Interfaith Disability Connection Podcast- Episode #4

An excerpt from the Theology Forum that took place during the 2009 Interfaith Disability Connection Summit on Sunday August 9, 2009.

The question posed by forum moderator The Reverend Benno D. Pattison was: Does your tradition provide guidance about who people with disabilities are or why people have disabilities? Does this explanation help or hinder congregations in your tradition as they seek to welcome and include people with disabilities?

Responding to this question are:

Reverend Guy Pujol, Executive Director, AIDS Alliance for Faith and Health and Faculty Member, Interdenominational Theological Center

Dr. Khalid Siddiq, Atlanta Islamic Community Leader

Rabbi Mark Zimmerman, Congregation Beth Shalom, Dunwoody, GA

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The Summer edition of Making A Difference Magazine from the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities features five articles about the power congregations have to be places of inclusion and opportunity for people with disabilities and their families.

Making A Difference Magazine Summer 2009

Thank you to Reverend Bill Gaventa, Ginny Thornburgh, Imam Furqan Muhammad, Pastor Devin Strong, Rabbi Harvey Winokur, Reverend Denny and Varion Spear, Pat Nobbie and many others for their work in lifting the profile of this important issue.

Thank you to The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities for shining a light on religious leaders and congregations who actively engaging people with disabilities in worship, study, service and leadershi.

Check out the most recent episode of PBS’ Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. The episode features Reverend Bill Gaventa and people with disabilities and their families from Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations

Episode #3 of the Interfaith Disability Connection Podcast features Mrs. Betty Hasan-Amin and Reverend Alan Roof. Mrs. Hasan-Amin is the Founder of You-Ni-Verse Greeting Cards and a member at Masjid Al-Muâ??Minun. Reverend Roof serves as a Chaplain at Shepherd Center. Alan is an Ordained Minister in the United Church of Christ.

Betty and Alan are two individuals who helped plan and deliver the 2008 That All May Worship: Beyond The Ramp Conference. They discuss the impact that attending the 2008 event has had on them and help us preview what is most exciting to them as the prepare to participate in the 2009 Interfaith Disability Connection Summit on Sunday, August 9, 2009.

They also discuss why the think YOU Should plan to attend!

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Interfaith Disability Connection Podcast Episode #1:

In this first podcast of the Interfaith Disability Connection Director Mark Crenshaw interviews Ginny Thornburgh, Director of the Interfaith Initiative at the American Association of People with Disabilities in Washington, DC, Thornburgh will serve as an event facilitator at the 2nd annual IDC Summit this Sunday, August 9, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. Click the play button on the player below to listen to the podcast.

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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.

I am in a little behind in posting this as the Eid Feast is upon us now, but I found this article really interesting. The article comes from the BBC and is written by a Muslim Woman with multiple Sclerosis.

The article is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, for its explanation of Ramadan as more than a call to go without food and second for it explanation of reasonable accommodations made for Muslims with disabilities during Ramadan.

The author is clear that the call of Ramadan is about a call to a disciplined life.  She also writes about the flexibility in Islamic practice that provide a pathway to authentic practice for those who have disabilities.

I have learned much from my Muslim friends with disabilities and one of the biggest surprises to me about Islamic practice are th multiple paths of Islamic practice for those who are unable to practice in typical ways.

I would love to get some feedback from Muslims with disabilities regarding the article and the practices of Ramadan?

Sunday afternoon was spent at a Ta’lim Service at The Atlanta Masjid of AL-Islam. I had the pleasure of working with two wonderful women with disabilities to plan a workshop that turned out to be an amazing experience for me. I can only hope that the workshop was as helpful for the participants.

We began the workshop with a prayer shared by the Imam and by reading three selections from the Quran. The readings were done in Arabic and English and the Arabic was read by an amazing artist with a disability. Each reading was followed by an interpretation by another Musim woman with a disability.

The readings were followed by a recap of the work that the Masjid had already done to welcome people with disabilities. The report was shared by the Imam and one of the members of the Masjid’s hospitality committee. The report included both reflection about the removal of physical barriers and the cultivation of a spirit accessibility and hospitality.

The workshop then transitioned into a panel of 5 Muslims with disabilities. The topic of the panel was really a focus on the gifts that each of the panelists has been given to share with the community. It was wonderful.

One of the panelists thanked the community at the Atlanta Masjid for helping her continue to find places to connect to the community after she was a victim of a drive-by shooting and experienced a spinal chord injury.

Participants then formed small groups and were led by Muslims with disabilities in brainstorming solutions for continuing the journey toward full-access and inclusion in the Masjid.

The sharing, listening and learning that took place in this part of the workshop was wonderful. Participants did the wonderful work of coming up with shared solutions that were achievable.

I have been engaged in the work for access and inclusion of people with disabilities in their congregations for almost seven years and I want to celebrate congregations like the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam for joining in this life giving work! We are building a community justly balanced! Thanks be to G-d.

I left the workshop with HOPE! Our community has models for continuing this work! Our community has Imams, Rabbis, Pastors and Priests who understand that people with disabilities have GIFTS TO SHARE that every community needs. Our community has volunteers WITH and WITHOUT disabilities who have stories to share about the difference this community building work makes for all of us!