I found this great video by Reverend Eric H.F. Law from the Kaleidoscope Institute. The title of the video is “Inclusion” and the key question asked and answered in the video is :

“How do you know when you are included?”

I would love for you to watch the video and then respond to the question in the comments.

Sunday morning is usually a time for Sunday school and worship in my congregation. This past Sunday I found myself at the conference of the Down Syndrome Association of Atlanta. I heard no hymns sung and there was no sermon preached ,to my knowledge, but I left feeling empowered and changed by an encounter with something sacred.

I had the privledge or moderating a panel discussion between a really fabulous young woman with Down Syndrome and the father of a young man with Down Syndrome.

The presenters told stories of connections made and missed. They told stories of G_d’s people reaching out and and failing to do so. The young woman and the father told stories that painted pictures of both exclusion and embrace. It was heart breaking an uplifting in turns.

The stories of both of the families repesented on the panel ended on this day in ways that offer me hope that we can all find communities where we can be welcomed, loved and challeged to become out best selves.

I encountered G-d in the stories of connections made and opportunities afforded. I am so thankful that I was invited to be a part of this extraordinary conversation.

Thank you to the Down Syndrome Association of Atlanta and to the two amazing conversation partners I had on Sunday.

It is my hope that we cultivate many more opportunities to hear and tell truth that arises out of lives lived in families with people with disabilities. I pray that each time I am challenged to sit and listen that I will have the opportunity to worship in unconventional places like the Down Syndrome Association conference.

Here is a link to the information about the events sponsored by the Duke University Center for Reconciliation.  The events take place in Durham, NC November 8-10, 2008.

Jean Vanier is the Founder of L’Arche and Stanley Hauerwas is one of the leading American voices in the explanation of a Christian Theology of Disability.

These events should be enlightening, hope-filled, and challenging.

This is a wonderful story about an Orthodox Parish opening their doors, hearts, and minds to it’s neighbors with disabilities.

The conversation that the visit and the dinner makes possible is the key to raising awareness and building relationship.

h/t to Arms Open Wide.

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter recently became a congregational member of the Interfaith Disability Connection. We are grateful for their commitment to building congregations where acceptance, inclusion and belonging are at the heart of what it means to be community. If you are not familiar with the story of Holy Comforter you can read about it here.

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter operates the Friendship Center, Which is a day program for people with mental Illness and other disabilities.

The Work of Our Hands hosts an artist Market. The funds raised by the Artist Market are used to support the work of the Friendship Center and Emmaus House 

Please consider visiting the artist maket to support this vital work and whole you’re at it, pick up some wonderful gifts for the holidays.

Work of Our Hands Artist Market 2008

Recently an article appeared in the New York Times about a family and their desire for their 13 year old son to have a Bar Mitzvah.

The article referencess themes like life-giving theology, participation in community and being included in the rites and rituals that mark a person’s membership in congregation and community. The article lifts up themes that highlight why the finding a place where love, accptance and belonging are so vital to all of us.

I am grateful to all of the families and congregations who are willing to think outside traditional box to offer hope and help to all of their members.

Read this from Rabbi Lynne Landsberg about the victories for the Disability Rights Movement during the Jewish year just completed. (Posted from The J Spot)

Two months ago the Interfaith Disability Connection partnered with the Shepherd Center and First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta to host a conference titled: That All May Worship: Beyond The Ramp. The conference brought together 150 people from Georgia and 5 other states! I am proud of the work that went into planning the event and the energy that it has generated.

I have reflected on the conference and I think after two months, I know what made it extraordinary! People with disabilities spoke for themselves about their lives, their religious practices, their experience of being included and excluded in their congregations.  People with disabilities told THEIR SACRED STORIES!

Sacred stories= The stories of individuals that tell about the action of G-d in the lives of G-d’s  people.

Rabbi Lynne Landsberg told her SACRED STORY about how the community in her synagogue brought her back to life and health after an auto accident that left her with a brain injury.

Cynthia Outman told her SACRED Story about how Living Grace Lutheran Church is a source of support, acceptance, and opportunity beginning at her birth and into the future.

Empish Thomas told her SACRED STORY about the ways she has been excluded by bad theology and uneducated communities. She also old her SACRED STORY by telling about how she has found support help and healing through counseling and unexpected sources.

Betty Hasan-Amin told her SACRED STORY by speaking of her journey to Al-Islam after churches failed to be places of hospitality to her as a woman with a spinal cord injury.

ALL of these stories are SACRED STORIES! There are many just like them. YOU have SACRED STORIES TO TELL.

The first step toward the full-inclusion of ALL OF US is the telling of these sacred stories. Again the stories about how the G-d we call by many names, has worked through us and our communities, in expected and unexpected ways, to build more loving, just and inclusive communities .

Do you have a sacred story to tell? Would you consider sharing it here (in the comments)? Would you send it to me in an an e-mail?

SACRED STORY TELLING is the beginning of building congregations where ALL MAY WORSHIP.

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I hope that this will be the first of a few posts about how we begin to claim and tell our POWERFUL SACRED STORIES to bring about access and inclusion in our congregations.

Praying with Lior contiues toeducate an inspore it audiences to work for the full-inclusion of people with disabilities in the full life of faith.

I posted previously about the movie here and here. I saw the film during its screening at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival in January of this year. I was moved by the content of the film and deeply impressed by the filmmaker Ilana Trachtman and Lior’s father, Rabbi Mordecai Leibling.

The film is currently showing in venues across the United States and in israel too.

Ilana Trachtman has started a blog about the impact the film is having in communities.  Please go and read it and if you have an opportunity go and see the film.

I recently listened to a National Public Radio Program called Speaking of Faith. The Program featured Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi and Founding Member of the IKAR Community in Los Angeles, CA. The interview centers on the meaning and practice of Judaism in the midst of the High Holy Days. I found it to be very  inspiring and informative.

You can listent to the program here.

If you heard the program I would love to know what you think?