Who am I? The whole issue of disabilities ministries has been interwoven in the fabric of my life. I heard stories from my mother who home-taught students with disabilities. She was always trying to figure out how her students could have fulfilling lives. I figured out early that her annual picnic was their high social point. Meanwhile, a neighbor with Type 1 Diabetes and I became best friends.
Later my key thought upon leaving an eighteen-year career in vocational rehabilitation for ordination was that no matter how well we supported people to find jobs and homes, they remained socially isolated. In 1988, I wondered how my church could support people to find God’s community. Developing a mentoring partnership built upon members’ contact networks, we paired members with people new to the community who worked at Goodwill Industries.
Finding the integrative setting, we asked what that would mean for expanding the gifts and capacity of a paired partner. If a member loved square dancing but the setting was socially-segregated, we suggested, “What if you were to do this in an integrative setting?”
Later, I helped involve the church around developing a Disabilities Ministries Task Force in the Central Atlantic Conference.
A member of the National Committee on Disability since1992-1993, I was asked in 1996 to be consultant to the UCCDM. Few days pass without someone contacting me.
I came to 1995 General Synod with the goal of attaching the words, “accessible to all” to “multi-racial, multi-cultural” to Synod minutes. This happened, but the words were soon forgotten. From then on, we have worked to bring them to life.
DM is about developing partnerships, a broad DM network of people with disabilities involved up front. No buzz word, DM is woven into the total life, an integral part of the church.
David Denham, UCC DM Consultant
From UCC DM Newsletter Archive
