Sometimes it takes awhile for the hyphen to disappear. Two words expressing a unit idea first accept a hyphen then release it to form a compound word. Basket and ball were once separate words that became basket-ball, then basketball.

At a wedding dinner, the curiosity of a young boy prompted him to pull up a chair. He was full of wanting to hear about my dog guide, I thought.

After some dog talk, he paused. “Then, you’re not afraid of the dark,” he said with the relieved voice of one who might be. “I’m not afraid of the dark with Leader Dog Treasure,” I said, Both of us knew we had gotten rid of the hyphen, and he went off with a friend.
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About elevators and chair lifts in places of worship.
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Written by Dan Wilkins
(from http://www.thenthdegree.com/intacces.asp)

As I was getting out of my van in the parking lot of an area store this older woman with white hair pulled into the accessible parking space next to mine. I sat on the lift waiting for her to get out of her car and lock the door. She had a placard on the dash. Suddenly, as she was making sure she had her keys, a man walking by stopped, took one look at me, and addressed her somewhat demonstratively, saying, “You can’t park there!!!” He pointed at the sign and then at me. “That space is for people who use wheelchairs…You can’t park there.” This guy, it seemed, was trying to advocate for ME!
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The following publications about making buildings accessible are available at Partners for Sacred Places :
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A Reading the Signs column . . . A Can-do Forum about accessibility for the whole church family.

By guest writer, the Rev. Ross Tyler, Vine Congregational Church, UCC, Lincoln, NE

To have an elevator from the lower church school classrooms level, to the south entry atrium level, and up to the sanctuary/narthex/church office level was the dream of the planning committee for Vine Congregational Church UCC in 1989.

An elevator shaft completed as a part of the new construction proved too small for equipment outlined by new state ADA requirements. The fund drive fell short for purchase of the original equipment ($43,000). Momentum died. The barriers were unresolved for some eight years.

In those intervening years, several uniquely gifted adults struggled around the barriers to total access by parking behind the church for entry at the same level of the narthex and sanctuary. They gained access to lower classrooms by going outside and around to east entry doors by way of the parking lot and connecting drive ramp (weather permitting or not).

Shane and Pam Cuttlers joined Vine in 1993. In 1996, they were blessed with the birth of their daughter Morgan, a bright eyed, curly blond youngster who steals your heart with a quick smile and wrinkling nose. The church and her parents quickly realized that Morgan would teach them the skills necessary to care for someone with glutaric aciduria, a condition affecting the body’s ability to process protein. For Morgan, this means weak muscle control and involuntary movements.

Carrying Morgan and her stroller up and down stairs while she was small was an easy, loving task. As she required larger conveyances, this became harder and even dangerous.
Because Shane is a Lincoln firefighter, Pam often needed others to help with the wheelchair or she wheeled Morgan outside to get to the lower level church school. Church folk as well as visitors became aware of the absolute need for a vertical lift for this spirited child.

The purchase of an Access Industries Porch Lift, model PLS-144 ($24,970) With added shaft preparation and other material expenses ($1,925) was proposed at the Congregational Annual Meeting on.February 17, 2002.

Following a unanimous vote, gifts of more than S30,000 came in, including substantial donations from Clark Hoover General Contractors of in-kind labor. Other generous cash donations by members raised more than $15,000 before the end of the meeting!

Following the worship service on September 15, 2002, the congregation gathered so that Pastor Ross, Morgan and Pam Cuttlers could formally dedicate the new elevator lift. Morgan had already been using it as well as other summer guests since its state approval in June.

The church is deeply grateful to God, to its exceptionally generous members and friends, and to those special individuals whose vision and tenacity have truly lifted the spirit of equal access for all!

You can contact Ross Tyler at or call 402.483.4781.

This column may be reproduced.

By Jo Ackerman, Pastor of Clay Center, Nebraska

The Nebraska Conference is proud of its churches that are making an effort to be accessible to all of God’s people. The term “accessible,” as used in many of our churches, means being able to gain entrance to the building. Some churches have constructed ramps and installed elevators; others consider a rear entrance sufficient.
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The second Sunday of October, Access Sunday, launches Disabilities Awareness Week. Consider incorporating into worship this blessing of tools that bring fullness of life to individuals and your church.

Hint: Mention the blessing in newsletter and church so folk can determine what objects, architectural changes, and other devices bring them freedom.
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What inspires a flock of geese to shape a V or a church to focus its energy?

“The greatest thing is a matter of dignity,” said Wayne Heathers, member of First Congregational Church UCC of Curtis, NE. “You might not understand that, if you have never been shut out from something.”
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Lincoln, Nebraska’s Northeast Community Church views things differently because of Scott Pigsley and Diana Coberly. Scott, 13-year-old son of Gina and Jerry Pigsley, knows God sees the person inside his body with spina bifida. “When God looks at me, God looks over that I’m in a wheelchair and sees a normal person.”
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Newspapers, Periodicals, E-Periodicals
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Written by Gina and Mercer Mayer
Racine, Wisconsin: Golden Books Publishing Co., Inc., 1992

One of a serieis of books about disabilities attitudes

This seventy-eight page manual addresses attitudinal and architectural access in inclusive and helpful way.
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Guidelines for Working with Persons with Disabilities

Written by Harold H. Wilke
Abingdon Press, 2000

“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.

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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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This resource discusses the importance of using “People First Language” when speaking or writing about mental illness.
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Entering the World of Disability
Author: Robert F. Molsberry

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Hearing impairment is no longer a reason to miss the spoken Word at worship – at least not at First Congregational Church in Dudley. Once a month, the Dudley church offers a sign language interpretation at its Sunday service.

“I am so happy that my church is able to offer this wonderful service,” says Kenny Laferriere. “As a child, I would always attend church with my grandmother because my parents were unable to hear the service. It is such a wonderful feeling to be able to attend church with my whole family and know that my parents are enjoying the service just as much as I am.”

The Rev. John White, pastor at the church, explains that several years ago, Laferriere was facing some serious health issues. His parents were profoundly deaf, so White had limited conversations with them. However, when White visited the family at the hospital, there was a sign language interpreter on duty who could help in the conversation. Through that exchange, White discovered that the parents had wanted to attend worship in the past, but the language barrier had discouraged them.

After contacting a service for the deaf, White hired a certified sign language interpreter/transliterator to interpret one worship service per month. The $100 cost is paid anonymously by two generous members of the church. “I have found that people, with or without hearing impairments, love the sign language service,” says White.

“I will often incorporate the work of Jennifer, the interpreter, into the service itself,” says White. For example, on Pentecost – a day believed to be a time when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages – White’s sermon addressed foreign languages and other methods of communication, including sign language. “We had people come forward who spoke French, Polish, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and English. In addition, we also included both music and signing as languages. Then everyone said ‘God loves you’ in his/her own language.” It was a great way to show that the church was made up of many different languages but was still one, he explained.

Kenny’s father Raymond believes he is blessed to be a part of a church that provides signing. “I always look forward to attending church service on these ‘special’ Sundays because I know on this day I will be able to understand what Pastor John has to say,” Raymond wrote. “I can only wish that this service was offered on more Sundays throughout the year.” Kenny’s mother, Robin agrees. “I think that the Sign Language Interpreter services that are offered can be described with one word,” she wrote. “Magnificent! I am able to enjoy church now because I can understand what is going on throughout the service. It is a wonderful thing that the church can offer to their parishioners.”

Jennifer publishes her own newsletter and includes her schedule. As a result, two or three additional visitors attend the service. “And Jennifer herself has fallen in love with the church,” says White. “She now occasionally attends our church even when she’s not interpreting.”

“We have grown so well because we are finding more ways to broaden our welcome,” says White, noting the increase in membership from 40 to 150 in less than a decade. “Whether it’s inviting people to communion, having an Open and Affirming conversation, using the New Century hymnal with its inclusive language, sending out enewsletters, or even using sign language during service: we do whatever we can to widen the welcome and have worship speak the message — in any language.”

“I am so proud to be a part of such a wonderful congregation because we chose to fund this excellent service before other very important church needs,” says Kenny.

The Massachusetts Conference has incorporated sign language into its Annual Meeting for many years. For additional information and resources, visit the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing website at www.mass.gov/mcdhh/ face=”Verdana” color=”#000000″ size=”2″>

Let the church embrace the Americans with Disabilities Act
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Equity for Persons with Serious Brain Disorders (Mental Illnesses)
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Inclusion of Clergy with Disabilities
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A Resolution honoring the Accessible to All mandate in the mission of the United Church of Christ
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Written by the Rev. Nancy J. Erickson, December 2003
St. Monica’s Chemical Dependency Service for Women, Lincoln

The backdrop for discussion is Leviticus 21:16-23. I suggest you read this paradigm which has informed church policies and even some religious beliefs for hundreds of years.
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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

Jeanne Tyler co-chairs the UCCDM board and is co-pastor of Saint Paul UCC, Lincoln,
Nebraska

He told them another parable: “The [realm of God] is like yeast which a woman took and . . . .” – Matthew 13:33

Slowly bubbling along with warm water and sugar, yeast grows as it rises into dough and bakes into bread. This image from Jesus’ rich parable is especially apt for persons with disability and our call to serve.

We have been around forever and have been bubbling slowly ever so slowly into the wholeness of life, bringing the church into the fullness of transformation along with all who have been marginalized, made invisible. With many and diverse gifts, some serve and others are served.
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In Romans 12, Paul wrestles with how we relate and work with each other: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same God.” Paul says what it is to be the body of Christ: “For the body does not consist of one member but of many.” These well known words open more questions for people with disabilities.

If our bodies and minds appear broken or challenged, are we the body of Christ? Do Paul’s words apply to us? Or, are we just “others”– people to whom the real body of Christ must or should minister? We ALL are called to wrestle with these contemporary questions.

As the inclusive ministry coordinator I have found that most people in our churches believe being Accessible to All is a really great thing, IF they can afford an elevator, IF they have people who have accessibility needs, etc.

However, twenty-five years of education have made a difference. Many congregations really wish to be Accessible to All for the sake of being welcoming and inviting to everyone – whatever that takes. I am encouraged and excited with what is currently happening.

Many of our congregations, however, have thought about what being truly accessible really means? If we are truly accessible our “body” will be different, will change.

The Body of Christ will live with brain illness, physical challenges, developmental challenges, wellness, and unwellness. We will not have the same body we once had; especially if those entered an accessible church thought they were invited in to be PART of the Body of Christ, not just ministered to BY the Body of Christ!

Listen again to what Paul tells us: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same God.”

We are all called to be the Body of Christ. Everyone who enters a congregation, no matter how, is called to be part of the body. Each person who enters brings a gift to be shared. Each gift will be different, change will occur, and the Body of Christ will be the LIVING Christ. How scary and how wonderful! This is Good News, indeed!

This questionnaire was completed several years ago. Please contact its producer for follow-up information.

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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

Edith Guffey, Associate General Minister

I think my first real, up-dose experience and exposure to the reality of life for persons with disabilities was in my friendship with Valerie Russell. During the years that Valerie served as the Executive Director of the Office for Church and Society, we became good friends. Following her stroke, when she allowed me, I took her shopping, to dinner, or to other events and places. I began for the first time to really understand how much the world is designed for those who don’t regularly face the additional challenges of walking, opening doors, getting out of cars … and the list goes on and on.
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Pastor and 13-year-old acolyte, both wheelchair users, have ramp to access the chancel.
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Editor’s note: The following article by Rev. Donna Schaper, Association Minister, Massachusetts Conference, originally appeared in Colleague, September, 1999.

I took an unexpected class trip last month when I pulled a tendon playing tennis. I found myself at a national convention of my church for a full week rooming with and in a wheelchair. When the tendon insisted that I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t imagine not going to the Synod, and I couldn’t imagine going. Thus the compromise of the wheelchair and the non-stop joke from old, good friends about how “long they had wanted to push me around.”
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The Rev. Doris Powell has been the Director of Finance and Treasurer of the United Church of Christ since 1990. In the current structure, she is one of three officers of the Church, along with the President and the Secretary. This is not a position she ever expected to hold. But then, a lot of things in her life have not been as she expected. Until she was in her early 30s, Doris was a physically active person. She loved backpacking, canoeing, camping – any noncompetitive outdoor sport that got her into nature. She looked forward to living some day in Colorado where she planned on hiking to her heart’s content. All of that changed when she was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis. For the first six months, she had constant acute pain. Then, medication and an exercise regimen began to help, and she felt very thankful not to be in as much pain.

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You open your church’s front door and enter without a thought. If advancing years or a temporary, progressive, or permanent disability has diminished your strength, you may still open the door enough for a foot or shoulder wedge. Then, thrusting your body against the door, you are in. That is, if you could grasp the handle while managing a walker or cane. Or, you pound on the door and wait because you are a child or your wheelchair reach does not afford the leverage necessary to budge the door.
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The Methodist hymn writer Jane Marshall poses a question every Christian ought to have the privilege of asking: What gift can we bring, what present, what token? What words can convey it, the joy of this day? When grateful we come, remembering, rejoicing, what song can we offer in honor and praise? (The New Century Hymnal, # 370)

A church that is accessible to all is a church in which everyone is affirmed as a steward of the abundance of God’s joy. We all have a gift to bring, a song to offer God in honor and praise.
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“Nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually. The main question is not ‘How can we hide our wounds? so that we don’t have to be embarrassed,’ but ‘How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?’ When our wounds cease to be a source of shame and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.”

An inclusive ministry with persons with disabilities, chronic illness, and their families can be summed up in this excerpt from the writings of Henri Nouwen (Bread for the Journey). Nouwen, priest and scholar, shared his life with people with mental retardation as pastor of the L’Arche Daybreak community in Toronto, Canada. L’Arche is a Christian community in which people with disabilities and their assistants strive to live together in the spirit of interdependence and shared vulnerability. “Vulnerability is our seed to experiencing wholeness,” Nouwen had said. His experience in the L’Arche community brought him this insight and is one upon which we need to meditate.

The church has limited experience with the realities of people with disabilities living in society. Life within institutional settings has also changed, particularly in the last two decades. People with disabilities have become self-determining, educated, and responsible consumers. They do not want to be defined as passive recipients of care and discretionary charity. Religious leaders can no longer only minister to the spiritual and temporal needs of people with disabilities. They must also be cognizant of and make their presence felt in the disability movement itself. In 1971, The United Church of Christ, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Harold Wilke and Rev. Virginia Kreyer, early pioneers in Ministry of Disability, developed the model of interactional ministry of and with people with disabilities. The United Church of Christ has much of which to be proud. For example, Harold Wilke, a man who was born without arms, was present at the
signing ceremony of The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. He is forever immortalized in the historical portrait as he accepted, with his foot, the pen used by President Bush in the ceremony. The early efforts of these pioneers evolved into the UCC National Committee on Persons with Disabilities. The Bylaws of this Committee call for seven active members and others (associate members). The Bylaws also require that the majority of the members on the Active Committee be persons with disabilities, family members of a person with a disability, and/or an expert on disability issues.

Despite this history, matters of Social Justice for persons with disabilities are only beginning to become an issue and do not gain the respect often paid to other minority ministries in the UCC. The term Diversity seldom is used to include disability. There are more than 48 million people with disabilities in the United States. People with Disabilities are the nation’s largest minority group and the only one that any person can join at any time. People with disabilities cross all racial, gender, educational, socioeconomic, and organizational lines. The fact that the disability movement in the United States has been fighting for recognition as a valid minority group has been met with more than indifference by most denominations and faith traditions.

As the Americans with Disabilities Act made its way through Congress, a coalition of churches, backed by the White House, lobbied for a blanket exclusion on the grounds that to include religious institutions would violate the doctrine of the separation of church and state. Further, some denominations worried about the law’s costs. Some fundamentalists were concerned that because the law covers people infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, they might be forced to hire homosexuals. This was the ultimate pain of exclusion. We may overcome architectural barriers to our churches, but ministry with people with disabilities involves more than building a ramp. For example, the realities for a 22-year-old young man with traumatic quadriplegia are difficult ones. Jim was a handsome football player in high school and college and loved his motorcycle until the day he was forced off the road by a drunk driver.

He had attended church every week with his fiancée. His church has a Caring Ministry group and a member visits with the best of intentions and for all denominations and faith the best reasons. Who is the member making this visit to the hospital? What will he/she say to this young man in the face of such a catastrophic experience? Those of us who have share 100 39829 100 39829 0 0 68670 0 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 99k d these experiences know that this initial contact will remain with him the rest of his life. It will have been the first contact with his church community after his trauma – an event of profound importance. The church’s Caring Ministry can not indiscriminately choose just to “send anybody available” for such an important pastoral call. Basic ignorance of the circumstances of disability and the consequences of uninformed words and actions can be devastating.

Those of us with disabilities tell our truths to others who share our reality. We do not share our truths with others who will misunderstand. We do not share stories of thoughtless and, what we perceive to be, spiritual abuse with them. We are embarrassed to say, “You hurt me deeply when you told me if I had more faith I would walk again.” We fear our personal stories of exclusion will be minimized, or not believed at all, and dismissed with comments such as, “I’m sure she didn’t mean that, Honey.”

As a community and a culture of persons with disabilities we have shared these stories with each other, but have too often remained isolated and alienated from both the church and, ultimately, from God. Ministry with persons with disabilities is one for which very few, including ordained chaplains and pastors, are sufficiently prepared.

Editor’s Note: The above is excerpted from a presentation by Rita Fiero at the Convocation on Health and Human Service Ministry, March, 1999.

From UCC DM Newsletter Archive

Glade UCC is in Frederick County MD.

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:7, NRSV)

What are the ingredients of change?

In the case of Glade UCC, we witness from its people an empowering faith vision. Too, we observe a meaningful network of support from the association, conference, and the wider church.