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!

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the play button below:

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I am a frequent reader of “Or Am I?” a blog by Rabbi Paul Kipnes. Rabbi Kipnes. Rabbi Kipnes in the Senior Rabbi at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA. I have read many posts about the congregation’s commitment to welcome people with disabilities and their families. This post was a opportunity for me to read more about Rabbi Kipnes and the congregation’s commitment to the full-inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish community there.

The congregation’s web site includes a number of wonderful resources for understanding the foundation of the congregation’s commitment to people with disabilities and their families.

Congratulations to Rabbi Kipnes and the Congregation Or Ami Family on their much deserved EP Maxwell J. Schleifer Distinguished Service Award.

I am inspired by the congregation’s efforts and I hope you are too.

Do you know about a congregation or a leader that is doing wonderful things like this?

This year’s Atlanta Magazine’s High School Essay Contest asked students to respond to the question: What is the most pressing civil/human rights issue of your generation? Harrison Saylor, a junior at Flowery Branch High School answered the question with his essay titled: People First: Rethinking how we think of people with disabilities.

I am grateful for Harrison’s contribution and his involvement in the lives of people with disabilities at his high school. I am thankful for the people at Atlanta Magazine for shining a light on this important issue.

The second episode of the Interfaith Disability Connection podcast features an interview by Mark Crenshaw of Reverend Bill Gaventa; keynote speaker of the upcoming 2009 IDC Summit. The conversation provides a preview of the 2009 IDC Summit and it gives listeners a glimpse of Reverend Gaventa’s passion for the full-inclusion of people with disabilities in congregational life.

Reverend Gaventa serves as the Coordinator of Community and Congregational Supports at the Boggs Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Click the play button on the player below to listen to the podcast.

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This article was recently sent to me from an Interfaith Disability Connection volunteer. The article discusses the challenges faced by older adults when they seek to attend their congregations of choice.

I am very interested to read the article. The idea of building coalitions between people with disabilities and people who are aging in congregations has long been a fascinating area for exploration and action for me. The concerns that members of these groups have are similar and the opportunities for action and reflection on inclusion of seniors and people with disabilities can lead to interesting discoveries, in my experience.

Are people who are aging out of participation in your congregations on your radar screen? Have you undertaken projects or discussions in your congregation to consider the needs of the population and the gifts your community risks losing if they are not invited, accommodated, and included?

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.

Click below to download the podcast to your computer:

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The Director of Ministry with People with Disabilities at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta recently invited me to view a webinar produced by the National Catholic Partnership on Disability.

The webinar was titled: Access to Liturgical Spaces: Welcoming ALL To This Place. The webinar lasts an hour and you can access the presentation here.

I was very impressed with the presenters, especially Robert Habiger, who is an architect. Habiger specializes in design of worship spaces. Mr. Habiger introduced participants in the webinar to a design concept called equivalent experience. Habiger says in an article about the concept from the EnvisionChurch.org web site that equivalent experience involves five key principles. The Principles are:

» Be intentional in discussing prejudices.
» Start with a focus on full, conscious and active participation.
» Explore situations disabled people face when in a worship environment.
» Donâ??t succumb to the belief that it is too difficult to accomplish.
» Think inclusivity, not separation.

If you would like to read more about the concept of equivalent experience in liturgical design you can go here and here.

The webinar is informative and the images used to convey Habiger’s concepts are powerful because they offer a fundamental reorientation to some of the common ways we conceive of congregational accessibility.

I would love to here from people who have been actively engaged in planning and implementation of design and renovation of your sacred spaces. Are Habiger’s concepts provocative? Are the feasible in your experience?

I am grateful for my colleague at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta for his willingness to share this resource with me and I am also grateful to the National Catholic Partnership on Disability for using this tool to help parishes be in this important conversation.