Article written by Norma S. Mengel, June 2000
Comments closedCategory: Print Publications
Editor’s note: The following article by Rev. Donna Schaper, Association Minister, Massachusetts Conference, originally appeared in Colleague, September, 1999.
I took an unexpected class trip last month when I pulled a tendon playing tennis. I found myself at a national convention of my church for a full week rooming with and in a wheelchair. When the tendon insisted that I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t imagine not going to the Synod, and I couldn’t imagine going. Thus the compromise of the wheelchair and the non-stop joke from old, good friends about how “long they had wanted to push me around.”
Comments closedThe Rev. Doris Powell has been the Director of Finance and Treasurer of the United Church of Christ since 1990. In the current structure, she is one of three officers of the Church, along with the President and the Secretary. This is not a position she ever expected to hold. But then, a lot of things in her life have not been as she expected. Until she was in her early 30s, Doris was a physically active person. She loved backpacking, canoeing, camping – any noncompetitive outdoor sport that got her into nature. She looked forward to living some day in Colorado where she planned on hiking to her heart’s content. All of that changed when she was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis. For the first six months, she had constant acute pain. Then, medication and an exercise regimen began to help, and she felt very thankful not to be in as much pain.
Comments closedLooking Into the Glass Dimly At the time of this writing, Bernice Powell Jackson was Executive Minister, JWM. For the past six years we in…
Comments closedWritten by Tony Lewis In 1993, just before General Synod 19 in St. Louis, my partner, Donald Lawrence, and I, Tony Lewis, stayed with a…
Comments closedYou open your church’s front door and enter without a thought. If advancing years or a temporary, progressive, or permanent disability has diminished your strength, you may still open the door enough for a foot or shoulder wedge. Then, thrusting your body against the door, you are in. That is, if you could grasp the handle while managing a walker or cane. Or, you pound on the door and wait because you are a child or your wheelchair reach does not afford the leverage necessary to budge the door.
Comments closedJeanne Tyler is UCC DM Co-Chairperson.
Comments closedWho am I?
just a woman
with CP* and poor hearing.
A woman who falls down more than I
should
Who am I?
breaker of the bread
made holy and whole
our bodies ache for holiness.
Who am I?
knower of the story as well as teller
healer as well as healed
I know.
