People with Disabilities and the Church During and After the Coronavirus Crisis
How did these COVID-19 restrictions affect people with disabilities, many of whom already felt unwelcome or ignored by their church even in normal times?
A poem – Sensory Processing Disorder
There is a subtle panic in her eyes: she is trying to read me, trying to understand what it is I could want from her, but she picks up nothing at all from my best encouraging face.
The Body and the gift of pain
Being part of the Body of Christ means feeling pain when parts of the Body are not in alignment, and in such a large and diverse Body this will always be the case.
A Window of Opportunity in Self Isolation
Currently we can feel as though we are trapped in our homes. However, there is a window out of self-isolation into the experience of many others; those who must always do life at a slower pace.
The Value of a Life: Triage Ethics and Disability
While in some ways the COVID-19 pandemic is unifying the community around the globe, in others it is legitimating archaic values and hierarchies.
Can we go out today?
These men, despite their depths of hard-won wisdom and delightful companionship, are well-accustomed to strangers keeping their distance in public places. The conditions we ironically bemoan on social media are barely distinguishable from how they have spent most of the days of their lives. They are old pros at quarantine, and they are teaching me.
The Blessings of Witnessing Redemption and Transformation
The Covid 19 pandemic and related precautions have made me realize that the reason my faith excites me is because of opportunities to witness the redemptive power of Christ, or the ways in which God transforms negative events into blessings.
The Prescient Witness of Disability in a Post-Pandemic World
Disability Theology acknowledges that vulnerability is complex. Some are vulnerable because the world is broken. But everyone is in some way vulnerable, and this is not a bad thing.
The Fullness of God’s Kingdom and Righteousness
Seeking God's kingdom and his righteousness is about more than making God your first priority and engaging in spiritual disciplines. Seeking God’s kingdom also means responding to the injustices that we or others experience and advocating for God's kingdom values like love, inclusion and accessibility for all.
Being Befriended: Formation in L’Arche’s Theological Imagination
In the winter of 1999, I found myself on a Greyhound bus travelling from Three Rivers, Michigan to Richmond Hill, Ontario. I was moving to L’Arche Daybreak, one of the many communities of people considered intellectually disabled and nondisabled who share life and faith together. A little excited and a little frightened, I went looking for Christian community and a way to live the Gospel. I wound up finding both those things – and a whole lot more.