Exerpt from: A History of Disability Advocacy in the United Church of Christ by Albert A. Herzog, Jr.:–>
The UCC is one of several mainline Protestant denominations, which in the late 1970’s, embraced a national movement which was to have profound impact on American society. The culmination of this movement came when President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
Two ordained clergy, Harold H. Wilke and Virginia Kreyer, led the disability movement within the UCC. Born with no arms, Wilke was the founder and director of the Healing Community, graduate of many distinguished schools of higher education, chaplain, administrator, and pastor. Born with cerebral palsy, Kreyer was ordained in the American Baptist Church. She served several years as a member of the professional staff to the local affiliate of the United Cerebral Palsy Association. After some time, she joined a local UCC. Kreyer approached the Metropolitan Association requesting to have her credentials recognized.
The officials were interested but required that Ms. Kreyer have a ministry to which she could be assigned. Subsequently, the Association suggested she assume the leadership for the Task Force on Exceptional People which she was ultimately to initiate and direct.
In 1976, this task force decided to present a resolution to the New York Conference. The resolution arrived late and was not considered until its last session. It was only after Ms. Kreyer took the floor and gave an impassioned speech in support of the resolution that The Conference responded by passing it unanimously and referred it to the next General Synod. On Monday, July 4, 1977, the Eleventh General Synod adopted the resolution entitled “The Church and the Handicapped.†Both Kreyer and Wilke gave speeches in favor of the action.
To implement this General Synod resolution, the Advisory Committee on the Church and the Handicapped was formed. This body emerged through name changes to the present United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries, (UCCDM,) is a fully recognized voting member of the Executive Council, and has representation on each of the covenanted ministry boards. In 1992, the UCCDM supported the development of the Mental Illness Network (MIN).
The UCC DM and MIN are shaped today by four primary General Synod resolutions:
1995 – Embrace the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and hold themselves morally bound by the provisions of this act.
· 1999 – The Calling of Clergy with Disabilities
· 1999 – Calling the People of God to Justice for Persons with Serious Mental Illnesses (Brain Disorders)
· 2005 – To wholeness in Christ : “The Minnesota Conference calls on United Church of Christ Conferences, Associations, congregations, seminaries, campus ministries and colleges, camps, covenanted ministries and all other UCC organizations to become accessible to all; to embody a philosophy of inclusion and interdependence; and to support and implement the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990… Not ministry “to” or “for” people with disabilities but ministry “with” and “by” people with disabilities.
