While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace be with you, and they were startled and frightened thinking they saw a ghost.  He then said to them, why are you troubled?  And why do doubts rise in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet it is I myself, touch me and see a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see, I have. (Luke 24: 36-41)

“Here we find the disciples encountering the risen Christ.  The Startling thing is that the risen Christ still carries the wounds of the resurrection”  (Nancy Eisland, The Disabled God)

When all of you come to church on Sunday, you’ll see that the furniture has been somewhat rearranged and the pulpit is now on the floor, and the communion table is on the platform with the choir.  Paul, Bob and Vicky have been working on making our building more accessible and we ran into a snag with the platform because the work to bring the whole choir down to the floor would mean that the whole floor in the sanctuary has to be rebuilt, and to put a two step lift up to the platform would huge bucks that we aren’t sure would be wise stewardship of our finances.  But our Property crew recognized that I needed the pulpit to be on floor, so they moved around the furniture.  We think it looks nice.  Calvin even found me a chair with arms that I can have over to the side. 

I love that you all care enough about me to accommodate my disability.  Trust me.  Its not a universal approach in our beloved UCC.

This week I participated in a Zoom call with the UCC where we specifically discussed the experience of those of us with disabilities in the church.  There’s been a ton of research in the last couple of years on Equity in the church; the Executive Summary for this research is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZoN30Hmo4D1d38AP0Kq16SCsyG7sswra/view.

The whole idea of disability equity is a side passion of mine.  You all know this, because I preach about it on a regular basis.  One of the privileges I have is that you all are stuck listening to my opinions week after week!  I do try and ground what I have to say in the Lectionary and in solid research and an open mind, buuuuuutttttt I also know that my passions sometimes crowd into my sermons.  I’m passionate about the experience of disabled United Church peeps because, well, I’m disabled.  I also hear all the time about your experiences with disability and how its hard to navigate the world around you; especially if your disabilities are new.  I’m sad when I hear things like “Oh I don’t come to church anymore because I can’t do the things I used to” or “I don’t need help, I just will stay away”.  Because I don’t want you to stay away.  I want you to be able to be part of our community in the best way you can; or even just in the only way you can. 

During the Zoom call we found out that 27% of the Canadian population over the age of 15 identifies as disabled.  (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/231201/dq231201b-eng.htm).  Just to give you perspective, we have around 40-50 people in worship on Sunday morning, so that would make, in theory about 14 of you as saying that you have a disability.  Because, we’re all over the age of 15, right!  I could drill down the stats a little more and find out how many people over the age of 65 identify as having a disability, but intuitively we know that it must be higher.  So, whaddya think?  Maybe 20 of us have a disability in worship on Sunday morning?

Except.

According to the 2012 (so wayyyyyy before Covid, right!) UCC document called “Theology of Disabilities” only 5% of UCC members self-identify as being disabled.  Why is this?  Why is there such a difference in numbers? 27% of the General Canadian population identifies as disabled, yet only 5% of the UCC members identify as disabled.  What is it about church that means that people with disabilities don’t go?

One of the people on the Zoom call named attending church as ‘daunting’.  I wish I’d had more time to talk to her about that, to find out exactly what was daunting.  Was it navigating our older spaces?  Was it the ableism they encountered when they arrived at church?  Was it the sheer emotional and physical toll of getting out the door and getting to our buildings?  Another person talked about having people treat her like she was an irritant or an annoyance when she asked for accommodation for her disability.  She felt like they thought she was being too demanding when asking for access. 

And my heart broke. 

And then I remembered my own experiences with the higher courts of the church; you remember that infamous Regional meeting where I couldn’t get covenanted to a leadership team because I couldn’t get on the platform?  You remember the times I have been met with eye rolls and “no that can’t possibly happen” when I’ve asked for accommodation?  I’m a broad-shouldered person and most of the time I just move on from these micro-aggressions; but you know the old saying of “death by a thousand cuts?”

And just this week, there was a call for the General Council 45 Equity Support team that I briefly considered, until I saw this: “This team would additionally be strengthened by someone who brings an intercultural lens to this work based on lived experience as an Indigenous, racialized, or francophone person, or leadership with Indigenous, racialized, or francophone communities, or those that include a diversity of cultures.”  Basically they are saying that they would prefer specific equity-seeking people over others.  Ok.  I get that.  Except the same document that I linked above – the one produced by the UCC itself, indicates very specifically that there are more disabled people than other equity seeking people, AND that disabled people are under-represented at all committee levels of the church. 

So the bottom line is that those of us who are disabled; an ever increasing number in our churches because of age and the Pandemic, are being marginalized by the church STILL.  Despite all the reports written and discussed.  Despite what we know theologically about God loving and accepting us all; about God as Jesus experiencing disability from the resurrection; despite our faith stories that remind us that we are ‘wonderfully made’ as we are. 

I love that my own community embraces me and allows me to preach from the floor when I can’t get up on the platform.  I love that we have a new bathroom with grab bars and a sink that a wheelchair can get under (and it looks pretty thanks to Vicky!).  I’m so grateful for the outside door with a push button.  I mostly love that you don’t even blink when I ask for accommodation, and that for most of you caring for each other comes naturally.  We are an amazing community.  And yet there’s a long way to go in the wider church. 

I wish I knew an immediate solution to this.  All I know to do is to tell people, and endure the eye rolls and the dismissal I get in other church locations.  Because I know that I can come ‘home’ to you all and you strengthen me; and other disabled people don’t have this privilege. 

And it is a privilege.  You are a privilege.  Thank you so much for this.  Because of this I can advocate for all the disabled UCCers that don’t have you. 

Blessings today and remember you are loved.

~Rev. Lynne