The meeting was kicked off by a presentation from Dennis Kelly. Dennis work’s for Catholic Construction and Chairs the Inclusion Committee at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Lilburn, GA. Below check out some photos from their amazing renovation:

The renovation started with a commitment from the priest-in-charge to build the most accessible facility they could dream. People with a diversity of abilities and disabilities were consulted all along the process. There were a number of places where the church exceeded the ADA code or where the took the experiences of end-users with disabilities as the guide.

The result was a wonderfully accessible facility!

The priest-in-charge then brought together an inclusion committee. The charge to the committee was to use the parish’s accessibility as a platform to think about full-inclusion in the life of the parish

During the next part of the meeting Mark Crenshaw briefly presented a PowerPoint that featured what IDN has learned about supporting congregations on their journey’s toward full-inclusion:

Practical Steps to a More Inclusive Congregation (1)

Mark then promised that he would share links to surveys of accessibility and inclusion that members could use with their congregations:

Accessibility Assessment from Accessible Faith Progeam

Accessibility Assessment Used By IDN

Accessibility Assessment from The Unitarian Universalist Association 2010

Parish Accessibility Survey from Disabilities Ministry, Archdiocese of Atlanta

The meeting was hosted by Reverend Gerald Durley and the Community at Providence Missionary Baptist Church.

The meeting ended with Dr. Durley telling his own story of beinf labeled with a disability and therefore being put into a “box.” He then spoke about his church’s call to be accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities.

He ended by calling attendees to build the next civil rights movement to build a more just world for people with disabilities and their families!

IDN is grateful to Dr. Durley and Providence Missionary Baptist Church, to Dennis Kelly and St. Joh Neumann Catholic Church and to all of the advocates and self advocates who are building this movement together!

I came across this prayer this weekend while preparing for Access Sunday at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Grant Park. I would love to know what these images communicate to you? Thoughts?

I would love to hear your thoughts?

A Prayer For Peace and Wholeness (Shalom and Shleimut)

The conversation is with a man named Rich who says, “people react weird to people with disabilities like me. They act like disability is something they can catch, like it’s infectious” I read the quote from Rich and I am struck by the ways that knowledge of the “other” casts out fear and creates opportunities for empathy.

I was having a conversation with an Episcopal Priest a couple of weeks ago when he said, “All of the significant opportunities for growth that I have experienced in my life have been opportunities that came about in encounters wit difference. I learn the most when I encounter people who are not like me.” This conversation offers me a great deal of hope about what is possible as we educate people in faith communities about people with disabilities. Please notice that I did not say as we educate people in faith communities about disabilities. The education we do must engage congregations in hearing and learning about PEOPLE who happen to have disabilities. IDN’s ongoing efforts at education and continued engagement must tell the stories of PEOPLE.

The reason I am so disheartened when I read and hear quotes like the one from Rich above is because quotes like that reveal that by and large people in communities just don’t know what they need to know in order to be able to engage people with disabilities as people who are created in the image of the Divine. These are people who have been granted gifts by the Creator. These gifts need to be shared in communities. The sharing of these gifts can and does lead to the healing and transformation of the world (Tikkun Olam)

If what I have written above is true, where do we begin in our efforts to educate our communities? I believe we begin with our religious leaders. I have seen over the years that the support or buy-in form a religious leader can go a long way in opening the door in a congregation’s efforts to engage this vital conversation. I have also seen too many instances to recount, where a religious leader who fails to grasp the power of inclusion makes a family feel unwelcome in a congregation.

IDN and our advocates have so much knowledge, so many resources, so many stories and so much expertise to share with clergy and lay people in congregations. I guess what I would love to know from people with disabilities and the people who love them is this:

What does your faith leader do (or say) that says to you (and others) that your gifts, skills and abilities are welcome in your congregation?

or

What do you wish your faith leader would do (or say) to you (and others) that would communicate that he/she welcomes your gifts, skills and abilities?

When I was 14 or 15 the pastor became convinced the God wanted to heal (cure) me of the effects of cerebral palsy. The pastor would call me to the altar each Sunday, anoint me with oil and pray that God would heal (cure) me. This went on for a number of months. I was never cured of the physical effect of my cerebral palsy. The pastor first became convinced that he was praying for the wrong thing and asked my family and I to explain what cerebral palsy was so he could make sure the correct words. There came a time when the pastor began to believe that his prayers weren’t the impediment to me receiving “my healing.” He then started asking me questions about un-confessed sins and wondering aloud if I really wanted to be free of my disability.

What I wanted when I was 15 and what I desire for myself and all of us now is the same. I want to inhabit congregations and communities where disabilities are not perceived to be impediments to lives fully lived and gifts, skills, and abilities shared for the healing and transformation of the world.

I have given talks and presented workshops to churches, synagogues, masajid and temples over the years and I have tried to speak words of hope and possibility to the people who have honored this vital conversation with their presences and participation. I have spoken words of hope and possibility because I am hopeful that churches, synagogues, masajid and temples all over this country WILL become places where people with disabilities and their temporarily able bodied fellow members share their gifts, skills and abilities together.

I sometimes choose to believe this in the face of evidence that speaks otherwise. Reverend Bill Gaventa says that when you ask families to tell the stories of their congregations you will either hear great stories of communities creating opportunities for belonging and community or you will hear terrible stories of exclusion and humiliation at the hands of religious people.

I know that stories of humiliation and hope are being written in congregations every day. The stories of entrance denied, of dignity trampled on, of gifts unrecognized serve to break my heart. My heart breaks because I know that congregations are turning away opportunities to help themselves become the communities that the Holy one is calling them to become.

There stories of access denied, of dignity denied, of the image of God denied threaten to force me to curse the darkness and begin to claim that religious leaders will never catch up to the wonderful, life-giving work God desires to do in our religious communities. These stories make me angry and depressed.

I know that stories of humiliation and hope are being told every day as well and these stories too often serve to tell people who live with disabilities and their families that religious communities are not place where they can seek to live as fully human, fully included people made in the most excellent of all molds (the Image of the Divine).

Where then is the content of my hope?

The content of my hope lies in congregations and communities who are engaging in the messy work of re-membering, calling back together ALL of the members to be the community we are called to be together.

These are stories where parish priests affirm that working with people with mental illness is the work that helps them come alive. These are stories where congregations covenant to stand with families with members with disabilities no matter what. These are stories where seminarians sit around a class room table and gain tools, resources and language to make the congregations they will lead places where everyone finds community and belonging.

The experience that I recounted at the beginning of this post plunged me into a dark night of the soul that lasted for a couple of years. I confused the my church’s un-willingness to accept me, as I was, with what I perceived to be G-d’s unwillingness to claim me. G-d and I were not on speaking terms for quite a while.

It was in college in 1994-1995 when I was introduced to a church called Community of Hope. This church was appropriately named if one ever was. The church was a place where people living with HIV/AIDS came and were accepted. It was a place where single parents found support. It was a place where people from every social class could worship together. It was a place that was committed to welcoming all of God’s people!

I began to experience unconditional love, acceptance, and healing (not cure, but healing) In fact, it was in this place that G-d 1st planted the seeds in me that I was acceptable and uniquely gifted. It was here ,for the first time, in the church(!) that I knew I could be a person with cerebral palsy and a valued member of a community. I understood that I could inhabit my body without apology!

I have hope because G-d met me, in a community, and spoke to me about how important I was to G-d and to my community.

I have hope because in the face of religious leaders and congregations who don’t yet know how to reflect the image of G-d who says, “YOU are valuable, YOU are Mine, and I love YOU!” There are people committed to stepping out in the midst of uncertainty and fear. There are people committed to naming the silences and telling and hearing life giving stories.

This post was prompted by my re-encountering a ritual in a book titled Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church. The volume was edited by my friend, Reverend Kelly Turney. The ritual is titled: A Ritual of Hope The ritual comes from the Community of Hope in Tulsa and it is the community’s promise to journey with Barb and her son, Daniel, who lives with autism as they seek to better supports for Daniel.

I have hope because their are wonderfully loving, supportive, courageous people in the world who aren’t afraid to call each other by name and committ to support each other whatever comes.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said, “The moral ark of the universe is long and it bends toward justice” and I will add to that the idea that there are courageous people who are willing to do the the work to bend it when justice doesn’t come as quickly as it should.

This post will be my attempt to share a synopsis of ideas and resources that were shared at the meeting. If you are reading this and would like to amend the list please feel free to add your thoughts, ideas and resources to the ones shared here.

Here are resources mentioned by speakers during the presentations yesterday:

Stacey Ramirez, Director of Individual and Family Supports, Center on Leadership and Disability,Georgia State University

Thanks to Stacey for coming to share about her passion around helping people with disabilities live their dreams and pursue their passions. She shared about a process called

Person Centered Planning that begins by asking the question,”What are you passionate about and how can we make sure you get to do that?

Credo for Support video

Waddie Welcome and The Beloved Community

Resources from Reverend Kim McGarr, Minister to People with Disabilities and Older Adults, Mount Bethel United Methodist Church:

I’m Tyler Video

Pat Kahn, Director of Religious Education at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta sent the following resources that she has found helpful in religious education with children with Autism and Pat also provided some resources that have proved helpful in educating her congregation about autism:

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
this is the book that really impacted me years ago–

http://www.williamstillman.com/ books and website
Especially his book Demystifying the Autistic Experience: A Humanistic Introduction for Parents, Caregivers and Educators

http://www.autismspeaks.org/ lots of good information
on the blog, there’s an announcement about a CDC workshop open to the public on Feb 1

http://www.templegrandin.com/ Thinking in Pictures, the movie and her TED talk (and I just ordered a copy of another book she wrote The Way I See It)

http://stanleygreenspan.com/ Stanley Greenspan
Engaging Autism and The Learning Tree (which I have not read yet but just ordered - didn’t realize that he had died)

http://www.marasapon-shevin.org/index.php Mara Sapon-Shevin
Because We Can Change the World and Widening the Circle

Thanks go also to The Reverend Benno Pattison sharing the parish hall at the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany and for sharing his story about what his family has learned about life together because Benno has a daughter who lives with autism.

The National Dissemination Center for Children with disabilities provides fact sheets that offer information about specific disabilities, tips for families, tips for teachers and resources for further consideration. The link to the fact sheet about Autism is here.

IDN Provided a list of Autism resources. The majority of the resources are for the education of the community about autism. I will add some resources for curriculum later in this post as I get to the the resources that were shared by our presenters. The resource is below:

From IDN:
The Inclusive Church Blog: http://theinclusivechurch.wordpress.com/
This blog is written by Amy Fenton Lee and covers many topics related to beginning/maintaining a ministry with people with disabilities. The blog’s target audience is Christian churches.

Religion and Ethics News Weekly (July 2, 2009) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/july-3-2009/faith-communities-and-disability/3440/
This episode features Christian, Jewish and Muslim Communities and their responses to people with disabilities in their midst. The episode specifically features a young Muslim boy who has Autism.The feature tells the story of the masjid and it’s welcome to the boy and his family.

Dr. Roy Sanders Dr. Sanders is the Medical Director at the Marcus Autism Center and a parent of a son with autism. This book provides the expertise of a medical professional and the practical strategies of a a person who has lived the experience of which he writes.
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=life_fam_religion

Autism and Spirituality (revised April 2007) formerly: Information on Autism for Religious Education Teachers Following a brief historical overview, the article describes some common behavior patterns for people with autism as well as some tips for the religious education teacher. (5 pages plus resource listing) -Written by Charlotte Hawkins-Shepard Ph.D. -Copyright by General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. See link: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/health/disc or contact: Charlotte Hawkins-Shepard Ph.D. at rwchshepard@yahoo.com”>

Are there other ideas or resources that you would add to the list? Please leave them in the comments section

The next meeting of the Advisory Committee will be held on Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Please watch this space and our Facebook Page and Twitter feed for more information.

Connect with IDN on Facebook and on Twitter

IDN gathered yesterday with two wonderfully diverse group of people with and without disability to learn from each other about the keys to hospitality and inclusion.

We watched this video:

We then discussed the question: How do you know when you’re included?

The discussion was lively and engaging! Some of the responses included:

When I am listened to
When I am called by name
When I am asked to participate
When I am made to feel like my perspective is important
When I am spoken to appropriately
When I am invited to share my gifts and talents

Attendees then went on to discuss victories and challenges that they have experienced in the houses of worship related to their communities’ journey toward full-inclusion of people with disabilities and their families.

Khayriyyah Faiz made an insightful presentation about the guiding principles that are used at The Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam when hospitality hosts and hostesses are trained. Attendees responded by saying that if a host/hostess lived those principles then everyon would feel welcome in the community. The other interesting discover among participants was that the principles of hospitality are universal. The practices of hospitality cross religious lines. as well as, disability/ temporairily-able bodied categories.

Thank you to Sister Khayriyyah for sharing out of her congregation’s experience!

The Advisory Committee also spent some time discussing topics for disability awareness that they would like to see included in future training. These trainings will be integrated into future meeting so that members can strengthen their understanding and ability to advocate for the full-inclusion of people with all types of disabilities. Some ideas included:

Training and information sharing about intellectual/cognitive disabilities

Sharing ideas about the ways people with disabilities are already working in congregation as a way of learning from everyone’s experience and creating more opportunities in all of the congregations represented

Training about fully-incorporating members with mental illness in our congregations

Exploring common threads and experiences across diverse cultures

Here is a copy of the PowerPoint from yesterday’s meeting:

Advisory Committee Meeting 9.23.10

Thank you to IDN Advisory Committee Co-Chairs Betty Hasan-Amin and Pat Kahn for their leadership. Also, a huge word of thanks to Imamm Furqan Muhammad and the community at Masjid Al Mu’Minun for hosting us yesterday!

If you weren’t able to attend yesterday you were missed! If you did attend thank you for your time, your voice and your experience!

Do you want to help your congregation become a place where all of God’s people are welcome. Leave a comment with your contact information or send a message to Mark Crenshaw

There were 20 powerful people with and without disabilities in the room! We shared stories about the experience each person has seeing their congregation changed for the better by working for full-inclusion of people with disabilities and their families. There were Presbyterians, United Methodists, Members of the Jewish Community, Muslims, Unitarian Universalists, Baptists,Non-Denominational and Seventh Day Adventists in the room. It was an amazing group of old and new friends of IDN!

After we shared our stories and our successes the group brainstormed a list of accomplishments they had witnessed in their congregations. The list included:

Ramps
Accessible restrooms
assisted listening devices
sign language interpreters
chair lifts
large print
accessible water fountains
more accessible parking
curb cuts
automatic doors
language used in sermons
participation of people with disabilities
expanding leadership of people with disabilities
Shabbat service dedicated to disability issues
Jewish disability awareness month (Feb) is now national (and international)
seminars on autism to educate the congregation
use of internet to broadcast services
captioning in internet services
accessible websites
rabbi toured building using a wheelchair to experience first hand
same approach in educating children and teens
have achieved an atmosphere where inclusion takes on a life of its own
moving from ministry TO people with disabilities to ministry WITH
increased support from senior leadership

The list was an amazing testimony to the stories. expertise and experience in room. The members of the Advisory Committee in the room all said that as a result of their experiences in their congregations they could teach someone in a another congregation to do what they have done.

We are building a powerful movement of advocates! We need you to join this movement with YOUR EXPERIENCE, YOUR STORIES and YOUR POWER! We are building a movement to locate and engage advocates in every congregation so that we can all benefit from being together on this journey. We dream of a day when every house of worship will be a place of love, acceptance and opportunity for ALL People The meeting on the 2nd was exciting, but it was only the tip of the iceberg.

Will you join us on this journey? If you will send an e-mail to Mark@Interfaithdisability.org Tell us a story and join this powerful movement!

You can also tell your story in the comments to this post.

Yesterday I drove over to Carrollton to attend the Funeral Mass for a woman who had been born with Down Syndrome.

As I neared the church I noticed that intersecting streets were being blocked by police department personnel. When I actually got to the church, it was already nearly full. I had to park behind the church. Walking around the church building to the front, I watched as the hearse and family cars arrived. The city had provided a full funeral procession with police riding motorcycles front and back. Waiting at the front door were current and previous pastors. The thought actually crossed my mind that I might be at the wrong funeral.

However, I found the church full of her friends, acquaintances, and coworkers. One reason they were so numerous was because she had been an active member of the parish hospitality ministry. She had also been a greeter at the supermarket where she worked. It had taken her nearly a year to die, and there were several members of the medical profession and hospital staff attending as well.

The other reason was because she treated all those she encountered with a special kind of cordiality. This cordiality was honest. It was not judgmental. Really, it was a kind of loving. The priest said she had been a reflection of God’s love. That she had been specifically sent as a great teacher for the rest of us about the nature of love.

The celebrant took that passage about love they so often read at weddings. He took each one of those descriptions (“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous,” etc.), and he tied it to an event or “snapshot” in this woman’s life that described her loving nature.

Although obviously well prepared, he was doing all this without notes; just standing there holding the Bible open to First Corinthians. Finally, the beauty of what he was telling caught up with even him. He said: “I have to stop talking now, before I start to cry.” And he sat down.

Mark, all this began years ago when a previous pastor insisted that she be included in the hospitality ministry of that parish. It was from there that she developed the skills that got her the jobs she held. It was from there that she earned such profound respect from that entire community.

Mark, this event is so exemplary as to what IDN is all about. It also refreshed the vocational meaning of my life. And yes, I disgraced myself by openly weeping during Mass all the while sitting in the middle of a bunch Protestants.

Do you have a story to share about why inclusion matters?

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