David Clark speaks up about "encountering unspoken barriers" and what he is doing about it. An open source Web developing expert with 15 years of experience, Clark receives at least four or five recruiting calls a week. However, after hearing his voice which is affected by cerebral palsy, nothing further happens. Listen to him speak about networking and read the Boston Globe article about networking at http://bit.ly/a3fNcL. David Clark is a a member of Old South Church in Boston. He is serving his sixth year as a member of the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries Board of Directors. He designed, set up, and administers the ministry's web site, uccdm.org.
REQUEST for SUBMISSIONS for 2011 BARBARA WAXMAN FIDUCCIA PAPERS ON WOMEN AND GIRLS WITH DISABILITIES E-News from the Center for Women Policy Studies, September 1, 2010 To be considered as an author for the 2011 BARBARA WAXMAN FIDUCCIA PAPERS, we invite you to submit a brief summary of your proposed Paper to the Center’s president at lwolfe@centerwomenpolicy.org by NOVEMBER 1, 2010. In 1999, at the urging of our sister and colleague Barbara Faye Waxman Fiduccia, the Center launched a new series of reports on women and girls with disabilities – written by women leaders in the disability rights and women’s rights movements [click here to download our first three reports]. These three reports were inspired by Barbara’s co-authorship of our 1999 Research and Data in Brief report on Violence Against Disabled Women [click here to download the report]. Sadly, we lost Barbara in 2001 and, while we will always miss her great and powerful spirit, her passion to ensure the full human rights of women and girls with disabilities continues to inspire the Center’s work. DONATE NOW to support this work. In that spirit, we are planning to produce a series of new BARBARA WAXMAN FIDUCCIA PAPERS ON WOMEN AND GIRLS WITH DISABILITIES – on a full range of women’s human rights crises that affect women with disabilities in every corner of the globe. In Barbara’s words in Women and Girls With Disabilities: Defining the Issues – An Overview (1999): “Disabled women and girls are of all ages, all racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds and sexual orientations. . . Disabled women and girls live at the corner of disability and womanhood – with two ‘minority’ identities, a double dose of discrimination and stereotyping and multiple barriers to achieving their life goals.” [click here to download the report] The 2011 BARBARA WAXMAN FIDUCCIA PAPERS will present the self-defined perspectives of women with disabilities – both in the USA and globally – on such topics as: access to health care, reproductive rights and health, violence against women and girls, women and AIDS, educational equity, family life and parenting, employment and economic development, balancing work and family, participation in Government at every level – from local to national to international. We also urge you to propose Papers on issues that we have not mentioned here. To be considered as an author for the 2011 BARBARA WAXMAN FIDUCCIA PAPERS, we invite you to submit a brief summary of your proposed Paper to the Center’s president at lwolfe@centerwomenpolicy.org by NOVEMBER 1, 2010.
United Church of Christ Position Openings - New Listings September 1, 2010 {see full listings of positions @ www.ucc.org/classifieds} LCM– Office of the Executive Minister Executive Minister– new Applications should be directed to hdvt_79@hotmail.com OGM – Office of General Ministries Associate General Minister Applications should be directed to AGMSearchCommittee@gmail.com Minister for Ecumenical Relations– new WCM – Office of the Executive Minister Executive Minister Wider Church Ministries and Co-Executive Common Global Ministries Applications should be directed to bkdaniel@erucc.org Note: Follow the link to view full job descriptions. . If you or someone you know is interested in applying for an open position, please send a cover letter and resume/profile to: Alisa Lewis, United Church of Christ, Human Resources, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115, lewisam@ucc.org. {see full listings of positions @ www.ucc.org/classifieds} ALL POSITIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR WITHDRAWAL.

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Buy cialis c.o.d., Workshop list below. Go to http://www.moredomainsforless.com/wideningthewelcome/index.htm to learn more about the Widening the Welcome, UCCDM-UCCMIN Conference, September 23-25 at Drury Inn in St. Louis.

The time is now to join the conversation at the first national gathering hosted by
UCC Mental Illness Network and UCC Disabilities Ministries.

Workshops As of Friday, September 1, 2010

I Friday morning

1, order cialis from canada. We Care—Faith and Mental Health, buy cialis c.o.d..
Exploration of the connection between faith and mental health in our faith communities.

The Rev. Craig Rennebohm, worked for 23 years on the streets of Seattle with individuals who are homeless and struggling with serious mental illness, substance abuse issues and PTSD. He is the author of Souls in the Hands of a Tender God. Buy cialis c.o.d., 2. A2A: Any Body, Order cialis, Every Body, Christ’s Body.
This is an invitation to be engaged in the congregational guide for faith communities becoming accessible to all.

The Rev. Peggy Dunn is the current chair of the UCC Disabilities Ministries Board and is
the director of the Maine Conference Academy for Congregational Life and Leadership.

3, buy cialis c.o.d.. Bringing them All Back Home and Whole: Helping those affected by war to spiritually heal.

The Rev. Peter Bauer is Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Service Corps Officer and Chief, Montana MT Mont. , Marriage and Family Therapy Program, Department of Social Work, Carl R. Darnallo Army Medical Center, Fort Hood, TX. Buy cialis c.o.d., 4. In Our Own Voice, Cialis prescription, (IOOV)

Presented by National Alliance on Mental Illness--NAMI St. Louis, In Our Own Voice is a unique public education presentation that offers insight into the hope and recovery possible for people living with mental illness. Trained individuals living with mental illness lead a brief, yet comprehensive and interactive, presentation about mental illnesses.

5. Spiritual Support Group, buy cialis c.o.d..
What does spirituality bring to the process of recovery. How can you offer one in your context, order cialis without prescription.

Nancy Kehoe, Ph.D., RSCJ, is a clinician with more than 25 years of experience incorporating religious belief and spirituality and their role in treatment with persons who have a mental illness/brain disorder. Her book is, Wrestling with our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness, Order cialis online, and the Journey to Wholeness. Buy cialis c.o.d., 6. Ask the Professional.
What questions do you bring to explore in the interaction between brain disorders and behavior. You will learn about what a neuropsychologist does.

Dr. Kim Johnson, Psy.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist and Licensed Specialist in
School Psychology who specializes in understanding and evaluating the relationship between brain disorders and behavior, buy cialis c.o.d.. She evaluates individuals 4 years old through senior adult for a wide range of learning problems, developmental delays, autism, ADHD, acheter cialis bon marché, traumatic brain injury, complex medical and neurological problems, emotional-behavioral disorders, brain injuries, strokes and various neurodegenerative disorders.

7. Disabilities and mental illness/brain disorders in worship and supportive resources for clergy and church members: A Panel

The Rev. Cialis cheap, Dr. Buy cialis c.o.d., Jane Fisler Hoffman, has served in the United of Christ as lay leader, pastor, Association Minister and for 10 years as a Conference Minister in two conferences.

The Rev. Bob Molsberry is Conference Minister for the Ohio Conference of the United Church of Christ. A wheel-chair user is the author of two books on adjusting to the culture of disability: Blinded by Grace: Entering the World of Disability and Tour de Faith: A Cyclist’s Lessons for Living.

The Rev. Martie McMane is the Senior Minister of The First Congregational Church, Boulder, CO, where she initiated a Mental Health Ministry and encouraged the church to vote for the Accessible to All (A2A) covenant, buy cialis c.o.d..

II Friday afternoon

1. We Care—Building a Mental Health Team in a Local Congregation.
What are the practical steps you can take in addressing mental health issues in your congregation. What are the barriers and the strengths, ordering cialis online legally. Buy cialis c.o.d., The Rev. Craig Rennebohm (see above)

2. Disabilities Ministries: Doing Disability Theology in the Local Congregation.
We will explore the ways that theology has been helpful and/or a hindrance as congregations engage in embracing our own disabilities.

Dr. Debbie Creamer is Assistant Professor of Theological Bibliography at Iliff School
of Theology and co-chair and a founding member of the Religion And Disability Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion, buy cialis c.o.d.. She is the author of Disability and Christian Theology: Embodied Limits and Constructive Possibilities.

3. Family to Family. Køb billige cialis, This National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) program is for families, partners and friends of individuals with serious mental illness. Buy cialis c.o.d., We will share personal stories, be invited to share in an exercise, and to learn about the resources for help us all cope when we are affected by mental illnesses/brain disorders.

Liz Birchen will talk about this program and will offer practices as well as resources on the emotional responses families have the trauma of mental illness. Liz will start by telling her story as a parent of two adult children with mental illness. Liz has a bachelor’s degree in Christian Education and Psychology and Master’s in Religious Education from Eden Seminary. She has served as Christian Educator at two UCC congregations and directed a seven-county Head Start program.

The Rev, buy cialis c.o.d.. Alan Johnson has participated and then co-facilitated the Family to Family program because of his family’s experience of mental illness/brain disorders. He is a cofounder of the Interfaith Network on Mental Illness in Boulder, CO, comprare cialis, and is chair of the UCC Mental Illness Network. He is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and was a chaplain at University Hospital and then retired from The Children’s Hospital, both in Denver. He served for 16 years on the national staff of the UCC. Buy cialis c.o.d., His book is Encounters at the Counter: What Congregations can learn about Hospitality from Business.

4. Spiritual Guidance and Practices.
We all need some direction when we are facing crises in our life and/or in the lives of those we love or those in our congregations. Acheter cialis discount, We will explore ways you gain strength of spirit as you live with these crises.

The Rev, buy cialis c.o.d.. Tom Haller is chaplain at St. John's Mercy Hospital, Washington MO. Tom
has a heart felt passion to work with the mentally ill and their families. His life experiences include being associate UCC pastor, chaplain/counselor in a behavioral health/detox unit, staff supervisor at Emmaus Homes for the Developmentally Disabled, and volunteer with Suicide/Crisis intervention, cheap generic cialis. Buy cialis c.o.d., Prior experiences to those include social worker, teacher, military intelligence analyst, marketing manager, and stock broker. He experienced having a mother who was a dual diagnosis of alcoholism/depression and he personally experienced three clinical depressions and a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). He is a Survivor by God's grace.

The Rev. Donna Smith-Pupillo, RN is the Executive Director of the Deaconess Parish Nurse Ministry Network. She is registered nurse for over 30 years and has worked as camp nurse with adults with developmental disabilities for seven years, buy cialis c.o.d.. She has worked nine years at SSM-DePaul in behavioral medicine specializing in adults with developmental disabilities and geriatrics. Her love of parish ministry and nursing has led her to work currently with parish nurses in St Louis who serve in a variety of parishes and faith based organizations. Cialis online kaufen, Pastoral Counselor. (TBA)

5. Buy cialis c.o.d., Children’s Mental Health Issues. The National Alliance on Mental Illness offers a class on children’s mental health that you can use in your context. Learn about the many ways that mental health issues can be addressed with children.

Betty Kramer is a foster parent, adoptive parent, and family member of person with mental illness. Professionally trained as a nurse, she currently is a hospice nurse, order cialis no rx, volunteer with NAMI, leads a new NAMI class they offer on children's mental health. She also leads a support group for families with children with mental illness, buy cialis c.o.d..

Dr. Kim Johnson (see above)

6. Shared Challenges, Shared Gifts: Coping with Mental Illness/Brain Disorders and Disabilities in the Family of Faith. There are difficult times in our lives when we turn for spiritual support, Order cialis, especially we hope in our faith communities. Buy cialis c.o.d., In contexts as in a state hospital, with those who are homeless, and those who are in prison, you will learn about ways of offering help.

The Rev. Ellen H. Hiatt is the chaplain at Anderson Hospital, Maryville, IL. She formerly served as Spiritual Care Director at Deaconess/Forest Park Hospital in St. Louis and as Community Liaison chaplain at St, buy cialis c.o.d.. Louis State Hospital where she developed MORNMI: Missouri Religious Network on Mental Illness. She also is a cofounder of UCC MIN and began her ministry in a St, cialis pedido en línea. Louis congregation and currently is an active member at First Congregational Church of St. Louis, UCC. Buy cialis c.o.d., The Rev. Joan Murray is a community chaplain at Chaplains on the Way (www.chaplainsontheway.org), a ministry she founded in June, 2008 in Waltham, MA. Cheapest cialis online, As community chaplain, she provides a ministry of presence and spiritual care to poor and homeless people at programs and on the street. Until this past April when the hospital closed, Joan also spent a day a week as a chaplain at Westborough State Hospital. Prior to being a chaplain in Waltham, Joan was minister of common cathedral, the outdoor church of Ecclesia Ministries in Boston. Joan is a long-time member of Wellesley Congregational (Village) Church, UCC, in Wellesley, MA, buy cialis c.o.d..

Dr. Marc A, South Dakota SD . Wessels is Associate Conference Minister with the Missouri Mid-South Conference of the United Church of Christ. Dr Wessels served for nearly a decade as a chaplain in medium-security adult male institutions with the Kentucky Department of Corrections and as a full-time member of the Kentucky Parole Board. Buy cialis c.o.d., He served at the Kentucky State Reformatory (KSR) which houses the Correctional Psychiatric Treatment Unit where inmates who have been adjudicated and convicted of crimes or crimes and have been diagnosed with a mental illness are housed. KSR provides substance abuse and sex offender treatment programs, as well as meeting the medical needs of the general and geriatric population, hospice patients and the largest segregation unit in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Dr. Wessels is an ordained UCC minister with dual standing with the Disciples of Christ and has worked in international and national settings. Discount cialis, He is a published author and is the Founder and Director the Space Exploration Archive, a non-profit educational organization committed to the peaceful uses of Outer Space.

7, buy cialis c.o.d.. Losing Heart. Help and Hope for persons struggling with the realities of substance abuse and
addiction: Help is available and change is possible. Learn more about how people of faith are
helping others increase their motivation for change and are using coaching as a method for
helping persons enter and sustain recovery.

Chaplain Bridget Smith will lead the presentation along with her colleagues from the substance abuse treatment community. Buy cialis c.o.d., Bridget has a passion for ministry with those who are in the midst of trauma, change and transition. She has served in the inpatient psychiatric setting, hospice, general hospital, buy cialis without prescription, parish and state government settings helping those who suffer with mental illness, addiction and homelessness find hope and healing.

III Saturday morning

1. We Care—Companionship Training.
This hands-on training is a dynamic way to extend your compassion to those who are in need. Learn about being a companion on someone’s journey, buy cialis c.o.d..

The Rev. Craig Rennebohm (see above)

2. Where to buy cheap cialis, Disabilities Ministries: Beyond Elevators: Creating Inclusive Congregations. Now that you really get it, what do you do with it. Buy cialis c.o.d., Explore ways that congregations can take the journey to make inclusion a reality.

Dr. Debbie Creamer (see above)

3. In Our Own Voice, IOOV.

National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI St, buy cialis c.o.d.. Louis, buy cialis cod. (see above)

4. Bringing them All Back Home and Whole: Helping those affected by war to spiritually heal.

The Rev. Buy cialis c.o.d., Peter Bauer (see above)

5. Spiritual Support Group.

Dr./Sister Nancy Kehoe (see above)

6. Speaking about disabilities and mental illness/brain disorders in worship and supportive resources for clergy and church members: A Panel

The Rev. Dr. Jane Fisler Hoffman, the Rev, buy cialis c.o.d.. Buy cialis online legally, Bob Molsberry, and the Rev. Martie McMane. (see above)

7. Ask the Professionals. Buy cialis c.o.d., Dr. Kim Johnson. (see above)
Jennifer Starks is a training specialist with Touchpoint Autism Services in St. Louis and does in-home training of parents. She is also the parent of a child with disabilities, billiga cialis apotek. TouchPoint is a caring community of professionals who are dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals and families that are affected by autism, buy cialis c.o.d.. Jennifer will give an introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorders and share some strategies for working with children with ASD in the congregation.

At least one in four families in all faith communities is affected by a mental illness/brain disorder or a disability. The United Church of Christ has long been an advocate in inclusion for all through the UCC Disabilities Ministries (DM) and the UCC Mental Illness Network (MIN). Throughout our UCC history, we have highlighted, voted, and enacted resolutions related to disabilities and mental illnesses/brain disorders. Buy cialis c.o.d., Now, for the first time, the UCC DM and the UCC MIN are together hosting a national gathering. The “Widening the Welcome: Inclusion for All” conference takes place September 23-25, 2010, at the Drury Inn in St. Louis, Missouri.

“Widening the Welcome” seeks to develop the life of congregations to include persons with disabilities and persons with mental illnesses/brain disorders and their families.

Featured speakers include Dr./Sister Nancy Kehoe, author of Wrestling with our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness and the Journey to Wholeness, Dr. Debbie Creamer, author of Disability and Christian Theology: Embodied Limits and Constructive Possibilities, the Rev, buy cialis c.o.d.. Craig Rennebohm, author of Souls in the Hands of a Tender God, the Rev. Geoffrey Black, Dr. David Greenhaw, the Rev. Jane Fisler Hoffman, the Rev. Buy cialis c.o.d., Bob Molsberry, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Bauer, R. Jeffrey Pollock, atty., Vel Garner M.S., the Rev. Jeanne Ann Tyler, and more. You’re invited to join us for 7 workshops, worship, and devotions. We’re also inviting all who stay through Sunday the 26th to attend local UCC churches and to meet in the afternoon to plan programs and initiatives for the 28th General Synod of the UCC in 2011. For more information and to register, please go to http://www.wideningthewelcome.com or call (303) 756-8380.

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Road Map to Holland: How I Found My Way Through My Son's First Two Years With Down Syndrome is an intelligent, warm story of a mother who struggled in a very realistic way with a child born with Down syndrome. Jennifer Graf Groneberg tells what followed the birth of her twins, step-by-step with the aftershocks and emotions of misunderstanding his diagnosis and what his future would hold. She continues on as a strong woman advocating for Avery, her son with Down syndrome. Jennifer touches people everywhere she goes, and Avery has a real hand in helping her. I am proud of him. I feel as if he is my brother because of our extra chromosome. When my son was born, I didn’t know how to be a parent and was scared. However, when he opened his eyes, I knew just then that my life had changed for the better. My son was not the one with the diagnosis… It was me! I have Mosaic Down Syndrome (MDS). I relate to others who travel that unknown road and draw blue prints to map with them. As I read Road Map to Holland, I wanted so much to reach through the words on each page -- just to hug her and say, “Jennifer, it’s going to be okay!” I loaned my book to my father. He loved it just as much as I did -- as a full cycle of parent to child to parent. The words inside this book are a genuine piece of majesty. They are a continuation of Emily Pearl Kingsley’s world-renowned poem, “Welcome to Holland!” I know about Holland; I live there. Reviewed by Casey Morton, IMDSA’s Self Advocate & Spokesperson Learn more about MDS at the International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association at http://www.imdsa.org/.

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A Selection of Suggested Resources from United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries for Worship in Celebration of ADA

Buy cialis, Tribute to Harold H. Wilke
Includes poem by Jeanne Tyler
http://www.uccdm.org/2006/11/11/remembering-the-rev-dr-harold-h-wilke/

Litany and Prayer Resources:

• Invocation by Normal Mengel
Creating, saving, and sustaining God, buy cialis cheap, we thank you for creating us in your image, each having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, Order cialis online, so that together we make up the whole body of Christ. Help us to learn new ways to encourage each other to develop our gifts to the fullest, to love one another with mutual affection, and to extend hospitality, παραγγείλετε online cialis. May we be sensitive and helpful to one another in our areas of need. In Christ’s name, Cheap generic cialis, we pray. Amen, buy cialis.

More. Go to http://www.uccdm.org/2007/05/23/mosaic-series-created-to-be-interdependent-within-the-body-of-christ/#more-399

• Litany by Dee Brauninger

Leader: Mindful that from the genesis throughout the revelation of our lives, God creates, cialis ordine on-line, reveals, and renews God’s promise of hope for us, Cialis discount, All: Let us be faithful to our commitment to you, O God, and to one another. Amen, cheapest cialis in the world.
Leader: As birth, disease, Acquistare online cialis, accident, or maturity brings special needs to those within this church,
All: Guide us, O God, price of cialis, as bringers of your hope. Buy cialis, Amen.
Leader: As we increase our skill in reading the signs of change among church members and anticipate their needs, Tennessee TN Tenn. , All: Guide us, O God, as your welcoming people. Amen, Oklahoma OK Okla. .

More. Go to http://www.uccdm.org/2007/05/23/mosaic-series-tools-of-the-trade/#more-396

• Prayer by Jeanne Tyler

Persistent God, Billig kaufen cialis, who never lets us go, come to us in this gathering. Open our minds and our hearts to wrestle with your words, buy cialis. Teach us not to sit politely by when we are not welcomed as the unique people we are. Help us to love ourselves as much as we love you, cheapest cialis, so that your gift of creating us in your image is not wasted on others or us. Help us be teachers and learners. Comprare cialis, Help us to follow your ways made straight in the wilderness. Buy cialis, We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

More. Go to http://www.uccdm.org/2007/05/24/mosaic-series-i-could-come-home/#more-401

• Invocation by Diana Coberly

We approach you, Acheter en ligne cialis, O faithful God, assured of your welcoming attitude to all. Billige cialis Apotheke, You fearfully and wonderfully made each of us. We thank you that your love is with us, that nothing can separate us from your love no matter the way we see or hear, no matter the way we talk or walk, no matter the way we think or feel, buy cialis. Help each of us to be aware of how we exclude persons different from ourselves from knowing Jesus. As we gather in this place, awaken us to your goodness and mercy, Wisconsin WI Wis. , that we may through the liberating grace you offer us, help create an attitude of inclusiveness for all. Order cialis cod, Amen.

More. Buy cialis, Go to http://www.uccdm.org/2007/05/23/mosaic-series-spiritual-accessibility-for-all/

• Litany: Blessing of the Options by Dee Brauninger

From Genesis 1, 12 and 21; Psalms 8 and 139

Suggested Use:
1. Multiple readings throughout the service.
2, Colorado CO Colo. . Select several Leader/People/ALL segments to use once in the service.
3. Read the entire litany as a prayer with a pause between segments for silent reflection followed by an Amen before reading the next segment, buy cialis. Generic cialis, Go to http://www.uccdm.org/2009/10/06/blessed-be-god-who-delights-in-everyone-a-litany/

• Benediction by Dee Brauninger

May God guide this living church as we aim to do whatever it takes from the quiet, welcoming act to the visible or costly physical change that reflects God’s life-giving plan for a future with hope. Amen.

More, cialis no prescription. Go to http://www.uccdm.org/2007/05/23/mosaic-series-tools-of-the-trade/#more-396

Scripture:

1 Peter 4:8-11a (RSV)

Suggested Hymns (From “Hymns for A2A Congregations” in A2A Study Guide)

http://www.uccdm.org/2010/06/25/hymns-for-a2a-congregations/

“Blessed be the Tie that Binds” 393 TNCH “Called as Partners in Christ’s Service” 495 TNCH “Glory, Glory, Ostaa halvalla cialis, Hallelujah” 2 TNCH “Help Us Accept Each Other” 388 TNCH “My Heart is Overflowing” 15 TNCH “O God in Whom All Life Begins 401 TNCH “O God, My God” 515 TNCH “Spirit of Love” 58 TNCH
“We Yearn, O Christ, for Wholeness” 179 TNCH “We are Your People” 309 TNCH “When Peace Like a River” 438 TNCH “Won’t You Let Me Be Your Servant?” 539 TNCH
Meditations:

• "Empowering Children with Disabilities" by David Denham
http://www.uccdm.org/2009/03/04/empowering-chi…h-disabilities/

• "The Church of the Left Out" by Marja Coons-Torn
http://www.uccdm.org/2007/05/24/the-church-of-the-left-out/

• "A Patchwork Quilt" by Virginia Kreyer Mosaic Series – In God’s Image – “A Patchwork Quilt” - http://www.uccdm.org/2007/05/24/mosaic-series-a-patchwork-quilt/

• "Spiritual Accessibility for All" by Diana Coberly Mosaic Series – In God’s Image – “Spiritual Accessibility for All”
http://www.uccdm.org/2007/05/23/mosaic-series-spiritual-accessibility-for-all/

• Sermon Text: Job 1:1, cialis online, 2:1-10, Psalm 26, Idaho ID , Mark 10:2-16 – Jeanne Tyler

Go to http://www.uccdm.org/1999/06/21/jeanne-tyler-ucc-dm-co-chair-preaches-at-amistad-chapel/#more-85

Articles:

• “Architectural, Attitudinal, and Spiritual Inclusion of People with Disabilities and their Families” – by Rita Fiero
http://www.uccdm.org/1999/07/30/architectural-attitudinal-and-spiritual-inclusion-of-people-with-disabilities-and-their-families-fiero/

• “Mainstreaming the Alienated: The Church Responds to the ‘new’ Minority” – by Harold Wilke
http://www.uccdm.org/2006/11/30/mainstreaming-the-alienated-the-church-responds-to-the-new-minority/

• “Multisensory Worship Ideas” by Marjot Hausmann
http://www.uccdm.org/2010/06/25/multisensory-worship-ideas/
Jo Clare Hartsig. Buy cialis, Ed., A2A Study Guide. http://www.uccdm.org p, buy cialis without prescription. 142

• “No Steps to Heaven” by Harold Wilke
http://www.uccdm.org/2006/11/30/no-steps-to-heaven-harold-h-wilke/

• “Reading the Signs” is a series of columns about inclusion and accessibility that can be excerpted for conference or church newsletters.Visit the Reading the Signs Category at http://www.uccdm.org.

Poems:

• “Signs of Liberation and Access” by Harold Wilke
http://www.uccdm.org/2010/06/25/signs-of-liberation-and-access-wilke

• “Them vs. Us : A Litany”
Jo Clare Hartsig. Ed., A2A Study Guide, buy cialis. http://www.uccdm.org p. 142

Discussion:
• “In the Image of God” Jo Clare Hartsig. Ed., A2A Study Guide. http://www.uccdm.org p. 6

Other Resources Buy cialis, :
AAPD.com American Association on People with Disabilities

Disability.gov Go to the 100 Days Countdown on Disability Blog

N.O.D.org The National Organization on Disabilities

Http://www.uccdm.org contains a valuable resource written and edited by Jo Clare Hartsig. The A2A Study Guide can be downloaded for electronic reading or printed. It is also available on disc from UCC DM. Contact Michelle Hintz. hintzm@ucc.org.

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Buy cialis without prescription, The following covenant was adopted by a unanimous vote at the Congregational Meeting of the First Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ, Boulder, Colorado, on May 23, 2010. Ordering cialis no rx, This covenant provides a model for all churches wishing to make an accessible to all commitment. A copy of your church’s covenant may be sent to Michelle Hintz (hintzm@ucc.org) or to Peggy Dunn, Kjøp Discount cialis, Arizona AZ Ariz. , UCC DM Chair (pwduccdm@gmail.com).

A2A – ACCESSIBLE TO ALL – COVENANT

We, cheap cialis from canada, Cheap cialis online, as members of the First Congregational Church (UCC) in Boulder, Colorado, cialis cheap, Connecticut CT Conn. , in recognition of our human differences and various gifts, desire to become an A2A – Accessible to All – congregation, pharmacie cialis bon marché. Cialis online cheap, This Covenant expresses our intention to extend God’s extravagant welcome to all persons, seeking to understand, order cialis overnight delivery, Kaufen cialis, include, and empower people with all differing abilities and disabilities, South Dakota SD , Köpa cialis online, physical or non-physical, apparent or unapparent, ordering cialis online cheap, Acheter cialis discount, temporary or permanent.

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• We pledge to examine our own attitudes and suppositions regarding the issues of accessibility.

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• We pledge when calling clergy and other staff to be open to hiring persons with disabilities, buy cialis without prescription.

• We shall be listed in the UCC Directory as an A2A congregation and we will display the blue square with the white A indicating “Accessible to All”.

• The Church Council shall appoint an Inclusion Team to implement and oversee this Covenant. We will include people on this team who have sensitivity to the challenges and joys of people who have a disability, particularly individuals who have a disability or a loved one who does, keeping in mind the slogan, “Nothing about us without us.”

• We will intentionally partner with persons with disabilities, including but not limited to, physical disabilities, mental illnesses/brain disorders, and/or developmental disabilities. We will also work with disability groups outside the congregation to extend our hospitality and to find opportunities to be in shared mission, ministry, and advocacy together.

• We commit to recruiting, nominating and supporting persons with disabilities to serve in leadership positions within the congregation as teachers, members of boards, congregational officers, candidates for ordained and commissioned ministry, or representatives to wider church ministries.

This vote affirms that we join in the process of always becoming ever more accessible and inclusive of all of God’s people.

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This covenant was adopted by a unanimous vote at the Congregational Meeting on May 23, 2010. Vermont VT Vt. , A2A – ACCESSIBLE TO ALL – COVENANT

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• We pledge to offer educational opportunities to understand the implications of this covenant. Buy cialis online cheap, This includes working with our church’s Mental Health Ministry as well as the UCC Mental Illness Network, and the UCC Disabilities Ministry.
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• The Church Council shall appoint an Inclusion Team to implement and oversee this Covenant, buy cialis online cheap. We will include people on this team who have sensitivity to the challenges and joys of people who have a disability, particularly individuals who have a disability or a loved one who does, keeping in mind the slogan, “Nothing about us without us.”
• We will intentionally partner with persons with disabilities, including but not limited to, physical disabilities, mental illnesses/brain disorders, and/or developmental disabilities. We will also work with disability groups outside the congregation to extend our hospitality and to find opportunities to be in shared mission, ministry, and advocacy together.
• We commit to recruiting, nominating and supporting persons with disabilities to serve in leadership positions within the congregation as teachers, members of boards, congregational officers, candidates for ordained and commissioned ministry, or representatives to wider church ministries.

This vote affirms that we join in the process of always becoming ever more accessible and inclusive of all of God’s people.

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Order cialis no prescription, July 25, 2010 will mark the 20th Anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Cialis over the counter, You are Invited to Join Others to Support
The UCC Mental Illness Network and the UCC Disabilities Ministry National 2010 Conference
“Widening the Welcome: Inclusion for All”

Faith Communities are called to be a welcoming communities. In Romans we read, Ohio OH , “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, Delaware DE Del. , for the glory of God. Oklahoma OK Okla. , May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:7, 13. Welcome embraces the involvement of everyone, cheap cialis without prescription, including people who have been touched by or have experienced a mental illness/brain disorder and/or a disability, Cheapest cialis in the world, apparent or unapparent.

This first National Conference will be held in St. Louis, at the Drury Inn, on September 23-26, 2010, cialis over the counter. This Conference is for clergy, lowest price cialis, consumers, αγοράσετε cialis έκπτωση, laity, families, and mental health professionals, cialis without prescription. The purposes are:

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7, New Jersey NJ N.J. . to work toward encouraging every faith congregation to be committed to compassionate action and widening the welcome for all.

As a financial supporter of this Conference you will be taking a step in this new frontier of inclusion for all, cialis over the counter. Purchase cialis online, Many people are marginalized in our society because of their mental illness/brain disorders or disability/impairment. You will be among those who will be voicing and acting on your commitment to be a more whole and strengthened faith community.

The speakers include Dr, purchase cialis. Nancy Kehoe, Indiana IN Ind. , a nun and a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, author of “Wrestling with our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness, cheapest cialis prices, and the Journey to Wholeness, Halvalla cialis apteekki, ” Dr. Cialis over the counter, Debbie Creamer, Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, author of “Disability and Christian Theology Embodied Limits and Constructive Possibilities,”
Dr. David Greenhaw, President of Eden Theological Seminary, District of Columbia DC D.C. , the Rev. Order cialis online cheap, Jane Fisler-Hoffman and the Rev. Bob Molsberry, author of “Blindsided by Grace, cialis online kopen,” UCC Conference Ministers, Cialis ordine on-line, the Rev. Jeanne Tyler with the UCC DM, Mr, ordering cialis from canada. Jeffrey Pollock Esq., Attorney in Cleveland, the Rev, cialis over the counter. Dr. Kansas KS Kans. , Craig Rennebohm, author of “Souls in the Hands of a Tender God,” and the Rev, order cialis online without prescription. Alan Johnson, Buy cheap cialis, author of “Encounters at the Counter: What Congregations can learn about Hospitality from Business.” There will be Worship, Workshops, Panels, Videos, Display Tables and opportunities to share in small groups.

We, the Planning Team, ask for you to support this Conference not only with your prayers but also with a financial donation. You and/or your congregation would be listed on the Conference Program in any of these categories. We would also introduce you at the Conference, if you are present.

Leader: ($1,000 and more)
Advocate: ($500-$900)
Sponsor: ($100-$400)

Your check can be made payable to Conference Office and sent to:
Summit Meetings, Inc., 90 Madison Street, Suite 403, Denver, CO 80206.
For more details and information, email Alan Johnson, Chair of the UCC MIN, revalan2004@comcast.net
.

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Order levitra online cheap, The UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns will meet in San Diego, July 14-17, 2010. Theme of the National Gathering is "Anybody, generic levitra, Alaska AK , Everybody, Christ's Body."

Details and registration information can be found at www.ucccoalition.org, Kentucky KY Ky. . Montana MT Mont. , Carolyn Thompson, former member of UCCDM, buy levitra pills, Billig levitra apotek, will be keynote speaker, addressing “Creation, order levitra online, Order levitra online without prescription, Communion and Community” and the realities of living life with a disability. She will also present a breakout session discussing A2A [Anybody, lowest price levitra, Cheap levitra tablets, Everybody, Christ's Body], levitra ordine on-line. Ordering levitra overnight delivery, Over the years the UCC Coalition has focused on various groups facing double discrimination as lgbt persons and members of a minority. This includes discrimination within the lgbt community against persons of color, köpa billiga levitra, Tennessee TN Tenn. , transgender persons, and now, Rabatt kaufen levitra, Cheap levitra without prescription, this year, persons living with disabilities, buy levitra. Ordering levitra online cheap, "I believe this is a historic first - historic in that the Coalition has not focused at a national gathering on living with disabilities, and a first in that I hope there will be many more opportunities for collaboration."

The Rev, levitra online kopen. Vermont VT Vt. , Grant F. Sontag
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Buy levitra without prescription, SAVE THE DATE September 23-26, 2010 for
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Widening the Welcome: Inclusion for All

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A church without people with disabilities is itself disabled. Buy levitra cod, – Jürgen Moltmann

"The class filled up right away. Not one class member missed even one hour – great discussions, Colorado CO Colo. , Online levitra, " the Rev. Craig Modahl said about his course that will be offered again this January at the Chicago Theological Seminary, kopen goedkope levitra. Buy levitra, After first teaching "Theology of Ministry with People with Developmental Disabilities" in January of 2008, Modahl will again be teaching the course in an adjunct faculty position and the ongoing offering of his course, buy levitra online cheap. Ordering levitra online without prescription, The Dr. Scott Haldeman, Professor of Worship, will co-teach, buy levitra cod.

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A 2006 CTS graduate, he has worked with the seminary regarding developmental disabilities in a variety of settings over the years, order levitra no prescription. Om levitra online, "Many experiences within the church have not been supportive, helpful, levitra prescription, För levitra online, or inclusive," he said, levitra online kaufen. Where to buy levitra, "That is what brought me to a seminary known for its political activism and inclusion of the excluded."

Through lectures, assigned readings, levitra farmacia a buon mercato, Buy cheap levitra, conversations with advocates and self-advocates, and active engagement, order levitra c.o.d., Buy levitra no prescription, future pastors and ministers will explore the multiple issues facing people with developmental disabilities and their loved ones. Buy levitra cod, Experiential learning is an important part of the week long intensive. Members of the disability community share experiences and insights, pharmacy levitra. Levitra no prescription, Individual student projects involve engaging the lives of individuals with disabilities.

In addition to being executive director of a nonprofit organization serving individuals with developmental disabilities in a variety of community based settings, buy levitra cod, Købe levitra, he and his wife have for the last two decades provided a home for two men with developmental disabilities.

Craig Modahl serves throughout Wisconsin Conference, cheap levitra overnight delivery, having been ordained by the Southeast Association to a disabilities ministries specialty. He is a member of the board of directors of the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries (UCC DM), buy levitra cod.

"God also is definitely still speaking at Eden Theological Seminary," Ryan Mathews said when telling about a new course offered at the seminary that will explore injustice, inhumanity, and institutional ableism.

"Disability Justice and Spiritual Health: On the Road to Dismantle Ableism in Faith-Based Practice," will address God’s mission of healing, wholeness and reconciliation in the church and in the world.

Mathews said the primary course goal is the pastoral formation of leadership for communities of faith that practice hospitality, inclusion, mutual interdependence, and right relationship.

"The ability to articulate the relationship between inequity and spiritual loss will be fostered," he said. Buy levitra cod, "Both language and tools will be provided to help in the dismantling of such oppression."

Mathews, a second-year Eden seminarian who also serves on the UCC DM board of directors, noted that one of the co-teachers is a person with a mobility disability.

The course will be taught by the Rev. Dr. Marilyn Stavenger, Eden Professor Emerita of Field Education and the Practice of Ministry and Dr. Karen Hagrup, Assistant Professor, University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Education.

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Buy levitra no prescription, "If inclusive language, or political correctness, is meant to avoid insult, stereotypes, discrimination, or exclusion, that’s a positive thing and I’m on board," writes Ann Pietrangelo in "The Art of Inclusive Language."

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Order levitra without prescription, WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Oklahoma OK Okla. , Senator Barbara A. Mikulski today introduced “Rosa’s Law,” a bill that will eliminate the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” from the federal law books, buy levitra from canada. U.S. Senator Michael B, order levitra without prescription. South Dakota SD , Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Idaho ID , Labor and Pensions Committee, Cheapest levitra, is the Republican sponsor of the bill.

Under Rosa’s Law, those terms would be replaced with “intellectual disability” and “individual with an intellectual disability” in federal education, Tennessee TN Tenn. , health and labor law. Louisiana LA , The bill does not expand or diminish services, rights or educational opportunities. It simply makes the federal law language consistent with that used by the Centers for Disease Control, levitra pills, the World Health Organization and the President of the United States, Buy levitra online without prescription, through his Committee on Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. Order levitra without prescription, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Contact:
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The Disability Policy Collaboration Applauds the U.S. Senate’s Introduction of Legislation to Use the Term “Intellectual Disability”

Washington, D.C, buy levitra online. – The Disability Policy Collaboration (DPC), Ordering levitra online, a partnership of The Arc of the United States (The Arc) and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) to advance federal disability public policy, applauds today’s introduction of “Rosa’s Law,” a bipartisan bill introduced by U.S, purchase levitra online. Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Michael Enzi (R-WY). Levitra no prescription, Modeled after a recently enacted law in the state of Maryland, this legislation would substitute the outdated, stigmatizing terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” with the terms “intellectual disability” and “individual with an intellectual disability” in federal health, order levitra online without prescription, education and labor policy statutes.

The term “intellectual disability” covers the same population of individuals who were previously diagnosed with the term “mental retardation,” and “mentally retarded.” Therefore, the change in terminology would in no way alter the eligibility requirements for services and supports, order levitra without prescription. Utah UT , “This bill is very important for people with intellectual disabilities who understand that language plays a crucial role in how they are perceived and treated in society and are actively advocating for terminology changes in federal and state laws. ‘Retard,’ ‘retarded’ and ‘retardation, price of levitra,’ once accepted medical terms, Order levitra cod, are now often used to demean and insult people,” stated Peter V. Berns, levitra prices, Chief Executive Officer of The Arc. Purchase levitra, “The Arc believes that changing how we talk about people with disabilities is a critical step in promoting and protecting their basic civil and human rights.”

According to Stephen Bennett, President and CEO, UCP, Køb discount levitra, “By using the term ‘intellectual disability, Ordering levitra without prescription, ’ we expect citizens of the U.S. Order levitra without prescription, and the world to understand and treat people experiencing this condition – whether it is a result of genetics, injury, illness or unknown causes – with dignity and respect. The descriptions of people are very important and imply how we value people, and the Senate’s introduction of ‘Rosa’s Law’ is aligned with the aim of UCP and its nationwide network of affiliates to ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities in every facet of society.”

Senator Mikulski’s statement to the U.S, Pennsylvania PA Penn. . Senate upon introduction of the bill is available at: http://mikulski.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=319975&. Alaska AK , While the DPC supports the U.S. Senate’s introduction of Rosa’s Law, it is only the first step in a lengthy process towards enactment, παραγγείλετε online levitra. The Arc and UCP will continue to work together to ensure the bill’s introduction in the U.S, order levitra without prescription. House of Representatives and its progression through the entire legislative process. Buy levitra cheap, About the Disability Policy Collaboration

The Disability Policy Collaboration (DPC) is a partnership of The Arc of the United States (The Arc) and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) to advance federal disability public policy through a merged government affairs office, which combines resources and talent from both organizations. Begun in 2003, the collaboration assures cost-effective performance for its parent organizations, while combining for a more powerful voice for people with disabilities. The DPC leads efforts in mobilizing chapters, affiliates, self-advocates, families and other supporters to become active players in national public policy. Order levitra without prescription, The Arc is the largest community-based nonprofit working through a network of 732 state and local chapters and their members to advocate on behalf of and serve people with intellectual and related developmental disabilities and their families. The Arc works to improve systems of supports and services, connect families, inspire communities, and influence public policy. It is the only organization that supports persons from pre-natal care through end-of-life issues and over 100 diagnoses that may include the effects of intellectual and developmental disabilities, including Autism. For more information, please visit www.thearc.org.
UCP is a leading service provider for adults and children with disabilities. UCP’s mission is to advance the independence, productivity and full citizenship of people with disabilities through an affiliate network, and its services reach over 176,000 adults and children daily through its network of approximately 100 affiliates in the U.S., Canada, Scotland and Australia, order levitra without prescription. For more information, please visit www.ucp.org.

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Order cheap levitra online, First Congregational Church, UCC, in Boulder, Colorado, a Rocky Mountain Conference Congregation, requests that readers comment on the content and presentation of two documents below that the beacon church has developed for churches interested in becoming Accessible to All churches.

An A2A study guide prepared by the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministires for churches who covenant to become Accessible to All churches is available for download at this website.

Comments about the Covenant and the Introduction to the Covenant may be made using the comment box at the conclusion of this article, California CA Calif. . The Introduction reflects theess by which the Covenant was taken to the congregation. Osta levitra online, Below are two documents:

Introduction to the Accessible to All Covenant

and a covenant draft prepared by Dr. Kevin Pettit, Rocky Mountain Conference Disabilities Inclusion Associate and member of First Congregational,

A2A -- Accessible to All -- Covenant

Introduction to the Accessible to All Covenant


Sunday, October 25, 2009
Rhonda Fadum, Moderator

Today I am pleased to present to you a draft of a new covenant for our church to consider, the Accessible to All Covenant, order cheap levitra online. Our church’s covenants are statements of our agreed upon shared values that guide our life together as a community of faith. Presently our congregation has four covenants that have been adopted by a vote of the congregation: Inclusive Language, acheter levitra bon marché, Just Peace, Rabatt kaufen levitra, Open and Affirming, and Whole Earth.

The covenant we are presenting today we will not ask you to vote on until a later congregational meeting, discount levitra. Between today and that meeting we will be providing opportunities for the congregation to engage in dialogue, Cheap levitra, study, and reflection on the issues of accessibility, so that we will be better informed as we vote on the Accessible to All Covenant, levitra online kaufen. Order cheap levitra online, After the reading of the draft of the covenant, I will mention several action steps.

In a moment we will pass out the draft of the covenant and Kevin Pettit and others from the team that worked on this draft will read it aloud. Cheapest levitra prices, We will then entertain any questions or comments you might have at this time. But before we do that, let me give four reasons why we are bringing this covenant to our church’s attention at this time, buy levitra online.

  1. The issues of physical accessibility have been an important part of our church’s consciousness as we began our vision plan for our church facilities over ten years ago. We have made some progress in making our buildings more accessible, but we realize there is much more to accessibility than ramps and elevators, order cheap levitra online. Om levitra online,
  2. During our building projects we had small group meetings to raise our consciousness about how many different ways we were unintentionally putting up barriers to full inclusion regarding accessibility in our church, and we became determined to address them. With one of our members, For levitra online, Kevin Pettit, Wisconsin WI Wis. , becoming a Disabilities Inclusion Associate with the Rocky Mountain Conference UCC, we were given a natural opportunity to move forward
  3. Two years ago, we began our Mental Health Ministry which has been working diligently through education and consciousness raising to reduce the stigma and provide welcome and support to those living with mental illnesses/brain disorders and their families, kjøpe levitra. This effort, Buy levitra without prescription, too, has made us more aware of accessibility issues that need to be addressed. Alan Johnson is the chair of that ministry, Koop korting levitra.
  4. Order cheap levitra online, For the last 15 years our denomination has been working to bring awareness of accessibility to UCC congregations around the country. In 1995, Acquistare a buon mercato levitra, General Synod passed a resolution calling the UCC at all levels to embrace the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed by Congress in 1990. In 2005, levitra online stores, General Synod passed the Called to Wholeness in Christ resolution to encourage UCC congregations to become accessible to all, Farmacia levitra baratos, and embody the spirit of the resolution passed in 1995.

To date, very few of the over 5, köpa levitra,000 UCC churches have moved forward in response to this call. Buy generic levitra, Our congregation is poised to be on the frontier of this movement and to be a beacon for other churches.

A2A --ACCESSIBLE TO ALL -- COVENANT

The First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ Boulder, Colorado

We, as members of the First Congregational Church (UCC) in Boulder, Colorado, in recognition of our human differences and various gifts, desire to become an A2A – Accessible to All – congregation, order cheap levitra online. This Covenant expresses our intention to extend God’s extravagant welcome to all persons, seeking to understand, Mississippi MS Miss. , include, Connecticut CT Conn. , and empower people with all differing abilities and disabilities, apparent or unapparent.

The ancient practice of hospitality is presented in the Bible as a mandate for God’s people, New Jersey NJ N.J. . This mandate requires that every body be included in the work and witness of God’s people on earth. Købe levitra, The biblical vision of the Great Banquet is of all gathered at a table dedicated to serving all. Order cheap levitra online, Barriers that diminish the access of any diminish the wholeness of all.

We affirm the 2005 Disabilities Ministries resolution “Called To Wholeness in Christ,” as adopted by the 25th General Synod of the United Church of Christ on July 4, online levitra, 2005, honoring the Accessible to All mandate in the mission of the United Church of Christ. This resolution calls us to embody a philosophy of inclusion and interdependence and to support and implement the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

CALL TO ACTION

  • We pledge to offer educational opportunities to understand the implications of this covenant. This includes working with our church’s Mental Health Ministry as well as the UCC Mental Illness Network, and the UCC Disabilities Ministry.
  • We pledge to examine our own attitudes and suppositions regarding the issues of accessibility.
  • We pledge to do regular audits of our facilities and programs and continue to work toward making them more accessible to all.
  • We pledge when calling clergy and other staff to be open to hiring persons with disabilities.
  • We shall be listed in the UCC Directory as an A2A congregation and we will display the blue square with the white A indicating Accessible to All.
  • The Church Council shall appoint an Inclusion Team to implement and oversee this Covenant. We will include people on this team who have sensitivity to the challenges and joys of people who have a disability, particularly individuals who have a disability or a loved one who does, keeping in mind the slogan, “Nothing about us without us.”

  • We will intentionally partner with persons with disabilities, including but not limited to, physical disabilities, mental illnesses/brain disorders, and/or developmental disabilities. We will also work with disability groups outside the congregation to extend our hospitality and to find opportunities to be in shared mission, ministry, and advocacy together.
  • We commit to recruiting, nominating and supporting persons with disabilities to serve in leadership positions within the congregation as teachers, members of boards, congregational officers, candidates for ordained and commissioned ministry, or representatives to wider church ministries.

This vote affirms that we join in the process of always becoming ever more accessible and inclusive of all of God’s people.

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Buy Levitra C.o.d. - (10/29/2009)

Buy levitra c.o.d., Margaret (Peg) Vigars Wilke died peacefully at her home in Claremont, California on Saturday, October 17. A resident of Pilgrim Place community in Claremont since 1989, she enjoyed a music concert on campus the day before her passing. Order levitra no prescription, Matriarch of a large family, artist, therapist and early fighter for civil rights, economic justice and women’s rights, cheap levitra tablets, she was wife and helpmate of the late Reverend Harold Wilke, himself a disability rights pioneer and activist involved in the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Generic levitra, Peg was 93.

Born in Algona, Iowa, on July 12, levitra en ligne afin, 1916, Margaret Vigars was the only child of Selma Lind and William Vigars. She was a precocious child who started first grade a year before her classmates, buy levitra c.o.d.. Købe levitra online, Among the joys of her childhood were summers spent with her parents at Wheelers Grove, on Lake Okoboji in Arnolds Park, Iowa. There she gained a love of lakes and swimming, buy levitra online legally, affinities that stayed with her throughout life. Also at Lake Okoboji, Where to buy cheap levitra, she and her teenage friends listened on warm summer nights to big bands playing across the water.

She loved to tell about adventures with her father, Bill, including stories about their early-morning trips to watch the annual arrival by train of the circus elephants and roustabouts, levitra farmacia a buon mercato. Buy levitra c.o.d., Margaret Vigars attended Iowa State Teachers College (now University of Northern Iowa). There, she excelled academically and developed her interests and skills in drama and art. Georgia GA Ga. , During one vacation visit back home, she dropped in on her high school math teacher, who at that moment was pointing out a difficult problem Margaret had solved the previous year. He had saved her solution on the blackboard, ordering levitra no rx.

After graduating from College, Peg attended Chicago Theological Seminary where she earned a masters degree in social work. While there she met her future husband Harold Wilke, and after a cross country courtship while she directed settlement houses serving immigrants and economic refugees in Chicago and Erie, Pa, they were married August 24, 1941 at the Seminary Chapel, buy levitra c.o.d.. Wyoming WY Wyo. , They then moved to Columbia, Mo. where Peg worked with Red Cross and Harold was a chaplain at the University of Missouri.

When the U.S.entered World War II, billige levitra apotek, Peg & Harold moved east. Peg staffed the Red Cross office in Boston, Cheap levitra overnight delivery, working with families of soldiers shipping overseas as well as victims tragic Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire. Buy levitra c.o.d., In the years that followed, Peg and Harold moved to Philadelphia, Topeka, KS, Chicago, Cleveland, and White Plains, NY before retiring to Pilgrim Place in Claremont, CA.

While Harold pursued his career as a minister and national leader in the United Church of Christ and as an international advocate for people with disabilities, she worked as a social worker and therapist along with raising their five sons.

Her work took her from settlement houses and a children’s home in Cleveland, cheap levitra without prescription, to a psychotherapy practice in New York City and White Plains. For a time in the late 1960's she and her family lived in Europe, Where to buy levitra, where she and Harold, who had been born without arms, worked with families of the disabled children who were Thalidomide victims.

Throughout her life, köpa levitra online, Peg Wilke was surrounded by works of art, her own and others that she collected. She was a good painter and gifted sculptor, whose award-winning works have been displayed from Illinois and Iowa to New York and California, buy levitra c.o.d.. Osta levitra, Her home and heart gave refuge and welcome to people from all walks of life, all ages and from all over the world, for short, long and sometimes crowded stays, cheap levitra online cheap. A favorite place for gathering family for more than 30 years was the family’s “camp” in Bryant Pond, Maine. För levitra online, Margaret (Peg) Wilke is survived by her sons William Wilke of Watertown, MA, Christopher (Kit) Wilke and his wife Bonnie Butler Wilke of Long Beach, CA, Colorado CO Colo. , Mark Wilke and his wife Sharon Robertson Wilke of Arlington, MA, Order levitra overnight delivery, Nancy Nadler Wilke (wife of the late John Wilke) of Bethesda,MD, and David Wilke and his wife Bailey Beeken of Brooklyn, NY, Alabama AL Ala. . She is also survived by eight grandchildren: Devon, Michaela, Levitra for sale, Robin, Jackson, Erik, Ryan, levitra over the counter, Bo, and Quinn and two great-grandchildren. Florida FL Fla. , She was predeceased by her husband Harold Wilke, who died in 2003, and their son, John Wilke, who died in May 2009.

A memorial service for Margaret (Peg) Wilke will take place at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3 in Decker Hall at 665 Avery Road, Pilgrim Place, Claremont, CA. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Pilgrim Place
( http://www.pilgrimplace.org/online_donations.php )

CONTACT: Reverend Kit Wilke 562-619-0301

.

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Buy Cheap Soma Online - (10/26/2009)

An article in the New York Times Buy cheap soma online, by Iraq war veteran Michael Jernigan offers a significant educational tool for understanding the transition into society that returning veterans face. [Website Ed.]

October 25, 2009, 9:00 pm

The Minefield at Home
By Michael Jernigan
Katherine Streeter

In August 2004, while on patrol with my Marine unit in Mahmudiya, comprare soma sconto, Iraq, I was severely wounded by a roadside bomb. My wounds included a crushed skull and right hand, Order soma c.o.d., traumatic brain injury and the loss of both my eyes.

I am not alone. In the past eight years, many of the 35,000 American soldiers wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have returned home, Texas TX Tex. . But many of us have also returned with deep emotional wounds, and those are harder to see, buy cheap soma online.

In fact, they’re often invisible, which is why so many returning soldiers feel so lost back home. Order soma online, Those of us with post-traumatic stress disorder — I’m one of them — feel like strangers here, carrying around a burden many people are unaware of or just can’t understand. The possibilities for misunderstandings, collisions and alienation are great.

Rewind to 2005, Idaho ID . Buy cheap soma online, I am sitting in the house alone in the dark. I do not know where the light switches are. What does it matter anyway. I cannot see light. Order soma, I get up to get another beer and discover that I have run out. No fear, though — I’ll go find the bottle of Johnnie Walker I have somewhere in the back room, buy cheap soma online.

I hear a noise outside. I freeze. I am running through the worst-case scenarios. Where am I in the house, order soma. Buy cheap soma online, How close is my rifle. Be quiet, listen, and slowly make your way to the bedroom. Acquistare online soma, Good, I’ve found my rifle next to the bed, right where I left it. I feel safer. I am still listening; I don’t hear anything else, Kansas KS Kans. . Still, I will stand here in the dark with my head on a swivel listening to everything within hearing, buy cheap soma online. Is that not my first general order as a Marine. It is quiet. I am calm now, Nebraska NE Nebr. , reassured that I am not under attack. Let’s go back to what we were doing. Buy cheap soma online, That bottle of Johnnie Walker is in the back room in a box somewhere. I stop and pause. I should bring my rifle; it makes me feel safer.

Fast forward a couple of years, pharmacy soma. I am married. My paranoia is not as bad, but still there, buy cheap soma online.

One night, I am taking my wife, Order soma online cheap, Leslie, out to dinner for a “date.” As we walk to the table with the help of my guide dog, Brittani, we hear a voice: “Doggy, Mommy, New York NY N.Y. . There is a doggy!”

“Yes, it’s a doggy,” the mother says. Cheapest soma online, “You have to sit down and finish your dinner.”

The child asks loudly why he can’t bring his dog to a restaurant. As I walk by the table I lean down and say: “This is Brittani. Buy cheap soma online, She is a working dog. She is my eyes.” I cannot see the look on the boy’s face. I know that people are sometimes taken aback by my appearance. My left eye socket is empty and my right one usually has a prosthetic with an emblem or logo, soma prices. (I even have one with diamond studs.)

We sit down. The waiter hands me a menu, I hand it back to him and say: “You can have this, I gave up reading!” I can only imagine the conversation that takes place when he returns to his post and starts talking to his co-worker, buy cheap soma online.

After dinner, we get up to leave. Online soma, I imagine what the other diners are thinking: “He gets around very well for a guy who can’t see.” What they do not notice is that I am holding my wife’s hand and she is guiding me through the maze of tables. I often get frustrated in restaurants because the tables are always closer together than is comfortable for me. Brittani also does her best to make sure that I do not knock over the tables as I pass. Buy cheap soma online, Despite all of this help I still bump into tables and chairs. In the past, I have even hit them so hard that I’ve knocked someone’s drink over, soma.

Other problems remain. I fly off the handle. My emotions often come out quickly and unchecked. I often behave in ways that I do not understand, buy cheap soma online. Kopen goedkope soma, And most times, it seems, the people around me understand it even less.

It is 2008 and I am back in school. I am walking to class at Georgetown University, Arkansas AR Ark. . I stop right next to a flight of steps leading to the Levy Center. Buy cheap soma online, This building is not my destination; it is just a spot where I stop to get my bearings on an old campus that can be difficult for someone with disabilities to navigate. Someone walks up and grabs my arm to turn me to face the staircase. Did this person ask me if I was lost. Osta soma online, Or even utter a word before deciding to grab me. No, because I am a cripple and it’s O.K. to manhandle me, buy cheap soma online. My reaction is quick and angry. I jerk my arm out of his hands and spin on my heels with the bearing of a United States Marine, order soma without prescription.

“Get your freaking hands off me. You think you can grab me. Buy cheap soma online, Try it again and I’ll break you down shotgun style!”

I am now in a horrible mood. I have to ground myself. Pharmacie soma bon marché, What just happened. This individual saw a blind person standing in front of some stairs. He probably thought that I did not see the stairs and needed help. So he reached out and grabbed me to spin me around to find the staircase, buy cheap soma online. As usual, he did not say anything, buy soma no prescription. These would-be helpers never do. Maybe they do not know what to say. I do not know what they are thinking at that moment, Buy soma c.o.d., but I can tell you what happens to me. Buy cheap soma online, I immediately flash back to Iraq.

I am standing in a crowd of Iraqis. We are trying to push the gathering crowd back to clear an area. All of a sudden a large Iraqi man wraps his arms around me. I cannot move, price of soma. I cannot bring up my rifle to defend myself, buy cheap soma online. The only thing I can do is reach my Ka-Bar (a combat fighting knife). You can imagine what is to happen next.

It is a war and you cannot just grab a Marine and think that you will walk away unharmed.

This is where my head goes when I am touched unexpectedly. Buy cheap soma online, I know the man who grabbed me on the Georgetown campus was just trying to help. Why do I become so angry so quickly. Why do I threaten physical harm. I do not know. It happens so fast that I do not even think, I just react. That is what we are trained to do, buy cheap soma online. It is the difference between a live Marine and a dead Marine.

I’ve come to learn that responses like the one at Georgetown are common to people suffering from P.T.S.D. I’ve begun to understand my own experience a little better and am making progress. But there is still the innocent, ignorant student who grabbed my arm. Buy cheap soma online, How will that gap be addressed.

Hopefully, President Obama’s signing of the veterans spending bill last Thursday will help raise awareness of problems like these. But there is something we can do that no legislation can: educate.

Throughout history, warriors have been taught not to speak of their emotional struggles. Earlier generations of American veterans mostly suffered in silence. That tradition can change.

We can share our experiences — today more rapidly and widely than ever — so that this generation of soldiers can let others know about those struggles without embarrassment or shame. So that when the worlds of the soldier and the civilian meet, they’ll come together, not collide.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy NYTimes.com 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018 .

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Buy Soma Online Cheap - (10/19/2009)

Buy soma online cheap, Thanks to the work of UCC's Daniel Hazard, the ministry and websites of the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries are more visible on the denomination's website.

Appropriately, order soma from canada, Um soma online, Disabilities Ministries can be found in the "Change the World" section of the main menu listed at the top of the Home Page and all subsequent Pages of www.ucc.org.

Websites of both Disabilities Ministries (uccdm.org) and the Mental Illness Network (ucc-min.org) now can be opened by clicking on sub-menus under Disabilities Ministries, ordering soma online cheap. Cheap soma overnight delivery, For other, less intuitive readers looking for Disabilities Ministries and the Mental Illness Network, Acheter en ligne soma, Colorado CO Colo. , each ministry now also can be located in a number of logical places in the Site Index found in Website Resources in The 411 Directory Page of ucc.org.

The UCCDM and the MIN, soma pedido en línea, Missouri MO Mo. , two active ministries within the United Church of Christ, are designed to educate, billig soma apotek, Delaware DE Del. , advocate, network, ordering soma without prescription, Florida FL Fla. , and promote the full inclusion, accessiblity, Kaufen soma, Soma online kaufen, and wholeness of all persons with disability throughout the entire church and society, as mandated by several Resolutions passed at General Synod, West Virginia WV W.Va. . Kjøp Discount soma, Accessibility to All, attitudinal and physical, generic soma, Oklahoma OK Okla. , results in the sharing of gifts that persons with disabilities bring to the entire church. Order soma cod. South Dakota SD . Hawaii HI . Cheap soma online legally. Virginia VA Va. . Kaufen soma. Ordering soma pills.

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Order soma no prescription, Following Mental Illness Awareness Week, Access Sunday, October 10, marks the opening of Disabilities Awareness Week. For worship resources, buy soma overnight delivery, Buy soma online cheap, search ACCESS SUNDAY.
See also ACCESSIBILITY/INCLUSION, generic soma. Soma online. Order soma overnight delivery. Om soma online. φτηνές φαρμακείο soma. Virginia VA Va. . Mississippi MS Miss. . Washington WA Wash. . Cheap soma no rx. Comprar soma. Soma no prescription. Michigan MI Mich. . Ohio OH . Acheter soma. Order soma without prescription. Købe soma. Acquistare a buon mercato soma. Rhode Island RI R.I. . Montana MT Mont. . Ordering soma. Soma pedido en línea. Buy soma no prescription. Lowest price soma.

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Buy Soma - (10/06/2009)

Buy soma, A Joyful Summary of the
Newly Reconstituted United Church of Christ Mental Illness Network (UCC-MIN)
October 2, 2009

At the recent Pathways to Promise Interfaith Summit Conference on Mental Illness from Sept. Minnesota MN Minn. , 29-October 1, 2009 in Belleville, soma sale, Cheap soma, IL, the UCC MIN has been renewed, soma kopen. Acheter en ligne soma, A new Steering Committee was formed and the new Chair of the Network is Alan Johnson.

“The program highlights for me, soma farmacia a buon mercato, Connecticut CT Conn. , ” said Alan, “were the presentation by Dr, Kansas KS Kans. . Cheap soma tablets, Ken Thompson, the medical director of the Center for Mental Health Services, buy soma without prescription, Buy soma online legally, the personal testimony by the Rev. Jane Fisler-Hoffman, the interim conference minister of the UCC Southern California, Nevada Conference, and the training by the Rev, buy soma. Craig Rennebohm.” Ken lifted up the significance of clergy gatherings as well as the importance of offering a spiritual home that address the needs of people who are living with mental illness, For soma online. Maryland MD Md. , “Faith communities provide a structure of belonging that provide social inclusion in a society that breeds a cycle of exclusion,” he said, αγοράσετε soma. Comprar soma baratos, Jane spoke compellingly, compassionately, buy soma cod, Buy soma cheap, and clearly about ways to embrace everyone who is living with depression, especially clergy, cheapest soma prices. Cheap generic soma, Craig gave an on the spot training on companioning. Buy soma, Three hours were given to envision the next steps of the UCC MIN and how we might implement them.
First, buy generic soma, Order soma c.o.d., we edited a Covenant Statement drafted by Craig. It names the intent of the UCC MIN and invites participation by all the setting of the church, kjøpe soma. Cheap soma, Our intent is to have at least 10% of our UCC membership to sign onto this covenant by General Synod, 2011, comprar soma de descuento. Order soma no rx, Second, we spelled out the structure for developing and expanding our communications. That includes the MIN website, a link with the UCC Justice and Witness as well as the Local Church Ministry, buy soma. We talked about our own Facebook as well as joining the UCC My Space.
Third, we envisioned a National Conference on Mental Illness in the fall of next year, 2010. We acknowledged it was eleven years ago that General Synod voted “Calling the People of God to Justice for Persons with Serious ‘Mental’ Illnesses (Brain Disorders,) and we still have much more work to do. Very tentatively we heard one suggestion of a title: “Our Churches Widen the Welcome: For all who are affected by Mental Illness/Brain Disorders and those who want to know more!” One suggested site is Denver due to the strong connection with two congregations in particular that are involved in this area of ministry as well as the Denver Mental Health Center that is working strongly in the area of spirituality and mental illness/recovery. Buy soma, Fourth, the new Steering Committee was formed by acclamation.
Fifth, we affirmed the faithful and long-standing work of the UCC MIN in particular through the leadership of Bob Dell, Craig Rennebohm and Norma Mengel.
Sixth, we thanked the UCC LCM and the UCC Disabilities Ministry for their financial support over these years and look forward to the continued connection with JW. We thanked Barbara Baylor for her presence and participation though JW.
Seventh, throughout the three-day conference we continued to wrestle with the language we use about this area. Mental Illness and/or Mental Health and/or Brain Disorders; Wellness, Healing and Recovery; suffering and/or the gifts; are these “illnesses” disabilities, buy soma. We are all trying to find language that is appropriate and inclusive, and is particular in that it describes how things are as well as being compassionate.

We are off and running — with the Holy Spirit’s energy and the impetus of our passion we are ready to re-engage the UCC in mental illness/brain disorder issues and concerns. More will come. However, in the meantime, you are invited to get in touch with Alan Johnson with your thoughts, reflections, questions, and interest. (revalan2004@comcast.net)

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Order Soma - (09/26/2009)

Order soma, From the notebook of the Rev. Linda Bigler, soma pharmacy, North Dakota ND , pastor of Humboldt Congregational UCC in Iowa and a member of the United Church of Christ Board of Directors:

September 26, 2009

The Homecoming Court

Homecoming wouldn’t be Homecoming without a King and Queen, ordering soma overnight delivery, Where to buy cheap soma, and Humboldt is no exception of course. Each girl and boy being considered for King or Queen rode in their own convertible in the (Homecoming) parade, New Mexico NM N.Mex. . Buy soma online, Of course they were all dressed to the nines and were having fun waving to all of us along the way.

But our Homecoming Court story made news throughout the state and maybe it will make the national “feel good” news, buy soma, Utah UT , too.

A boy named Brent was one of the candidates for Homecoming King, order soma. Since the day he started school, buy soma c.o.d., Pennsylvania PA Penn. , everyone has loved him: teachers, students, buy soma online, Indiana IN Ind. , coaches – everyone. What makes this story different is that Brent is a Down’s Syndrome child, Wyoming WY Wyo. . Buy soma no rx, His classmates took them under their wing at an early age, protecting him from teasing and other slings and arrows children – and grownups, soma pills. Florida FL Fla. , – with a disability are subjected to. Order soma, Teachers included him in school activities without question. He is on the wrestling team and works out with the football team at his own pace, soma discount. Discount soma, His enthusiasm for school and people and life in general is well known and loved here.

Last night at half-time, αγοράζουν online soma, Cheapest soma, Brent learned that he had been voted Homecoming King. They showed video of it on the news last night, comprare soma sconto. Cheap soma online, The expression of surprise and delight on his face was priceless. And the news comes out of Des Moines here – not some repeater station in the middle of nowhere, kopen goedkope soma. New Hampshire NH N.H. , WHO TV may have the video on their website; so also may KCCI.

O, buy cheap soma online, for a world where even grownups with disabilities could be loved, nurtured, respected, and appreciated like this boy has been.

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Buy aricept without prescription, Kevin Pettit, a theology student at Iliff Seminary in Denver, has been involved in PHAMALY, the Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League (www.phamaly.org) for the last four years.

"I am more proud of this company than almost anything I have done, Kaufen aricept, Farmacia aricept baratos, " he said. Theology is Pettit's second career, Kjøp Discount aricept. Aricept online, His first, as a physics professor, halvalla aricept apteekki, Comprare aricept, was cut short by an accident that caused serious brain damage.

View an ABC's World News Tonight video clip of and commentary on the theatre company's present production, Utah UT , District of Columbia DC D.C. , "The Man of La Mancha," at http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex??id=8327964, buy aricept no rx. Aricept. Washington WA Wash. . Acheter aricept. North Carolina NC N.C. . Kjøpe aricept. Købe aricept online. New Jersey NJ N.J. . Generic aricept. Missouri MO Mo. . Kansas KS Kans. . Cheapest aricept in the world. Kjøpe billig aricept. Aricept farmacia a buon mercato. Buy aricept from canada. Order aricept overnight delivery. Acheter en ligne aricept.

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Aricept Over The Counter - (08/11/2009)

Aricept over the counter, Below please find excerpts from Timothy Shriver to the Special Olympics movement is with a heavy heart that I write to let you know that my mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, passed away early this morning [August 11, 2009]. Michigan MI Mich. , .... As I write to you, Koop korting aricept, California CA Calif. , her extended family of the Special Olympics movement that she loved so deeply, it is hard not to recognize that [the traits of faith, comprar aricept baratos, Colorado CO Colo. , hope, and love] that sustained her at the time of her death had fulfilled and motivated her throughout her lifetime of advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities -- or as she always said, cheapest aricept prices, Cheap aricept, her "special friends."

Her faith in the athletes of Special Olympics was unfailing, even from the very start, Mississippi MS Miss. . Order aricept cod, When she was young and Special Olympics was still just an idea, few people particularly cared or knew about people with intellectual disabilities, Georgia GA Ga. . North Dakota ND , Fewer still shared or understood her dream to awaken the spirit and denied potential of this forgotten population. And yet, though others could not see, she still believed, conceiving Special Olympics in her heart before she could unveil it on the field of play, aricept over the counter.

She believed that people with intellectual disabilities could - individually and collectively - achieve more than anyone thought possible, aricept online kaufen. Vermont VT Vt. , This much she knew with unbridled faith and certainty. And this faith in turn gave her hope that their future might be radically different, Jotta aricept verkossa. Aricept no prescription, Her faith in them allowed her to hope for an army of supporters - coaches, volunteers, købe aricept, Order aricept, donors, fans - that would emerge and grow and become the foundation upon which a worldwide human rights movement would be built, Om aricept online. Aricept over the counter, It allowed her to envision a world of formerly skeptical people who would witness the accomplishments of our athletes and say "Yes. Buy aricept cheap, I understand!" Hope allowed her to see the invisible, fight for the isolated and achieve the impossible, order aricept. Aricept pharmacy, But mostly, it was her unconditional love for the athletes of Special Olympics that so fulfilled her life, comprare aricept sconto. Køb discount aricept, As Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and social activist reminded us: "the beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, Osta aricept online, Billiga aricept apotek, and not to twist them to fit our own image, lest we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."

Her love for the athletes of Special Olympics was always just like that. She never hoped that people with intellectual disabilities should be somehow changed into something they were not. Rather, she fought throughout her life to ensure that they would be allowed to reach their full potential so that we might in turn be changed by them, forced to recognize our own false assumptions and their inherent gifts, aricept over the counter.

She fought the good fight, she kept the faith, and though she knew the race for equality was not finished, she knew that the army of supporters she had hoped for long ago had become a reality that would carry and someday complete her vision. On her behalf, as we prepare to say our last goodbyes, my family and I thank you for your shared commitment to that dream.

My family and I would be proud and honored if you would take some time to learn more about her life, share your own remembrances about her, and read the remembrances of others at a website that was recently established to honor her legacy, www.EuniceKennedyShriver.org. In the spirit of her hope that everyone would share in the power of Special Olympics, I hope you'll not only read and contribute to the site, but share it with friends.

With great appreciation,

https://www.kintera.com/accounttempfiles/account402023/images/tim.jpg

Timothy P. Shriver
Chairman & CEO
Special Olympics

From the Committee on Disabilities - National Council of Churches, USA. nccusa.org

For more, search Shriver at uccdm.org

.

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Order Aricept - (07/21/2009)

Order aricept, July 26 marks the 19th year anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Visit the Education and Leadership Ministries Commision (ELMC) of the National Council of Churches USA to read ELMC Learning Moment - July 2009, South Carolina SC S.C. . New Hampshire NH N.H. , See http://www.nccusa.org/elmc/elmclearningmoment.htm to read the article by Rosemary Graham. Pharmacy aricept. Ohio OH . Ordering aricept online cheap. Køb billige aricept. Aricept farmacia a buon mercato. Aricept without prescription. Ordering aricept online. Cheap aricept overnight delivery. Aricept ordine on-line. Buy aricept cheap. Cheap aricept online cheap. Cheap aricept from canada. Order aricept online cheap. Acheter aricept. Aricept generic. Cheapest aricept in the world. Osta alennus aricept. Order aricept online. Wyoming WY Wyo. . Order aricept c.o.d.. Billig aricept apotek. Osta aricept. Virginia VA Va. .

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Order aricept online cheap, The Reverend Craig Rennebohm was awarded the National Association of Mental Illnesses (NAMI) 2009 Richard T. Greer Advocacy Award recently at the NAMI national convention in San Francisco, Maryland MD Md. . Aricept online stores, RICHARD T. GREER was NAMI’s first legislative director and life-long grassroots advocate The award is given for leadership and vision that have resulted in
significant improvements on the state and/or national level, Arkansas AR Ark. . Ordering aricept no prescription, Craig has worked mightily to found and grow the Mental Health Chaplaincy in Seattle. The chaplaincy has made a tremendous difference in the lives of homeless people who live with mental illness and in the lives of their family members, loved ones, and neighbors, order aricept online cheap.

Further, order aricept from canada, Comprar aricept de descuento, Craig's advocacy to create an effective and readily accessible community mental health system in the Seattle area has brought lasting change to the community. The spiritual care that the chaplaincy provides to people in hospital and outpatient programs, acheter aricept discount, Where to buy cheap aricept, and the companionship training he has crafted for chaplains and others working within congregations to develop welcoming environments within religious communities is invaluable.

(Above notes are from the NAMI 2009 Convention Program, For aricept online. Cheap aricept pills, Http://www.nami.org). Order aricept online cheap, In a recent United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries communication, he said:

I'm grateful for the NAMI Advocacy award - especially as it represents a growing awareness and understanding of the role faith comunities can play in addressing stigma, modeling accessibility and inclusiveness and collaborating in social change.

He also commented that NAMI celebrated its 30th anniversary with significant gains to its credit, Washington WA Wash. . Order aricept online without prescription, There is also a recognition, he said, cheap aricept tablets, Buy cheap aricept, "of the challeneges still ahead - the injustice of mentally ill persons wandering our streets and being incarcerated; returning vets; a system inadequate to the growing number of children, young adults and elderly needing services, acheter aricept bon marché. Colorado CO Colo. , We still have a long way to go in providing appropriate care and housing for all - especially our most vunlerable and isolated sisters and brothers."

Craig is author of

    Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets
.

He represents the United Church of Christ Mental Illness Network on the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries Board of Directors, Om aricept online. Aricept prescription. αγοράζουν φτηνά aricept. Aricept cheap. Order aricept online legally. Aricept pedido en línea. Buy aricept pills. Köpa aricept online. Alaska AK .

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Buy Aricept C.o.d. - (06/30/2009)

Buy aricept c.o.d., The United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries Board of Directors has signed the Sotomayor Sign-On Letter.

To access and sign the Sotomayor Sign-On letter, ostaa halvalla aricept, Aricept without a prescription, go to http://adawatch.org/sotomayor/

ADA Watch/NCDR continues to work with a number of national, state and local disability organizations on judicial nominations, Kjøp Discount aricept. Cheap aricept online, A growing number of organizations are signing-on to the following letter in support of the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Please complete the form below to add your organization to this important letter, Oklahoma OK Okla. . Kopen goedkope aricept, From July Article printed from ADAWatch.org: http://adawatch.org

URL to article: http://adawatch.org/sotomayor/

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Buy Aricept Online Cheap - (06/19/2009)

Buy aricept online cheap, Confirm Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor --- President Obama's Pick Looks Good for Disability Rights

(Washington, DC) ADA Watch's "Campaign for Fair Judges" is calling on their organizational partners and colleagues from the disability, mental health, education, civil rights and social justice communities to support Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to fill the seat of Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

A woman, Connecticut CT Conn. , Comprar en línea aricept, a Latino and the daughter of immigrants, Judge Sotomayor -- diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 8 -- is also a person with a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), aricept. Buy aricept online cheap, With the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee having set July 13th as the date for the start of confirmation hearings, lowest price aricept, Aricept for sale, ADA Watch's president and founder, Jim Ward has indicated that Judge Sotomayor will receive the full support of ADA Watch, Michigan MI Mich. , Cheapest aricept online, National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) and many of their coalition partners.

For nearly a decade, Mississippi MS Miss. , Buy aricept c.o.d., the ADA Watch coalition of national, state and local disability, comprare aricept, Aricept no prescription, mental health, education, ordering aricept no rx, Jotta aricept verkossa, civil rights and social justice organizations has educated the disability community and the general public regarding the impact of the judicial nominations process on the civil rights of people with physical, mental, aricept online kopen, Billiga aricept apotek, developmental, sensory and cognitive disabilities, West Virginia WV W.Va. .

Ward was among a handful of disability community leaders that recently met with the White House Counsel's Office to outline the priorities of the disability community regarding judicial nominations, buy aricept online cheap. Ordering aricept overnight delivery, Ward stated, "In picking Judge Sonia Sotomayor, cheap aricept, Generic aricept, President Obama has upheld his commitment to choosing a nominee with a firm grasp on the law and the role of the judiciary and has responded to the hopes of those in the disability rights movement for Supreme Court Justices that understand disability rights and the intent of Congress in passing vital civil rights protections for people with disabilities. Legal research and analysis of Judge Sotomayor's opinions reveal a comprehensive understanding of the language and purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), buy aricept online, Køb discount aricept, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Rehabilitation Act, αγοράζουν online aricept, Aricept discount, Social Security and more."

"Furthermore," Ward continued, South Dakota SD , "in interviews and opinions, Judge Sotomayor reveals an understanding of disability discrimination forged by the personal experience of being diagnosed with diabetes at a young age."

In nominating Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, President Obama said "It's my understanding that Judge Sotomayor's interest in the law was sparked as a young girl by reading the Nancy Drew series. And that when she was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 8, she was informed that people with diabetes can't grow up to be police officers or private investigators like Nancy Drew. In essence she was told she'd have to scale back her dreams." Instead, Obama said, her perseverance shows that "no dream is beyond reach in the United States of America."

Sotomayor, of course, went on to graduate from Yale Law School and was Assistant District Attorney in New York City. Buy aricept online cheap, She was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H. W. Bush in 1991 and confirmed in 1992. In 1997, Sotomayor was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was confirmed in 1998. If she is confirmed, Judge Sotomayor would fill the seat being vacated by Justice David H. Souter, who has had a mixed record on disability rights.

For more information regarding Judge Sotomayor's legal opinions, see Bazelon's review and analysis of Judge Sotomayor's opinions in disability cases (PDF) at:

http://m1e.net/c?91346605-efnrgy0oCi8hg%404353343-XTE2wnJKzO016

Printed here with the permission of ADA Watch?NCDR.

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Order cheap aricept online, Two new online resources have been added to the Web Resource category: JJ's List and WSANA (www.wsana.org).

Our goal is to recommend a few excellent resources in each category and subcategory, Illinois IL Ill. . Cheap aricept, For now, main resource categories include but are not limited to clearing houses for disabilities related tools, order aricept pills, Comprar aricept, computer and web-access related tools; accessibility; disability/ability-related organizations, periodicals, buy aricept without prescription. Nebraska NE Nebr. , Most will have online access. αγοράσετε aricept. Ordering aricept online legally. Montana MT Mont. . Order aricept. Nevada NV Nev. . Cheap aricept no prescription. Ordering aricept pills. Halvalla aricept apteekki. Købe aricept online. Farmacia aricept baratos. Cheap aricept online legally. Maine ME Me. . Rabatt kaufen aricept. Kentucky KY Ky. . Aricept over the counter. Bestill aricept online. Indiana IN Ind. . Kaufen aricept. Discount aricept.

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Buy Cafergot Cod - (06/16/2009)

Buy cafergot cod, Pathways to Promise: Interfaith Ministries & Mental Illness presents the 2009 Faith-Based National Summit September 29-October 1 in Belleville, Illinois. South Dakota SD , Companions on the Road to Recovery from Mental Illness
Pathways for the 21st Century
Models of Ministry and Collaboration
explore  meet  connect

Pathways to Promise was formed to mobilize national faith groups and local congregations across the United States to reduce stigma and to support people with mental illnesses and their family members in the process of recovery. As a result, Texas TX Tex. , Oklahoma OK Okla. , the last two decades have seen exemplary models of ministry emerging in
congregations across the country. Come learn from the successes and help us establish new pathways for progress and collaboration, Virginia VA Va. . Alaska AK , Registration Deadline: September 15
Visit www.Pathways2Promise.org
ONE MIND
MENTAL ILLNESS MINISTRY
Changing the World
One Mind at a Time
onemindmentalillnessministry@yahoo.com
Registration packets will contain resource materials including the following & more:
 An Overview Document laying out the basic capacities we have and the challenges we face concerning access to treatment and supportive
systems of care for people with mental illness;
 A Discussion Paper on The Role of Local Faith Groups – congregations, synagogues, cafergot pharmacy, Idaho ID , mosques, temples, order cafergot cod, Arkansas AR Ark. , meetings – in supporting healing and
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 A Discussion Paper on The Role of Local Interfaith Collaborations and Partnerships with the wider community in fostering education, training, ordering cafergot online, Buy cafergot online, service and advocacy;
 A Discussion Paper on A National Training Initiative, envisioning a basic training to local communities and ready access to a core set of educational, kopen goedkope cafergot, Order cafergot without prescription, program and advocacy resources;
 A Discussion Paper on The Role of Mental Illness Networks and Specialized Mental Health Ministries in the life and work of our various faith
groups and traditions;
 An Issues Paper covering such topics as Returning Vets, Homelessness, cafergot cheap, Vermont VT Vt. , Cultural Competency, Dual Diagnosis, order cafergot c.o.d., Order cafergot online without prescription, an Aging Population, and the
Health of the Whole Person
Companions on the Road to Recovery Registration— Registration Deadline September 15, αγοράζουν φτηνά cafergot, Comprare cafergot, 2009
Name_______________________________________ Church/Temple Affiliation_____________________________
Home Address________________________________ Work Address ______________________________________
City______________________ State____ Zip_______ City ________________________ State____ Zip___________
Daytime Phone _______________________________ Profession _________________________________________
Email Address_________________________________ Degree ____________________________________________
Special needs ______________________________________________
Registration includes lunch and dinner on both Sep 29 & 30
Early Bird Registration by August 15, 2009 $150 _______
Regular registration Fee $165 _______
I cannot attend but would like to support
attendance for consumers and family
members by contributing $________
Amount Enclosed $_______
Are you interested in CEUs, cheap cafergot online. Yes____ No_____
041009
Mail this form to:
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442 S, buy cafergot cod. Online cafergot, De Mazenod Dr.
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Check enclosed payable to:
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 Visa  MasterCard  Discover  Am Ex
Credit Card# _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Expires _ _/_ _
Signature ______________________________________________
GENERAL INFORMATION
Conference Location and Room Reservations
The conference will be held at The National Shrine of our Lady of
the Snows in Belleville, IL., order cafergot, Generic cafergot, just 15 minutes from Downtown St.
Louis; 35 miles from St. Louis International Airport. Buy cafergot cod, Rooms are
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Additional rooms are available at the Ramada Inn Fairview Heights,
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This is an early printing of the brochure and subject to change.
COMING SOON:
Continuing Education Credit information
Choosing your breakout sessions
Transportation info
Exhibitor Information.

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Order cafergot online cheap, Disabilities Ministries Team of the Connecticut Conference, First Quarter Report, 2009
Submitted by Jacky Scofield

January

We start the New Year with several new team members: Rev. Paul Goodman, cafergot online stores, Comprar en línea cafergot, Pat Kenney, Marty Night, cheapest cafergot online, Cheapest cafergot, Rev. Ray and Bonnie Odiorne and Rev, Arizona AZ Ariz. . Acheter cafergot bon marché, Kathy Peters. In addition, Connecticut CT Conn. , Mississippi MS Miss. , Rev. Karen Jodice continues for a second year, order cafergot online cheap.

Jan, cheap cafergot. Illinois IL Ill. , 29 Meeting
In Attendance: Jacky Schofield Ann Marino, Karen Jodice, Maryland MD Md. , Order cafergot online cheap, Pat Kenney

Items Discussed:

• Request for a volunteer for Secretary (no one present was available).

• Discussion of our goals and distribution of our Mission Statement for new team members

• How to find “ambassadors” to help talk to churches about A2A, cafergot prices. Online cafergot, 1. Order cafergot online cheap, Draw from the list of people who volunteered for the core team.
2, where to buy cafergot. Jotta cafergot verkossa, Possibility that some core team members may be able to occasionally speak to other churches about A2A
3. As churches become A2A, Louisiana LA , Texas TX Tex. , hope that others are inspired to help

• How to train “ambassadors.”

1. The A2A curriculum can be found online at www.uccdm.org, comprar cafergot.
2, order cafergot online cheap. Cafergot without a prescription, Each team member will read a section (15-20 pages) of the curriculum and write a brief summary/outline of that section.

• How to find churches willing to consider becoming A2A, order cafergot no prescription. Buy cafergot pills, 1. If one or two start and we can publicize it, Pennsylvania PA Penn. , Cafergot pills, others will follow. Order cafergot online cheap, 2. Churches of core team members may consider
3, cheapest cafergot prices. Churches of ambassadors may consider
4. Approach churches that responded to our email about accessibility.

a. Develop a questionnaire about accommodations that have been made, order cafergot online cheap. This will open a conversation and pave the way for discussing A2A
b. Speak to the pastor or other designated person regarding accommodations and their motivation for them.
c. Eventually ask if they would be interested in hearing about A2A.

February No meeting held

March Order cafergot online cheap, March 19 Meeting
In attendance: Jacky Schofield, Karen Jodice, Ray Odiorne, Pat Kenney, Marty Night and Paul Goodman

Items Discussed:

• Introductions of new team members

• Status of church survey questions

1. Contact with churches has not been completed
2. Churches which have, or will be contacted:

Paul – Brookfield
Bridgewater
Somers
Pat - Manchester
Portland
Karen – Broadview
Rocky Hill
Ledyard
Jacky - Bridgeport
Immanuel
Old Greenwich
Cornwall

• Summaries of “Accessible to All” Curriculum

1.Section I – “Anybody” is complete.

• Annual Spring Conference Meeting workshop

1. Meeting theme is “health care”

a. Jacky brought a pamphlet that she had compiled for another advocacy group – “Disability Etiquette.”
b, order cafergot online cheap. It had been presented at two churches and had been well received. Engenders discussion.
c. It is a collection of rules of etiquette for interacting with people with disabilities. Order cafergot online cheap, Discussed possibility of using it as a foundation of a workshop. Use as a way to discuss A2A
d. Name the workshop “25 No-cost Ways to make our Churches Accessible.”
e. Paul, Pat and Ray all offered to do the presentation (other team members not present should talk to them about splitting the presentation).
f. Bonnie Odiorne has offered to put together a simple Power Point presentation

Next Meeting Scheduled for April 23, 2009

.

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Buy Cafergot C.o.d. - (05/26/2009)

Buy cafergot c.o.d., The UCC Disabilities Ministries presents the 2009 award to an individual committed to helping our churches become Accessible to All to: Mary Larson, Lay Assistant, Mt Sinai Congregational, United Church of Christ, Mt Sinai, NY.

Mary Larson is the coordinator and motivating energy behind “Welcome Sundays”, Utah UT , West Virginia WV W.Va. , occurring monthly during regular worship times at Mt. Sinai UCC, Florida FL Fla. . Order cafergot cod, It is a service welcoming those with differing abilities and is “multi-media” and interactive (with refreshments!) In addition to church members attending this worship service, other regulars include individuals from a number of group residential facilities and their assistants, αγοράζουν online cafergot. αγοράσετε cafergot, Mt Sinai’s outreach to people with developmental disabilities and their families has been mutually enriching.

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In order to ensure a smooth operation of transfer routings, please pay for all transfer reservations by May 15, 2009, order cafergot no prescription. Buy cafergot c.o.d., All transfers must be prepaid for a valid reservation and all payments are nonrefundable. All transfers are round trip with arrivals on June 24, cafergot pedido en línea, Arizona AZ Ariz. , 25 or 26 and departures on July 1, 2009, Delaware DE Del. . Comprar cafergot baratos, If for any reason you need a change in these arrangements, please call Gail Andrus Travel directly at 1-616-363-9835, comprar cafergot. Cafergot generic, Gay H. McCormick, UCC DM Synod Planning Committee

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Buy Cafergot - (04/10/2009)

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Nancy Eiesland - (03/16/2009)

From Candler Home News Tribute to Nancy Eiesland About Candler A Tribute to Nancy Eiesland Nancy L. Eiesland, Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion and Disability Studies at Candler School of Theology, died on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. After suffering from cancer for some months, she passed away peacefully and without pain in the embrace of family. Candler will host a memorial service in Cannon Chapel on Sunday, March 22, 2009, at 2:00 p.m. A reception, including an opportunity to greet the family, will follow the service. Memorial gifts may be sent to the Nancy L. Eiesland Fund to Support Students with Disabilities, Candler School of Theology, 1531 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322. Across three decades Nancy Eiesland gave our community graceful gifts beyond measure. As a Candler M.Div. student, a Ph.D. student in Emory’s Graduate Division of Religion, and as a deeply valued Candler faculty member, Nancy has shared with us her luminous love of learning and teaching, and her radiant smile and humor. Her great courage, compassion, and honesty and her trust in the goodness of creation and the promise of its redemption were hallmarks of her presence among us. Professor Eiesland made groundbreaking contributions in two distinct fields of scholarship, a remarkable accomplishment for any scholar. She did pioneering work in disability studies, articulating the first liberatory theology of disability in her book, The Disabled God. This book, which began as an M.Div. honors thesis at Candler, has become a classic in the field. In A Particular Place, Nancy studied congregations in a rapidly growing exurban area of Atlanta, a small town absorbed into new urban patterns that deeply affected its churches. By following the day-to-day life of church members, she explored the ecology of social institutions and networks, showing how the role of congregations in people’s lives changes in new social conditions. This book established Professor Eiesland as a leader in sociology of religion and congregational studies. Dr. Eiesland taught classes in the social and cultural study of religion, gender, and disability; urban change and religious organization; and methods of qualitative research. She prepared a generation of students to enter the ministry and the academy with a deep awareness of the intricate social world embodied in each congregation. Her passion for the life of the church inspired students to honor the promise each congregation holds to witness to the presence of God in the world. Her example as an engaged teacher and scholar provided a role model for doctoral students as they entered their own academic careers. Professor Eiesland enlivened a remarkable network of collegial relationships, entwined across academic disciplines, fields, and departments at Emory and around the world. Nancy Eiesland has given us all an enduring example of Candler's own commitment to the church and the world. We will miss her dearly. *** Links to pieces that Nancy wrote are included here. Thanks to Kevin Christiano for the Impact link: http://www.ici.umn.edu/products/impact/211/21.html and http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/143/over02.html, as well as a piece she wrote for Emory recently, http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_REPORT/ erarchive/2008/April/April21/FirstPersonNancyEisland.htm. Also, at htt://www.emory.edu/EMORY_REPORT/, search Eiesland Nancy Eiesland was a friend of UCC DM and has addressed the board. Search "Nancy Eiesland" this website (uccdm.org) for articles and reviews.

MIN - (03/01/2009)

Visit the Mental Illness Network: (http://www.min-ucc.org). Close the Mental Illness Network website to toggle back to uccdm.org. See also books about Serious Brain Disorders at Resource Room, Books.
Kareem Dale has been appointed as Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy. To read the article, visit the February 13, 2009 blog at whitehouse.gov.
There is something really special going on in our midst, something that might easier happen in a small church than in a larger one. This is the confirmation class for Walter Boyles.

Walter is an autistic child on the low functioning side of the spectrum. He is almost non-verbal and has a number of mannerisms. He also has a warm smile, a deep sense of belonging to our church, great parents, and quite a network of supporters within our church family. Now he has reached confirmation age. But what does one teach a young person in Walter’s condition? There are no special needs confirmation class curriculums for Walter’s level. Walter’s mother, Sandy, and I knew only one thing: We would not want to pursue Walter’s confirmation just for the sake of the ritual. The Elders of the church supported us in this. Early on, they expressed concern that the curriculum for Walter would not just establish requirements for Walter to pass. This would contradict our understanding of God’s grace. Instead, the Board of Elders wished for a curriculum that focused on Walter’s potential for learning and growth in the faith. Back in 2005, this sounded well intended but also very ambitious. However, before we knew it, we received help from two great sources. The library of the Boggs Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey provided sample curriculums for higher functioning children. Rev. Bill Gaventa, the leader of the Boggs Center, helped us compile a list of learning goals and objectives. This was then reviewed by a member of our church, Heather Epstein, and her husband, Dan. Both are special education teachers and fluent in a teaching approach called Discrete Trial. Finally, Heather and Dan translated the curriculum into the language of Discrete Trial. Thanks to their work, we soon had four lessons divided in numerous sessions, all compiled in a thick three-ring binder with spreadsheets. Each session contains learning tasks broken down into sequences of ten trials each. The outcome of each trial is recorded on  a spreadsheet. This makes success measurable.           Walter has made tremendous progress in these sessions. Since May, 2007, he has learned the following: 1. To go alone from Fellowship Hall to the sanctuary when prompted. 2. To recognize the cross as a special object. 3. To distinguish our pew Bibles from other books. 4. To recognize us pastors. 5. To sing the Gloria Patri together with others. One of the most exciting features of Walter’s confirmation class is the involvement of other church members. Some have served as distracters to help Walter distinguish between a pastor and a layperson. Our seminary professors, John Coakley and David Waanders, have served in addition to Susan and me as robed pastors during our sessions. This has helped Walter realize that there are many pastors. Other church members have helped teaching a particular trial session or filling in the spreadsheets. We teach twice a week, Friday evenings at our home in Jamesburg, and Sunday mornings before church. Come spring, we will celebrate Walter’s confirmation. By that time, it will be a feast for our entire church family because so many of us have taken part in these classes. What a powerful manifestation of God’s love this is. Thank you, First Church!    

Dr. Rev. Hartmut Kramer-Mills

Since 2000 he and his wife serve the First Reformed Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey, as co-pastors.

Harold H. Wilke Fund - (02/04/2009)

The U C C D M has designated a fund to honor the life and ministry of Harold H. Wilke, devoted minister, disability advocate and pioneer. Wilke's exemplary ministry within the UCC and the world forged a path for leaders with disabilities to emerge. Donations to the U.C.C.DM continue to support his legacy so that leaders with disabilities continue to rise in our midst.

A UCC minister, the first chair of the U C C D M (then the National Committee for Persons with Disabilities), a member of the U.S. Council for the Year of Disabled Persons and a founding board member of both the National Organization on Disability (N.O.D.) and its international arm, the World Committee on Disability -- Dr. Wilke was noted for his unique role delivering the blessing at the White House signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990. Following the signing, President George H.W. Bush passed the signing pen to Rev. Wilke, who accepted it with his foot -- because he was born without arms.

Rev. Wilke focused on his own abilities, rather than his disability. He had a distinguished career in four areas of service: the Church, rehabilitation medicine, teaching and government. Ordained as a minister of the United Church of Christ, Dr. Wilke served on the faculty at Union Theological Seminary in New York, the UCC national staff, and directed The Healing Community, which promotes awareness about access to a life of faith. He published numerous books and articles, including "Creating the Caring Congregation, Angels on My Shoulders, among others" for congregations moving to integrate persons with disabilities into the life and service of faith communities.

Donations to the Wilke Fund may be sent to:

Ms Michelle Hintz
Local Church Ministries
700 Prospect Ave.
Cleveland Ohio 44115-1100


Please designate "For the Wilke Fund to support the work of the UCC DM. Spring, 2003 Update 1999 Wilke Fund Update 1999 Wilke Fund Inauguration

Harold H.Wilke Fund to Support the Work of the National Committee on Perspons with Disabilities The inauguration of the Harold H.Wilke Fund will be announced during General Synod at the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries dinner on July 4. The Fund is in honor of the Life and ministry of The Rev. Dr. Harold H. Wilke, who this year, celebrates the 60th anniversary of his ordination. The Rev. Dr. Wilke, who has been disabled since birth, is renowned in the life of our church. He has served the church both locally and nationally and been a part of the disability movement ecumenically and in the UCC. He was present in the Rose Garden at the signing of the ADA of 1990, has spoken at the Vatican, and is the founder of the Healing Community in Claremont, CA. The Harold H. Wilke Fund will be used to supplement the budget of the NCPWD and thus help the Committee meet its objectives which are: A. To encourage local churches to be open, inclusive, affirming, and accessible in their buildings, worship, education, fellowship and service, and thereby enabled to proclaim God's word to and with all persons, including those with disabilities. B. To advocate for and with marginalized and alienated persons with disabilities. C. To advocate for and collaborate with care giving ministries with and for persons with disabilities. D. To develop and support lay and clergy leadership of persons with disabilities within the entire UCC. From the UCC DM Newsletter Archive

"We must build a world free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination.... policies must be developed, attitudes must be shaped, and buildings and organizations must be designed to ensure that everyone has a chance to get the education they need and live independently as full citizens in their communities." -- Barack Obama, April 11, 2008 To read more, go to http://whitehouse.org/agenda/disabilities/

Statement of Solidarity - (08/18/2008)

We, as organizations and self-advocates representing members of the disability community, recognize the dignity of individuals with intellectual disabilities, the challenges they and their families face, and the meaningful and powerful contributions they make to their families, their communities, and their country, Acknowledge that individuals with intellectual disabilities have been subject to discrimination, abuse, and exclusion from society throughout history; Recognize that the more than 200 million individuals with intellectual disabilities worldwide, and more than 6 million individuals with intellectual disabilities in the US, have suffered severe consequences including: institutionalization, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, denial of education, employment, and healthcare, segregation, and targeted hate crimes; Acknowledge that "attitudes and expectations of the public, in part, determine the degree to which children, adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities are able to learn, work and live alongside their peers without disabilities." (President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, 2004); Understand that for over four decades, the media has consistently mischaracterized people with intellectual disabilities; (Pardun, 2005) Realize that over 80% of U.S. adults surveyed feel that media portrayals are an obstacle to the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. (Pardun, 2005) Recognize that many people, including those with intellectual disabilities, their families and friends, consider the "R-word" just as offensive as the "N-word;" and Declare that under the guise of "parody," whether intentional or not, Tropic Thunder demeans, insults, and harms individuals with intellectual disabilities by using the "R- word." Furthermore, it perpetuates derogatory images and stereotypes of individuals with intellectual disabilities including mocking their physical appearance and speech, supports the continuation of inappropriate myths and misperceptions, and legitimizes painful discrimination, exclusion, and bullying; TOGETHER, we declare our intention to make the public aware of the need to create and foster inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities as a matter of social justice by: . Boycotting the film and explaining to our nation's children why the film is harmful; . Educating the public, especially young people, about intellectual disabilities through far-reaching awareness campaigns to ban the use of the "R-word," and other initiatives to permanently change attitudes and promote inclusion; . Calling on Hollywood studios, writers and executives to pledge to make this the final chapter in a sullied history of demeaning portrayals of individuals with intellectual disabilities and assist in public education campaigns; . Requesting that Congress investigate and conduct oversight of how Hollywood portrays individuals with intellectual disabilities and the effect these portrayals have on our nation and around the world. Signatories: National: American Association of People with Disabilities American Foundation for the Blind Arc of the United States Autistic Self-Advocacy Network Best Buddies International Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. National Council on Independent Living National Down Syndrome Society National Down Syndrome Congress Special Olympics TASH United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries State: Disabilities Network of NYC If your group is interested in signing on to the attached Statement of Support and Solidarity, please send your name, group name, and contact information to Barbara Kornblau at Special Olympics, ASAP at bkornblau@specialolympics.org
A new interfaith resource guide on autism is available for congregations, clergy and families. Title: Autism and Faith: A Journey into Community The guide provides an introductory, empowering resource for use by clergy, religious educators, and families to develop inclusive spiritual supports for children and adults with autism and their families and recognize the unique gifts that congregations and people with autism can offer to one another. The fifty-two page guide for including individuals with autism in faith communities was developed by The Autism and Faith Task Force of The Boggs Center and The Center for Outreach and Services to the Autism Community (COSAC) with funding from The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation. The Task Force worked for more than two years collecting stories and experiences from families, best practices and strategies from clergy and human service professionals, and resources from around the country. The guide features more than fifteen short articles written by clergy, parents, professional experts on autism, religious educators and people with autism, illustrated by numerous sidebar stories and examples from families who shared their experiences, both positive and negative, with their own faith communities in New Jersey. It is interfaith, including examples from Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim communities. The guide is edited by Mary Beth Walsh, PhD, Alice Walsh, MDiv, and Bill Gaventa, MDiv. Dr. Walsh is Roman Catholic and a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY. Rev. Walsh is United Methodist, and a graduate of Drew Theological School, Madison, NJ. Both are parents of children with autism. Rev. Bill Gaventa is associate professor of Pediatrics and director of Community and Congregational Supports at The Boggs Center, and editor of the Journal of Religion, Disability, and Health. The editors were assisted by an interfaith editorial review committee, copy editor staff at The Boggs Center and COSAC, and members of The Autism and Faith Task Force. The guide is expected to be available at the COSAC conference in May. It will be disseminated to faith groups, families, and disability organizations in New Jersey for free and to anyone outside New Jersey for a nominal fee of $5. Ordering information will be available on The Boggs Center’s web site at http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/boggscenter. For more information, please contact Rev. Bill Gaventa, director of Community and Congregational Supports at The Boggs Center, 732-235-9304 or email billgaventa@umdnj.edu<../../RisleyRE/Local%20Settings/Temp/bill.gaventa@umdnj.edu>. Visit The Boggs Center website at http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/boggscenter or call 732-235-9317.

Road to Freedom - (09/15/2007)

The Road To Freedom: Keeping the Promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act is a yearlong, cross-country bus tour and traveling exhibit produced by ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights. Our goal is to bring awareness to the disability rights grassroots --the "people's movement" -- and mobilize support for the ADA Restoration Act. We have been on the road for more than 9 months, traveled more than 17,000 miles and have been welcomed at 48 bus stop events in 34 states. Here is some of the August media attention -- including our bus stops with Senator Tom Harkin's and at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site -- that the tour has generated (not including the substantial TV coverage the tour has received). For more information, go to: www.roadtofreedom.org
Written by Erik W. Carter Below is a preview of the book from the publisher: http://www.brookespublishing.com/newsletters/dd-article-0407.htm
Donated Dog For Autistic Child Meets Opposition By Steve Stoler, WFAA-TV, Dallas - Ft. Worth, TX. http://tinyurl.com/ynjurw WYLIE - A mother's fight to make life easier for her four-year-old autistic son got a helping hand while also meeting up with a barrier. Lori Ruscitti's friends and neighbors came together and raised enough money to buy the family a service dog. But there's one big problem, his school district won't allow dogs to attend class. Every day is a constant struggle for Colton Ruscitti, who is autistic. Last year, the boy wandered away from his home and fell out of a two-story window. "We can't watch him 24-hours-a-day," Mrs. Ruscitti said. "It's impossible. We need help." Help came in the form of a dog named "Charlie," who is a specially trained service dog the family hopes will keep Colton safe and secure. The Wylie and Murphy communities helped raise $14,000 to give the family the dog, which will happen in May. "That dog provides security for them," Ruscitti said of the easing effect dogs have on autistic children. "It helps calm them down. It reduces meltdowns." Mrs. Ruscitti met with Wylie Independent School District officials who listened, but announced that Charlie will not be allowed into the classrooms. "[I feel] disappointment because autism is so rampant," Mrs. Ruscitti said. "It's not going anywhere. This is just another tool to help these children." WISD Superintendent John Fuller gave a statement Wednesday that said the district doesn't allow pets in classrooms, including dogs. The only exception is the use of service dogs that are trained to provide assistance to students with special needs such as blindness, physical disability or lack of mobility. There was no mention about autism. "Wylie just needs to step out of their box," Mrs. Ruscitti said. "There's not really a downside to allowing this dog in school." A final decision on Charlie could be made by a special needs committee before the start of the next school year. [Ed.: Permission was not requested to reprint this story. It was sent in by a parent of a child with autism.]
Tuesday, April 24, 2007, marked the inaugural edition of the National Organization on Disability e-newsletter, "Religion and Disabilities Program Newsletter." Access the newsletter at the N.O.D. web site by going to the quick link, e-newsletter.
To access from the Washington Post,
The following commentary is offered by Rev. Norma S. Mengel, a member of the United Church of Christ Mental Illness Network and the UCC Disabilities Ministries, after the tragic incident at Virginia Tech. There is much sadness and sympathy across the country for the families and friends of the persons killed at Virginia Tech on Monday. We are hearing that there were 32 victims. But really, there were 33 victims. Coverage of this terrible event included a CNN report that there were many signs that Seung-Hui Cho was in need of help--since his childhood in South Korea. On Thursday, April 19, 1907, Brian Williams of NBC News stated that mental illness is at the very heart of this incident. Why did Mr. Cho, despite the many symptoms of an illness, not get the treatment that was indicated by the symptoms observed by many people in various situations? Perhaps we can learn something from this tragedy that may help many people in the future. Former President Bill Clinton said on "Larry King Live" (4/19/07):
First, we need to give voice to the pain and suffering of all involved….Then we need to look at what happened and see if there are ways to prevent these kinds of events happening again. We need to understand what was wrong with Mr. Cho and we need to ask ‘Do we need changes in the legal or the mental health system.’ …Should Mr. Cho have been given support and taken out of the ordinary population before tragedy occurred? It gives occasion to look at how the legal and mental health systems work--and recognize that there needs to be serious changes in the way both function.
Barriers in our society keep individuals who have symptoms of brain disorders (commonly known as mental illnesses) from seeking and receiving treatment. Though the media would have us believe that violence and mental illness go together, the fact is that persons who are adequately treated for these illnesses of the brain have a much lower incidence of violence than in the general public. Untreated illness does have a potential to result in violence since the part of the brain that governs judgment is often affected. Unfortunately, the deep-seated stigma and radical health insurance discrimination in our society, keep many people from seeking treatment, even when they, or family members, know they are ill. Medical research also has shown that a basic symptom of a person with a serious brain illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, both of which can result in paranoid delusional psychosis, is the “fervent belief that he or she is not ill." This keeps persons from seeking treatment even when it is recommended by family, friends, or in this case, by university personnel. As Xavier Amador states in I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help:
Unawareness of an illness is a symptom brought on by the disease. It is not a choice that an ill person makes….Once you understand that the ill person’s refusal to accept treatment typically results from a brain dysfunction that is beyond his/her control, your will see why you shouldn’t blame the person for what appears to be deliberate denial.
This lack of insight, coupled with the legal restrictions in most states that keep persons who see the symptoms of a serious illness (such as roommates, school personnel and even doctors) from notifying parents or from keeping even very sick people in the hospital, is a great barrier for the individual in getting appropriate treatment. This was seen in media reporting of this violent event. Many people saw serious symptoms in Mr. Cho in the college environment. They reported them to authorities, but no effective treatment resulted to ameliorate symptoms. Apparently, family members who might have been able to help were never notified. The Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, VA, is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating legal and clinical barriers to the timely and effective treatment of these severe brain illnesses. Mary Zdanowicz, an attorney with the Center, stated on CNN-TV:
The mental health provider community is hyper-vigilant to psychiatric laws. That, and many other factors, indicates a broken system that leads to these tragedies. Science tells us if these illnesses are not treated, there are apt to be bad consequences.
The law that prevents very seriously ill people from getting treatment unless they are an imminent danger to one’s self or others must be changed for the welfare of all concerned. All of the above, coupled with the ease of availability to guns of any kind, but especially to assault weapons, and the pervading violence of movies, TV and video games, calls us all to renewed effort:
a. To educate ourselves, our congregations, school personnel at all levels, our legislators, medical providers, the media, the courts, the police, the prison system, etc., to all aspects of the serious biological brain illnesses, commonly called “mental illnesses” with the goal of eliminating stigma and discrimination in all areas of our common life. The education of high school and college staff is especially important because these serious illnesses often first show symptoms in the adolescent and young adult population. Early treatment is crucial; b. To bring justice in health insurance coverage, medical care and research for these illnesses that is equal to all other serious medical illnesses so that comprehensive treatment will be available to all who need it, to promote a productive life for individuals and families so affected, and to reduce crimes and imprisonment without treatment; c. To change our laws to reduce the ease of availability of lethal weapons in our society; d. To work to combat the culture of violence prevalent in so many areas in our society; and e. To encourage one another to affirm that we are created to be interdependent neighbors, loved by and made in the image of God.
.

Resources

Websites:
TreatmentAdvocacyCenter.org Nami.org Pathways2Promise.org UCCDM.org UCC.org--Includes a prayer related to Virginia Tech events, by President, John Thomas at http://news.ucc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=895&Itemid=56
Books:
I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help. Xavier Amador, Ph.D. Vida Press, 2006. Crazy: A Father’s Search through America’s Mental Health Madness. Pete Earley, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006 (a previous investigative reporter for the “Washington Post” and “New York Times“.) Surviving Schizophrenia. E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. 2006 Surviving Manic-Depression: A Manual on Bipolar Disorder for Patients, Families and Providers. E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. Basic Books, 2002. Out of the Shadows: Confronting America’s Mental Health Crisis. E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. 1996 Strength for His People: A Ministry for Families of Persons Who Are Mentally Ill. Pastor Steven Waterhouse, Th. M., Source: westcliffbible@amaonline.com Contact information: Rev. Norma S. Mengel, M.Div, M.P.H, B.S.N Normamengel@hotmail.com
The Disabled Congregant: Issues of Mercy & Justice for Church Leaders ~a workshop at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley California~ The DisAbled Student Union at Pacific School of Religion will hold a workshop titled: The DisAbled Congregant: Issues of Mercy and Justice for Church Leaders. The workshop, open to all students at Pacific School of Religion and the surrounding community in the San Francisco Bay Area of California will be on campus on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM, The Seely G. Mudd Building, Room 100. PSR seminary’s address: 1798 Le Scenic Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709-1323 (north of the UC Berkeley campus) Description of workshop: This is a two-hour workshop. Presenters: DASU members who are Pacific School of Religion seminarians. This Contextual Education program has approved this workshop for PSR students needing to witness Contextual Education events as a requirement for academic programs such as the Masters of Divinity degree. DASU members will speak of the Christian spiritual calling to minister to the disabled. They will further speak of the California state and Federal civil rights laws for people who have been medically and legally declared to be physically and/or mentally disabled. Several DASU students will tell their own stories of physical disabilities that are from accidents, genetic conditions and diseases as well as mental disabilities, often called “hidden disabilities.” DASU Mission Statement: The DisAbled Student Union at Pacific School of Religion exists to educate, advocate for and support all God’s people concerning issues of disability. DASU website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PSRDASU/ Contact information: Contact tJohn A. Lowell at jxlowell@covad.net or phone 415-533-7857. Post a
The Disabled Congregant: Issues of Mercy & Justice for Church Leaders ~a workshop at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley California~ The DisAbled Student Union at Pacific School of Religion will hold a workshop titled: The DisAbled Congregant: Issues of Mercy and Justice for Church Leaders. The workshop, open to all students at Pacific School of Religion and the surrounding community in the San Francisco Bay Area of California will be on campus on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM, The Seely G. Mudd Building, Room 100. PSR seminary’s address: 1798 Le Scenic Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709-1323 (north of the UC Berkeley campus) Description of workshop: This is a two-hour workshop. Presenters: DASU members who are Pacific School of Religion seminarians. This Contextual Education program has approved this workshop for PSR students needing to witness Contextual Education events as a requirement for academic programs such as the Masters of Divinity degree. DASU members will speak of the Christian spiritual calling to minister to the disabled. They will further speak of the California state and Federal civil rights laws for people who have been medically and legally declared to be physically and/or mentally disabled. Several DASU students will tell their own stories of physical disabilities that are from accidents, genetic conditions and diseases as well as mental disabilities, often called “hidden disabilities.” DASU Mission Statement: The DisAbled Student Union at Pacific School of Religion exists to educate, advocate for and support all God’s people concerning issues of disability. DASU website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PSRDASU/ Contact information: Contact tJohn A. Lowell at jxlowell@covad.net or phone 415-533-7857. Post a
Bob Molsberry, Vice-Chair of the UCC DM Board reports that as of Thursday, April 7, Stephen J. Hopson's "Flight to Hartford" was only $600 shy of the $5000 goal. In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the existence of the United Church of Christ, two members of First Grace Church in Akron, Ohio, plan to celebrate the occasion by renting and flying themselves to General Synod. "Our goal with the "Flight to Hartford" project is to raise awareness of the capabilities of people with disabilities," Hopson said. Hopson was the first deaf pilot in the history of aviation to earn an instrument rating. This rating allows him to legally be pilot in command of an aircraft through inclement weather. "Deaf since birth, Steve has never allowed obstacles to stop him from enjoying a successful career," said his pastor, the Rev. Robert J. Dreese. Ryan Mathews, who uses a wheelchair to get around, also never let his disability stop him from achieving his dreams, Dreese said. Mathews recently graduated from the University of Akron. One of his dreams is to go for a flight in a small airplane. When the flight lands in Hartford, his 300-pound motorized wheelchair will be waiting for him. Website: http://www.sjhopson.com
In January 2008, the Chicago Theological Seminary will be offering a course by Craig Modahl called “Theology, Ministry and People with Developmental Disabilities.” This course will explore the multiple issues facing people with developmental disabilities. Central to the course will be the implications for ministry on the part of religious leaders and their communities. For more, visit Craig's Comments (#6) on Seminaries and Seminarians in the Networking category of this web site.
A Nebraska Conference RECORD focus issue about Disabilities Ministries This issue of The Nebraska RECORD shares delightful stories about tangible and architectural changes reported recently by United Churches of Christ from Omaha to Chadron and Lincoln to Ogallala. These stories -- set in larger, 12-point type – tell of changes which vary in levels of magnitude, yet they all have equal weight. They are concrete evidence of attitudinal change. In 30 years of ministry in our conference, I have observed a heartening maturation of attitude toward persons who live with disabilities. This movement has progressed from viewing disability as an item of pity/compassion to perceiving the inclusion of everyone as a matter of justice/compassion. Our attitudes finally are beginning to progress from "doing something for the unfortunate person I am grateful that I am not, yet fear I might become" to increasing recognition in our hearts of the rightness of removing whatever physical or attitudinal barrier still impedes full inclusion in the life of the church. We have begun to grow together toward a gradual recasting of personal or societal attitudes that shut off rather than welcome, to turn from perceiving persons with disabilities as separate from and different. Although we may notice a visible disability first when we meet a person, we are getting better about viewing that characteristic as only one part of an identity. We also notice and validate other unique gifts and talents. Those of us with disabilities have begun to feel better about ourselves. I have grown from a sense of being broken and inferior to the rejoicing of wholeness and validity as one of God's servants. Not like the attitudes of my parents' generation. My mother as a young, newly married nurse was engaged to "take care of" her blind grandmother who was closeted in an upstairs room. I find the shalom of refusal to be closeted anywhere! This special focus issue of The Nebraska RECORD fulfills my final responsibility for the Disabilities Ministries in the Nebraska Conference. I will continue as a member of the UCC Disabilities Ministries Executive Board and its website editor. Located at www.uccdm.org, this interactive web site offers resources, education, advocacy, and networking opportunities for churches and persons in the disabilities ministries community. Memorial Gift Opens a Door "After the death of their mother, a family wanted to offer a unique memorial," said the Rev. Lauran Heidenreich, pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Ogallala. They thought about a church member who has used a wheelchair since an early age. "We know that you are fully accessible once you get inside the church," they said, "but we want to give you an automatic door so you can come and go on your own." The original door was glass for visibility and of adequate width; but, said the pastor, "somebody has to hold the door while another person pushes in the wheelchair. Now she will have the freedom of doing it all herself." "All the door needed was the addition of the automatic door opener," said Guy Bechtel, the church's buildings and grounds person. "The opener will be programmed to slowly open up. It will stay open long enough for a person to enter, and then close automatically." The $1,700 device is wireless with a box installed in the entryway. Persons hit it, triggering the door to swing open. Should the door prove to be too narrow in the future, several inches of wall glass can be removed for a wider door. "Guy and the family worked together," the pastor said. "They decided the northeast door would be preferable to the front doors." Additionally, the doorway is set in about 2-1/2 feet to protect against blasts of Nebraska wind. Changes for the Family "One of the biggest changes in our church is the hymns," said Eleanor Swanson, member of First Central Congregational UCC Omaha. "The person who brings me to church comes early to choir practice. While she practices, I reread the hymns and Psalm with my magnifier. I can then keep up with the congregation." Within three weeks after losing her sight, Eleanor moved to the independent living side of the retirement center. Her church family also wasted no time adapting. They made certain that she could participate in worship. They had been offering large print bulletins for persons with visual needs but now also enlarge the Psalter and hymns. They also assured that her worship attendance was uninterrupted. Anyone needing a ride phones the member in charge of drivers." One driver also plans church dinners," Eleanor said, "so I provide a needed vegetable, something I can do. She is widowed. We have become a pair." If her daughter is unavailable, Margaret Engstrom also appreciates a driver. "I use a walker now," she said. "I try to get to church every Sunday." As the older building is not easily navigated, during the week her daughter goes to the parking lot ramp. First Central recently added the north entry ramp to meet code for its incoming daycare. "It has also made the lower level more accessible for office volunteers," said Sara Sharpe, church office manager. "It has eased my worries about someone falling down the steep stairs to the church office." Margaret, Sara's eldest volunteer at 91, said, "I work at the church on Monday mornings 9-12, answering phones and doing little things for Sara and the Christian Ed. lady." The next day, she and two others count the offering. "It keeps my mind sharper and I enjoy doing it," she said. "When someone needs help, you find a way. I think of our church as family," Sara said. "It's just a matter of doing for the congregation what you would do for family." Becoming a Fully Accessible Church "How many have trouble hearing?" was asked at an all-church meeting of Lincoln, Northeast. "All these hands raised and heads nodded," relates Northeast member Lois Poppe. Ever since the late '60s construction of their fellowship hall, people had complained about its poor acoustics. Concerns about those poor acoustics plus the need to make the church school rooms on the lower level accessible to everyone led to the creation of a Refurbishment and Accessibility Committee (RAC), which reviewed needed accessibility changes then presented options to the congregation for a decision on how to solve those problems. At first, the Moderator felt these changes could be accomplished through regular boards. Lois commented that Boards were to busy to assume this additional responsibility. According to Janet Domeier, RAC chair, it all started three years ago at another annual church meeting. As each board reported, each had a list that included capital improvement. For years, "we ought to" discussion continued about not being truly lower level accessible. Teachers adjusted classrooms so that a youth who uses a wheelchair could have class on the main level. The Moderator agreed to serve on RAC along with the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and several other committed church members. It took about a year for the committee to gather information and cost estimates. With congregational feedback, they stockpiled, studied and discussed possibilities. "Because we were thorough, the congregation gave its approval," said Lois, the committee recorder. The committee contacted a Lincoln architect who presented designs in November. "We were successful in obtaining a loan for just under $250,000 for the addition and an elevator." This last year at the church's annual meeting, the congregation decided to proceed in stages. Phase one focused on smaller items. Informational meetings with the congregation and information in every newsletter resulted in membership consensus. After design approval, the church raised enough funds for phase one. Following acoustical analysis, the church installed acoustical wall panels in the Fellowship Hall which hosts Sunday coffee. At a recent anniversary gathering, people noticed a significant reduction of reverberation of voices and improvement in hearing. The panels also soften the room. They are also a great way to display posters, Janet said. "You can poke as many holes in them as you want." Phase one also included a lighted church sign, replacing the wooden sign that was difficult to read. Last August, the congregation approved completed designs for an addition, phase two. "As you go along, you celebrate," Janet said. Now, on to more capital fundraising. Second phase improvements include an enhanced sanctuary sound system; increased accessible front and side parking; blinds and shades in the fellowship hall; an elevator; and lower level accessible restrooms. The initial elevator struggle point, Janet said, was the cost. Most continued to perceive that it was only for somebody using a wheelchair. In the committee's last presentation before the August vote, she detailed how the elevator entry would look. "Persons have an immediate option. The elevator is right there," she said. "It is for everyone. Those carrying equipment or someone who is weary that day will use it. We have many aging people in our church. Hopefully we broke through that with them," she said. "We chose an elevator that is more like the commercial one without the extra doors. Just push a button and it goes." Also authorized and to be completed after the addition construction are new entrance doors and exterior lighting as well as bids for additional parking lot lighting. A modest 2006 grant from the Nebraska-Disabilities Ministries Board will apply toward the $1,200 inside signage. What's In Your Church's Closet? "Our congregation may not realize it has made so many positive, inclusive changes," said Cheryl Cassiday, a member of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Chadron. Thanks to people like retiree Boyd Roberts, who spearheaded several projects, the church is living up to its designation of being fully accessible to aging persons and persons with disabilities. Boyd, a former electrical contractor, said that old fixtures were not giving off much light. New quartz lights save little on cost or energy output, they do produce a sharper, brighter light than regular incandescent bulbs. Each new hanging fixture contains three 100-watt quartz bulbs, replacing the older lamps with two 150-watt bulbs. A section of pews was removed to allow persons using wheelchairs to sit farther forward without having to sit in the aisle. "With the pew cut-out," said Kathy Rapp, "I do not sit out in the aisle, preventing anything from occurring." She said the cut-out is also convenient for persons who use a walker as they can sit in the pew with the walker near by. All three exterior doors are now wheelchair accessible. While entry into the main floor holds no difficulty for persons with mobility needs, the lower level was once off-limits to some. The older lift installed in early 1980s was too small for the newer power vehicles. Boyd scoured the church an engineer. They located a closet, a built-in cupboard. In the basement, they would cut a hole through the wall that goes out into the fellowship hall. Boyd chaired the project. He put together the cost, went to the congregation for agreement, putting together the cost estimates with members doing the work themselves. In a few months after receiving church agreement and the start of the project, $15,000 came in as donations. The church added the other half from savings. "You have to have a little faith," he said about undertaking a major project. "It helps to start doing it. People like to see something happen. Then they get excited about it." One Youth + One Retiree = A Request Honored When Christopher Cassiday learned that the funding had collapsed for his proposed Eagle Scout project, a letter came to the church council at First Congregational UCC, Chadron. Getting in the front door for worship was easy for everyone. However, it was impossible for persons with wheelchairs to use either bathroom. How about updating the women's bathroom? Chris took on the project. The goal was to provide a usable turning radius within the stall itself as well as to make the bathroom entry accessible to persons using a larger, powered vehicle. "We knew the church would be willing to fund it," he said, "and we knew people with expertise would help." Now a first-year student at Doane College, Chris said, "We widened the doorway to make the stall larger, replaced the doorknob with a lever handle, removed the privacy partition and one stool, and installed the new stall system." Both of Chris' parents were involved in the project. His mom helped with the design and obtained a higher commode from the hospital. His dad did hands-on work. Boyd Roberts, Chris' mentor, worked by his side. "Boyd's expertise," Chris said, "was invaluable. He made the project happen." The result is a rectangular-shaped bathroom a little deeper than wide. "The only great change," Boyd said, "was to relocate the stall position. The newer, attractive sink offers plenty of leg room." He also covered hot water pipes with protective insulation. The men's bathroom is still waiting, but Chris knows another young man eligible for an Eagle Scout project. -db "Any Body, Everybody, Christ's Body" This section was written by Pam Cuttlers, member of the Nebraska Disabilities Ministries Committee. "Any Body, Everybody, Christ's Body" is the Accessible to All (A2A) workbook put together by Rev. Jo Clare Hartsig that is available to all from the UCC Disabilities Ministries. Jo Clare chairs the UCC DM and lives in Minnesota. This workbook can be downloaded from www.uccdm.org. It is full of excellent ideas to help churches provide hospitality and accessibility to all. The title "Any Body, Everybody, Christ's Body" shows the process in the workbook. Section One, "Any Body," explores the meaning of the actual flesh and blood body we each inhabit, our differences, our gifts, our laments, our anger, our sacred selves, and the ways we can ‘be good stewards of God’s varied grace.” "Everybody" includes ways to help congregations ‘practice hospitality ungrudgingly’ and offers a wide variety of ideas for churches to put this into practice. There are handouts for ushers, ideas for newsletters on how to write or speak about persons with disabilities, information for pastors, and multisensory worship ideas. "Christ's Body" focuses on “understanding the Body of Christ as a symbol of brokenness and healing, of interdependence and community.” This workbook is designed as a group process of reflection and action with readings and discussion for each section. It culminates in a church committing to be an A2A church. The disability rights movement's slogan is “Nothing about us without us” so please include people with disabilities in your study sessions. The Nebraska Disability Ministries Committee hopes all UCC congregations will become accessible to ALL! Reading the Signs is A Can-Do Forum about accessibility for the whole church family Special Focus Section,The Nebraska RECORD (Nebraska Conference United Church of Christ, Vol. XXIII, No. 1, Feb.-Mar. 2007) Written and edited by Dee Brauninger
Monday, February 5, 2007 By Christopher Claire A RULING by Switzerland's highest court has opened up the possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors to take their own lives. Switzerland already allows doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients under certain circumstances. The Federal Tribunal's decision puts mental illnesses on the same level as physical ones. The move has been labelled as "dangerous" as it could lead to a rapid rise in the number of people travelling to Switzerland for assisted suicide. The latest figures show 54 Britons travelled to Zurich's Dignitas Clinic to end their lives in the past four years. "It must be recognised that an incurable, permanent, serious mental disorder can cause similar suffering as a physical [disorder], making life appear unbearable to the patient in the long term," the ruling said. "If the death wish is based on an autonomous decision which takes all circumstances into account, then a mentally ill person can be prescribed sodium-pentobarbital and thereby assisted in suicide," it added. Various organisations exist in Switzerland to help people who want to commit suicide, and helping someone to die is not punishable under Swiss law as long as there is no "selfish motivation" for doing so. In their ruling the judges made it clear certain conditions would have to be met before a mentally ill person's request for suicide assistance could be considered justified: "A distinction has to be made between a death wish which is an expression of a curable, psychiatric disorder and which requires treatment, and [a death wish] which is based on a person of sound judgment's own well- considered and permanent decision, which must be respected." The case was brought by a 53-year-old man with serious bipolar affective disorder who asked the tribunal to allow him to acquire a lethal dose of pentobarbital without a doctor's prescription. The tribunal ruled against his request, confirming the need for a thorough medical assessment of his condition. Whether any Swiss physician would be prepared to prescribe a lethal dose of pentobarbital to a mentally ill person remains unclear. One internationally renowned expert on medical ethics said such a policy would be both difficult to enforce and dangerous to apply. "Assisted suicide has always been linked to the challenge of allowing the terminally ill a choice in managing their inevitable death," said Dr Arthur Caplan, chairman of the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "Linking the right to assistance in dying to the quality of someone's life or their suffering is an enormous and, in my view, very dangerous shift in legal and ethical thinking about assisted suicide." Caplan said the policy could lead to a "very slippery slope", opening the door to anyone who claims to have unbearable psychological or emotional suffering to request help in dying: people with terrible burns, those who are severely disfigured, those who are emotionally bereft at the loss of a child or partner, and even those suffering from career failures. "This is an incredibly controversial decision," he said. "Is the doctor's mission to eliminate difficult and horrendous human suffering by helping people to die?" Elsbeth Chowdharay-Best, honorary secretary of Alert, an anti- euthanasia organisation set up to warn people of the dangers of any type of euthanasia legislation and pro-death initiatives, said: "I think this is a horrifying development. It takes one back to the Nazi era, when people with disabilities were considered disposable." Switzerland is one of a number of countries in Europe that allow assistance to terminally ill people who wish to die. The Netherlands legalised euthanasia in 2001 and Belgium did in 2002, while Britain and France allow terminally ill people to refuse treatment in favour of death. Source: The Scotsman http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=183882007 ________________________________________________________________ For more bioethical news issues, see: http://www.aapd.com/News/bioethics/indexbioethics.php # # # MODERATOR, Anne Sommers, JUSTICE FOR ALL -- A Service of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). To contact Anne, please email her at JFAmoderator@aol.com. To respond to a JFA alert or to submit an article, please see http://www.aapd.com/JFA/JFAcontent.html. DISCLAIMER: The JFA Listserv is designed to share information of interest to people with disabilities and promote dialogue in the disability community. Information circulated does not necessarily express the views of AAPD. The JFA Listserv is non-partisan. JFA ARCHIVES: All JFA postings from 1995 to present are available at: http://www.jfanow.org/jfanow/ JOIN AAPD! There's strength in numbers! Be a part of a national coalition of people with disabilities and join AAPD today at http://www.aapd.com. Justice-For-All FREE Subscriptions To subscribe or unsubscribe, send an email to majordomo@JFAnow.org with subscribe justice OR unsubscribe justice in the body of your email message.
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Several churches have written to ask about funding resourcces. Please comment here about how your church has funded its accessibility projects and/or what your conference or association Accessibility/Inclusion Committee offers. Thank you. The Web Editor

No Room at the Inn - (01/02/2007)

By Timothy Shriver Monday, December 25, 2006; Page A29 I believe in the principle of last-first: The last thing you think will be valuable is likely to be the first and most important. This Christmas, the lesson came to me in a particularly powerful story: the scandal of Misty Cargill. Driving home from Christmas shopping, I couldn't believe what I heard on NPR. Misty Cargill is a woman with a mild intellectual disability living in a group home in Oklahoma. She and her boyfriend go to movies regularly and play in a weekly bowling league with friends. She works full time at a nearby factory. Her life is normal in almost every respect except one: Misty Cargill needs a kidney transplant. I'm no expert on the gut-wrenching ethics of transplant decisions, nor am I a doctor. But when I heard that Cargill was told that she was not a candidate for transplant because of her lack of mental competence, I was outraged. The University of Oklahoma Medical Center decision makers claimed that she was unable to give informed consent and turned her away. They did this despite her own physician saying that she is perfectly competent. The hospital then suggested she get a medical guardian, but state officials refused to play the role, because they rightfully determined that she was already fully competent. Most recently, the hospital has offered to conduct its own assessment of her competence, and that's due next month. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. In one survey quoted by reporter Joseph Shapiro, 60 percent of transplant centers reported that they'd have serious concerns about giving a kidney to someone with mild to moderate intellectual disability apparently based on fears that these patients can't handle the complex post-transplant care. The facts are exactly the opposite: People with intellectual disabilities who have been lucky enough to get a transplant do as well if not better than non-disabled people, probably because of their fidelity to instructions and their network of caregivers and supporters. Lurking below the surface is the more likely reason for denial: Someone determines that people with intellectual disabilities are inferior, human beings of lesser value, the last priority. They're put last in line because they're thought not to matter quite as much as other people. For Misty Cargill, like another vulnerable person who is being celebrated today all over the world, there is no bed available. And for Cargill, being turned away may well cost her life. But the transplant physicians' attitude is common. According to a Special Olympics Gallup survey in 2003, a strikingly similar number of Americans, 62 percent, don't even want a child with intellectual disabilities in their child's school. In studies of health care providers, Special Olympics has found rampant negligence in the care of people with intellectual disabilities. Some doctors even report that they don't want people with intellectual disabilities sitting in their waiting rooms. One confided that when care is given, it's usually "quick and dirty." All of which brings us to the real question that Christmas invites: Who matters? A child in a malaria-infested zone? A transplant surgeon? Misty Cargill? During this season when we're confronted with the world's injustices, we're challenged to muster the willpower to make a difference for those who suffer from inequalities. But what about when the problem is not an absence of willpower but the presence of won't power? What about when we are the innkeepers -- confronted by too little space and finding ourselves uttering the terrifying words to those who we decide matter less: "There is no room for you." What about when we ourselves construct the edifice on which the shocking and outrageous devaluing of human dignity rests? We search for a way out. The Americans With Disabilities Act forbids such discrimination by public entities such as the hospital that turned Misty down, does it not? The recently adopted United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities forbids such discrimination, does it not? Medical ethics would disallow such behavior, would it not? Political leaders committed to protecting human life will act, will they not? Maybe. But on Christmas, we might remember that no matter how many restrictions and rules we create, the enigma of humanity remains our inability to follow the mystery of love all the way to its awe-filled conclusion: Every human life matters. There are no exceptions. There is no hierarchy. The presence of the divine can be seen in the tiniest and most vulnerable just as it can be seen in the strong and powerful. But it can be seen especially among those who are demeaned, reduced to a stable, having no room at the inn. The most celebrated character in literature with a disability, Tiny Tim, famously proclaimed, "God bless you, one and all." He was an agent of change -- the cause of poor Scrooge's transformation from misery to joy. Perhaps Misty Cargill is today's protagonist of change inviting us to a deep and terrifying view of the world we have created. She is the embodiment of the last-first principle: She may be last on the transplant list, but she may be first in her power to invite a rethinking. I pray that she will inspire us to feel differently about human life, both hers and our own. The writer is chairman of the Special Olympics. Michael Steinbruck, M.A. Project Manager, Self-Directed Supports Training and TA Program Administrator The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities - UCEDD UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Department of Pediatrics P.O. Box 2688 335 George Street, Suite 3500 New Brunswick, N.J. 08903-2688 Phone: 732-235-9308 FAX: 732-235-9330 Web Page: http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/boggscenter
November 6, 2006 E-Commerce Report By BOB TEDESCHI, NY TIMES ACCORDING to an advocacy group, Target declined last year to make its Web site fully accessible to blind people with specialized screen-reading technology last year. If true — and Target has denied the accusation in court — it was a public relations blunder, and it may have been illegal as well. The National Federation of the Blind sued Target, contending that the company’s inaction violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because the Web site is essentially an extension of its other public accommodations, and as such, should be easily accessible to people with disabilities. A Target spokeswoman would not comment on those assertions, but in court the company offered testimony from three blind users rebutting the federation’s arguments. On Sept. 6, a federal judge in California held, in a preliminary ruling on the suit, that in some instances, Web sites must cater to disabled people. Legal scholars say the full reach of that ruling will not be clear until the case is decided, if it reaches that point. But in the meantime, the dispute shows that although commercial Web sites have made considerable strides in serving this small fraction of their customer base, there are still substantial difficulties on both sides of the screen. “Web sites are more useful than they used to be, but there are still a few more hurdles than you’d like to have to go through,” said James Gashel, an executive director of the federation, based in Baltimore. Mr. Gashel said that most sites accommodate screen-reading technology, which tells blind users the layout of a Web page and describes images, search prompts and other fields into which users can type information to find a product or complete a purchase. (The most popular screen-reading software, Jaws for Windows from Freedom Scientific, sells for around $900.) When sites do not accommodate screen-reading software, the online shopping or browsing experience breaks down for the 200,000 or so of the nation’s 1.3 million people with vision disabilities who are online, according to Mr. Gashel. Most online stores go to great lengths to make sure that their sites are accessible to people with disabilities, simply because it is good business to allow as many people as possible to shop. And online-shopping technology specialists say it is not so difficult or costly a task. “It’s very straightforward to make a site accessible,” said Dayna Bateman, senior information architect at Fry Inc., which operates e-commerce Web sites on behalf of large retailers including Brookstone, Eddie Bauer and Spiegel. Ms. Bateman said that the more software coding a Web site could offer to help screen readers and other technologies navigate a site, the more likely it was that the Web site would show up on search engine results, because Google, Yahoo and others looked to the same coding for clues about the Web page’s content. “So it’s actually an advantage in the marketplace,” she said. “I just don’t think a lot of folks are schooled enough in accessibility to know that.” For advocates of people with disabilities, the most effective tool for ensuring a smooth online experience has been the Americans with Disabilities Act. But because the law was signed in 1990, before the Web was in common use, its language offers little guidance on how to approach questions of online accessibility. A variety of lawsuits based on Disabilities Act provisions have been brought against online companies, notably one brought by Mr. Gashel’s organization against AOL in 1999, but the suits were settled before judges could offer clear guidance on how, or whether, the law applied to Web sites. In denying Target’s motion to dismiss the suit two months ago, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of United States District Court in San Francisco held that the law’s accessibility requirements applied to all services offered by a place of public accommodation. Since Target’s physical stores are places of public accommodation, the ruling said, its online store must also be accessible or the company must offer equally effective alternatives. So what about online-only Web merchants like Amazon.com, BlueNile, Drugstore.com and RedEnvelope as well as fast-growing young online companies like YouTube and MySpace? “That issue is still up for grabs,” said Michael R. Masinter, a law professor who specializes in Disabilities Act and civil rights issues for Nova Southeastern University, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Mr. Masinter said the Target suit, since it involved an offline merchant’s online operations, would not address that issue. The case, though, is important to Amazon, because it runs Target’s online store as it does those of a handful of other big offline merchants. An Amazon spokeswoman, Patricia Smith, said that “as a matter of course we work cooperatively with all of our retail partners to develop and implement the tools and features they want incorporated onto their Web sites.” Amazon, she added, “is already generally usable for people with screen readers.” It has offered a text-only, streamlined site designed for such devices (amazon.com/access). Mr. Masinter said one potentially thorny issue in the Target suit was whether phone services offered by online merchants were suitable substitutions for the Web site when the site did not work well for technologies like screen-reading software. Given the high cost of maintaining phone-based customer service operations, the question would be of particular interest to retailers and disabled people. Companies in one emerging category of Internet commerce, online education, have the most ground to make up in adapting their offerings for the disabled, according to Jane Jarrow, president of Disability Access Information and Support, an education industry consultancy. Most online-only schools, Ms. Jarrow said, “are oblivious to the fact that they have a significant issue here.” Many online-only schools rely on chat rooms, for instance, for class discussions, and screen-reading software does not function properly with chat rooms — nor can learning-disabled students often keep pace with the discussions. The issue has become critical because many online-only schools became eligible this summer to receive federal student aid. But to get such funds, organizations must adhere to regulations in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which has been updated to say that all Web sites of groups receiving federal money must be accessible to people with disabilities. Capella University, a Minneapolis-based institution known for online courses, employs a full-time disabilities specialist, who, among other things, has guided the school to avoid using online chat rooms for its courses. Some online schools follow similar approaches, but most do not, said Richard Allegra, director of professional development for the Association on Higher Education and Disability, an industry group. “I think people are starting to understand their obligations to make their services accessible,” he said. “The question they have is, how to do that?”
Subject: Church of England Supports Baby Euthanasia The Sunday Times Peter Zimonjic http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2087-2450134%2C00.html November 12, 2006 The Church of England has joined one of Britain's royal medical colleges in calling for legal euthanasia of seriously disabled newborn babies. Church leaders want doctors to be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances. Their call, overriding the presumption that life should be preserved at any cost, follows that of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology, revealed in The Sunday Times last week. The church's position was laid out in a submission to an independent inquiry, due to publish its report this week, into the ethical concerns surrounding the treatment of severely premature babies. In the submission Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, states: "It may in some circumstances be right to choose to withhold or withdraw treatment, knowing it will possibly, probably, or even certainly result in death." The church's submission does not say which medical conditions might justify the decision to allow babies to die. It argues that there are "strong proportionate reasons" for "overriding the presupposition that life should be maintained". It says it would support the withdrawal of treatment only if all reasonable alternatives had been considered, "so that the possible lethal act would only be performed with manifest reluctance". In its proposal the college of obstetricians argued that "active euthanasia" should be considered for the overall good of families, to spare parents the emotional burden and financial stress of caring for desperately sick infants. The college said in its submission to the inquiry: "A very disabled child can mean a disabled family. If life-shortening and deliberate interventions to kill infants were available, they might have an impact on obstetric decision-making, even preventing some late abortions, as some parents would be more confident about continuing a pregnancy and taking a risk on outcome." Both submissions were made to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent body that publishes guidelines for how the medical profession should deal with ethical questions such as euthanasia. The council was set up nearly two years ago in order to consider the implications of advances that enable infants to be born half-way through pregnancy. In the Netherlands babies born before 25 weeks are not given medical treatment in certain conditions. The report, to be published on Thursday, is not expected to set an age limit as a criterion. _________________________________________________________________ More disability news issues>disability news issues
Three resources on web accessibility: Church website design tips: things to DO Here are three guidelines for legibility from Effective Color Contrast 1. Exaggerate lightness differences between foreground and background colors, and avoid using colors of similar lightness adjacent to one another, even if they differ in saturation or hue. 2. Choose dark colors with hues from the bottom half of this hue circle against light colors from the top half of the circle. Avoid contrasting light colors from the bottom half against dark colors from the top half. The orientation of this hue circle was chosen to illustrate this point. 3. Avoid contrasting hues from adjacent parts of the hue circle, especially if the colors do not contrast sharply in lightness. (from the work of Aries Arditi, PhD, Senior Fellow in Vision Science, Lighthouse International)

Letter Power - (12/03/2006)

Lobbying for our denomination and carrying our concerns to and from Washington, the Public Life and Social Policy Ministries in the Justice and Witness is compiling a list of constituents willing to participate in letter writing whenever an issue related to disabilities comes to their attention. If interested, contact the Justice and Peace Network at , phone 202-543-1517, FAX 252.437.1278, or write Public Life and Social Policy Ministry, UCC Justice and Peace Ministries, 110 Maryland Avenue NE, Suite 207, Washington DC 20002.
"Stigma and discrimination against persons with brain disorders are huge barriers that keep people from getting effective treatment and living a full and productive life," said Rev. Norma Mengel, UCC Mental Illness Network representative on the UCC Disabilities Ministries Board of Directors. 0 Participating in the interdenominational Anti-Stigma Poster Campaign is one way congregations can begin to overcome these barriers for the one in every five persons who lives with these serious medical illnesses (brain disorders commonly known as mental illness). The United Church of Christ is among the nine national faith groups that will distribute informational anti-stigma poster packets to approximately 26,000 congregations nationwide. According to the Rev. Robert Dell, Chair, and Acting Executive Director, Pathways to Promise, Ministry & Mental Illness, the packets were sent out to local UCC congregations in mid-September. October is Mental Illness Awareness month. "The utilization of Faith Communities as an access point for information, education and treatment resources is extremely important and timely," said Douglas M. Ronsheim, executive director of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, in a recent press release from the Religious News Service. This project has the potential to reach 10 million people with the faith-relevant message that "light can emerge from darkness" for people with mental illnesses. Packets and subsequent materials to be ordered by local congregations will include information on the effectiveness of appropriate psychiatric treatment, how to access such treatment, how to obtain family support, and how to develop a more caring congregation for individuals and their families coping with mental illness. An attention-getting poster-based on artwork from a person with mental illness-photocopy-ready information sheets, and bulletin inserts will convey this vital information.  Evaluation of the project will include postcard survey responses and in-depth interviews with a sample of congregations from each of the participating faith groups. The evaluation will document the extent to which local congregations are better able to refer people to appropriate treatment, develop connections with local chapters of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and other helpful organizations, and respond in more tangibly supportive ways to individuals and families coping with mental illness. The anti-stigma campaign was funded through an $87,900 American Psychiatric Foundation Grant awarded to Pathways to Promise. The mission of the philanthropic and educational arm of the American Psychiatric Association is to advance public understanding that mental illnesses are real and can be effectively treated. Pathways to Promise is an interfaith resource center in St. Louis offering liturgical and educational materials, program models, and networking information to promote a caring ministry with people with mental illness and their families.   In the United Church of Christ, the Mental Illness Network is in affiliation with the UCC Disabilities Ministries. 

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Carolyn Thompson, UCC DM Representative to Wider Church Ministries reports the good news is that after five years of negotiations, delegates meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York have agreed on a new treaty to protect the rights of persons with disabilities. This is the first human rights treaty of the 21st Century. The treaty is expected to be adopted by the UN General Assembly during its next session, which starts in September. For more information, go to www.un.org/disabilities/convention/ or to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/5274354.stm for a BBC article. Contact your reps in congress, and tell them the US should not abstain from supporting this as is rumored.
by Bryan Crousore, MIN Editor The Mental Illness Network and the Disabilities Ministry of the UCC hosted the Rev. Kenneth L. Ulmer of the Pension Boards for a frank, helpful discussion of issues surrounding the Health Benefits Plan. They discussed the disparity of coverage and access for those persons with some brain illness compared to others. Both Tourette’s syndrome and schizophrenia, for instance, can be seen by PET (Positron-Emission Tomography) scans as similar abnormalities of the same brain area. One is covered under the medical/surgical/imaging portion of our plan. The other is under the chemical dependency and mental health portion. This issue concerns both parity of payment and an equivalent access process. While dollar benefits do in some instances come close to parity, the access process for pre-approval of doctors appointments and ancillary services for the serious brain illnesses are vastly different, often inappropriate. The MIN thanks Ken Ulmer for a fair hearing as we asked that the five major brain illnesses be included under the medical surgical imaging portion of the plan. The MIN welcomes anecdotes illustrative of the need to retain the present plan or to change it as MIN has recommended. From UCC DM Newsletter Archive