Updated: September 2020
 

Since 2012 Inclusive Church and St Martin-in-the Fields have worked in partnership to host an annual conference on disability and church. It's centred on lived experience, working with rather than for disabled people - who are the majority of conference planners, speakers and delegates.  It explores experience and ideas, underpinned by robust theology.  It brings people together to resource each other and the church.



We celebrated the first five years of conferences in a  booklet, Calling from the Edge. This shared some ideas from our speakers, and responses from our delegates,with a wider audience.. It increased understanding of disabled people not as passive recipients of the church's ministry, but as active participants in building community and Kingdom.

Disabled people have gifts to offer in the service of our communities, or  feel called to minister in our churches. But many face barriers to getting in and joining in. “I want to be part of church but I can't do it the usual way so I can't do it at all.” “I want to challenge this but I don't know where to start.” How can we change the church – where we are, with what we have?



Something Worth Sharing is a booklet which brings together ideas from our 2018 conference. It offers reflections, responses and resources in access and theology, language and structures, communication and participation. There are things to think about and ideas for action, further reading and practical ways to get started.

 

The printed booklet was launched in October 2019 at our 8th annual conference on disability and church,  St Martin in the Fields, London. We plan to distribute the booklet via a series of events, bringing the ideas to a range of contexts and communities. Unfortunately these are on hold for the time being due to the pandemic.

We have also produced an online version which was launched at the 2019 Greenbelt festival. This is freely available to download. We hope it will be shared widely and be a resource to people across the country and beyond.  We pray it will may unlock gates and open gifts - because we all have Something Worth Sharing.

The booklet can be downloaded from http://www.inclusive-church.org/disability

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