Challenging the way churches see disability
Through the Roof and Livability are holding a joint training day on 8 June 2011 in London. Beyond disability: creating a more inclusive and enriched church will be held at the Salvation Army International Headquarters, at the end of the millennium bridge, near St Paul's Cathedral.
Materials will appear here after the event.
A Livability training day was held near York in 2009 designed to help local
churches think about their attitudes to disability and learn how to
welcome and integrate disabled people better.
How inclusive and welcoming is your church?
Are there disabled people in your church? If some attend, would you
know how best to involve them in church life? How does disability fit in
with your view of God? It’s questions like this that we set out to
address at a recent training event for church workers.
The day brought church leaders together with experts and individual
disabled people with the aim of giving them the confidence to build
disabled people into church life. The group discussed many things,
ranging from types of impairment to worship styles that can include
everyone. Attendees heard disabled people talking about their
experiences of church and were able to ask them questions.
The day was a great success, with Livability’s Community Mission team
working closely with staff and residents from York House, our
residential home in Ossett. Many who attended the event committed to
making changes in their attitudes and church life: "I will be more
open-minded to God’s possibilities in everyone, whether disabled or not”
said one. Another decided to "Look for more practical ways to enrich
the experience in church for disabled people”.
The theology of disability, a starter
Bob Brooke, a chaplain for people with learning disabilities, looks at disability in the light of three key Christian doctrines - being made in God's image, the incarnation and the body of Christ.
My faith and my disability
Claire Shanks, who manages a support service for disabled students at Sheffield University, talks about coming to terms with her own disability and other people's attitude towards it.