After last Sunday’s 10:00 Eucharist, we had a Sunday Showcase, highlighting nearly fifteen years of the work of the St Martin’s Disability Advisory Group (DAG) which is a focus for issues that particularly apply to deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people in our church community and as a group provides mutual support. Some members of the DAG spoke about their personal experience, challenges and, in the title of a previous conference, some ‘Barriers to Belonging’. We annually ask questions along the form of ‘The thing I find hardest about the environment is…’ and ‘I would join in more if…’.
This year also sees the 14th Annual Conference, organised in a partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church. The aim of these conferences has been to hold a space for disabled people to gather, to resource each other and the church. Initially, people travelled from afar to St Martin’s and for the last five years they have been online. This year, for the first time, the conference will be hybrid – both on-site and online.
The title this year is Can These Bones Live? Disability, wilderness, hope & God. Like the prophet Ezekiel, disabled people can feel overwhelmed by the places we inhabit. Surrounded by bones – the difficulties of life and the hostility and injustice of our culture – we can easily lose hope. But God asks us the question, ‘Can these bones live?’. Can we believe that hope will take root and new life grow?
The Saturday has limited places and is aimed at disabled people. The focus expands on the Sunday to include liturgy at morning Eucharist written by members of the DAG and there will be a film in the afternoon with a disability focus. Please do join on Sunday October 19 and, if you are able, offer to support the conference in practical ways on Saturday October 18.
It strikes me that the key question is ‘What can help me be the best ‘me’ that God wants me to be?’. And that’s not just a question for the DAG but for all of us.
Jeff Claxton
