We are thankful for this month's learning moment from the Committee on Disabilities, offering excerpts from inspirational words that were created by the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Disabilities Advocates Network (EDAN) with participation from the Faith and Order Commission. This document, while not meant to be comprehensive, "offers pointers and insights on major theological themes" having to do with the inclusion of persons with disabilities as full participants in the life of the Church.

Rev. Dr. Devorah Greenstein works at the intersections of theology, disability studies, and developmental psychology. She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister recently retired from eight years of service as Director of her denomination’s Office of Accessibility Concerns, and she continues her institutional calling as the Chair of the National Council of Churches Committee on Disabilities. She is currently a visiting research fellow at Yale Divinity School, and serves as adjunct faculty at one of the Unitarian Universalist seminaries, Starr King School for the Ministry, a member of the Graduate Theological Union.

Publications:

Helping Children who are Deaf 2003 Berkeley, Calif., Hesperian Foundation Simple Gifts 2000 Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Cooperative
Extension Easy things to make – to make things easy, 1997 Cambridge Mass., Brookline Books
Backyards and Butterflies: Ways to Include Children with Disabilities, 1995 Cambridge Mass., Brookline Books

As the author of the letter to the Ephesians stressed: Christ came to tear down the walls (Eph 2:14). Whenever we consider the ways in which to respond to issues of disability, we do well to remember the walls that we have set up. All of these walls are so human, yet they contradict Christ’s ministry of reconciliation; walls that shut people in or shut people out; walls that prevent people from meeting and talking to others... walls of shame; walls of prejudice; walls of hatred; walls of competition; walls of fear; walls of ignorance; walls of theological prejudice and cultural misunderstanding. The Church is called to be an inclusive community, to tear down the walls. (p.1)

All life is a gift from God, and there is an integrity to this creation. We read in Genesis (1:31) that after creating all of heaven and earth and every form of life, God saw that "… indeed, it was very good." God did not say it was "perfect". With the breath of life, God has imbued each person with dignity and worth. We believe that humanity is "created in the image and likeness of God," (Gen 1:26) with each human bearing aspects of that divine nature yet no one of us reflecting God fully or completely. Being in God’s image does not just mean bearing this likeness, but the possibility of becoming as God intends.

This includes all people, whatever their abilities or impairments. It means that every human being is innately gifted and has something to offer that others need. This may be simply one’s presence, one’s capacity to respond to attention, to exhibit some sign of appreciation, and love for other people. Each has something unique to contribute (1 Cor 12:12-27) and should thus be considered as a gift. We cannot speak about this "giftedness" without also speaking about each person's limitations. They are the basis of our need of each other and of God, irrespective of the labeling of our abilities. Living in this interdependence opens us to one another and to a deeper, more honest, self-knowledge, and so makes us each more fully human, more fully people of communion, more fully realizing the Imago Dei we bear... (p.11)

The church is by definition a place and a process of communion, open to and inviting all people without discrimination. It is a place of hospitality and a place of welcome, in the manner that Abraham and Sarah received God’s messengers in the Old Testament (Gen. 18). It is an earthly reflection of a divine unity that is at the same time worshipped as Trinity. It is a community of people with different yet complementary gifts. It is a vision of wholeness as well as of healing, of caring and of sharing at once.

Just as the body is one and has many members so it is with Christ. (1 Cor 12:12)

We all accept and proclaim that this is what the church is and stands for. It is the basis of our unity as Christians. Then why is it that, all too often, certain people among us and around us (usually those whom we consider as being unfamiliar or as strangers, as different or perhaps disabled) are marginalized and even excluded? Wherever this happens, even by passive omission, the church is not being what it is called to become. The church is denying its own reality. In the church, we are called to act differently… Disability does not affect only certain individuals, but involves all of us together as the people of God in a broken world. It is our world that is shattered, and each of us comprise one small, fragile, and precious piece. We all hold the treasure of God’s life in earthen vessels (cf. 2 Cor 4:7). Yet we hold it; and, what is more, we hold it together. In our attitudes and actions toward one another, at all times, the guiding principle must be the conviction that we are incomplete, we are less than whole, without the gifts and talents of all people. We are not a full community without one another. Responding to and fully including people with disabilities is not an option for the churches of Christ. It is the church’s defining characteristic.

Every child and every adult, those with disabilities and those without disabilities alike, will bring specific and special gifts and talents to the church. This is the challenge addressed to us all. Thus we can truly be A Church of All and for All - a church which reflects God's intention for humankind.

May we who are made in your image, O God, mirror your compassion, creativity and imagination as we work to reshape our society, our buildings, our programs, and our worship so that all may participate. In you we are no longer alone, but united in one body. Trusting in your wisdom and grace, we pray gratefully in Jesus' name. AMEN

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