Edith Guffey, Associate General Minister

I think my first real, up-dose experience and exposure to the reality of life for persons with disabilities was in my friendship with Valerie Russell. During the years that Valerie served as the Executive Director of the Office for Church and Society, we became good friends. Following her stroke, when she allowed me, I took her shopping, to dinner, or to other events and places. I began for the first time to really understand how much the world is designed for those who don’t regularly face the additional challenges of walking, opening doors, getting out of cars … and the list goes on and on.

Although my friendship with Valerie was an up-dose and personal look at the problems peoples with disabilities face, my own struggle with a recurring ankle problem brought those realities home even more. Following surgery in 1998, I spent about eight weeks in a wheelchair in a house that was not designed for wheelchairs. I understood, at least to some extent, the additional time and challenges that many face on a daily basis of dressing and navigating the world. I was grateful for an office building that takes accessibility seriously so that I could get around reasonably well.

I have always been supportive of making our churches and buildings accessible, but I don’t know that I ever felt passionate about it. It has been something that was an “of course we should do that: ‘I know and have experienced the passion of persons who serve on the UCC Disabilities Ministries and understand that passion now, just as I understand the passion I have about many things that are at the core of my very being. It is important that our statements of being a multiracial and a multicultural church also include statements about being a church accessible to all.

We don’t always know who has a disability or who with a disability might come to our churches. Accessibility is a sign of welcome to whoever comes. When I go to a church that has taken actions to remove physical barriers, that has large print worship bulletins, pew cuts for wheelchairs, or assisted listening devices, I began to form a picture of a community of faith that is conscious of being inclusive.

Even though I may not need any of these things, it tells me this church sees itself as a welcoming and open community and wants any person who might come to that church to be able to be fully included in the worship experience. We simply cannot be an inclusive church if there are barriers that keep certain persons from the full participation in the life of our churches.

I do believe that my experience in being friends with Valerie, and seeing her live as a person with a disability, opened my eyes in a way that doesn’t happen by reading words on pieces of papers. My own experience, while minor in the whole scheme of things, has given me a glimpse of the importance of removing any barriers that might exist that prevent persons from becoming involved and in our churches and in our life in the national setting of the church as well. Personal experiences are life-changing and having persons with disabilities as part of our worshiping communities, as part of our meetings, as part of our governing boards bring us perspectives and experiences that are irreplaceable.

Even as I write this, I know that we are not always able to do and be all that we might want to be. Having served as the Administrator of the General Synod since 1995, I am very conscious in our planning to look carefully at hotels and convention centers for accessibility. It’s a quality we take very seriously and one that we continue working hard at in our planning. Sometimes we fall short — and when we do, we use what we learned for the next event we are planning and ways to continually meet the challenges of being a church that is accessible to all.

We are learning … it was helpful to hear that referring to paper by color is a problem for those who are color blind, or having people stand to be counted for a particular vote could be a problem … how could we not have thought of that?

The UCC Disabilities Ministry is an important partner in this work and a resource that we have begun to call on more frequently. I hope the day will come when we all really understand and all of us will claim more fully the call to be a church that is truly accessible to all.

From UCC DM Newsletter Archive