Comments on: My Two Halves of Life

By: Lorna Hamilton,UK-22

Lorna Hamilton,UK-22 — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 20:01:44 +0000

I very much resonate with your story of two halves and I thank you so much for sharing that part of your story. It is encouraging to see how God has used your passion and understanding to communicate the love of Christ in such a powerful way. I love the line you used, ‘And there was God among the weak, vulnerable and the broken’. What a beautiful image of service, in massaging oil into the hands and feet of these children.
Your blog without a doubt, challenged me and made me consider my own thoughts and attitudes. I realise so much of my overlooking children and families with profound disability is rooted in ignorance and being uncomfortable in not knowing how to react or respond. Like Franceska, I would be keen to learn from you, and understand how we can best welcome and value adults and children with diverse learning needs into the church and our community.

By: Franceska Dante, UK-22

Franceska Dante, UK-22 — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 19:17:14 +0000

In reply to Franceska Dante, UK-22. Oh, and I am definitely picking your brains at Ammerdown for ways in which I can begin to offer a welcome to people of diverse learning and sensory needs!

By: Franceska Dante, UK-22

Franceska Dante, UK-22 — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 19:15:51 +0000

Wow! I too have a passion for the embrace and acceptance of disability in church (I prefer these terms to ‘inclusion’ or ‘equality’). In my case, it’s adults with learning disabilities that really interest me (obviously, many also have physical, emotional or developmental disabilities too). The passion = passive = what is done to you of Jesus is to some extent part of the lived experience of so many disabled people that it must surely become a spiritual gift? Yes, I’d love to see people of all ages with disabilities in church (and I keep making representation to the clergy that there are simple ways that we could facilitate this for some people, at least). I am currently stuck between the ‘we must make sure that people with disabilities are welcomed into our main services’ and the ‘but why shouldn’t we have a separate service that aims to cater to diverse needs’. I feel that the solution may lie in starting with a targeted service where anyone is welcome if it happens to suit their needs / preferences and then fostering a crossover of people between the two according to their own wishes. I do not intend to try to teach or convert adults with learning disabilities in the conventional way – I feel that it is more important to suggest a general topic and to listen to their (often profound) insight and to relate it to scripture on their terms. If we are all called to come to Christ as a child, surely these are the people who have the least difficulty in doing so? We should be learning from them.