider seriously whether your church is being called to minister with those whose abilities may be different than our own. This is just one of the things we do together in mission. This is the way we respond to the love we received from God in Jesus Christ.