By Rita McInerney

The church as the symbol of home was the theme of Zebe Y.C. Schmitt, executive director of the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities at the seminar on “The Church and Disability Concerns” held Nov. 6.

The day-long seminar drew about 80 people, including many with disabilities. For both clergy and laity, it was offered to provide practical suggestions from a biblical, theological perspective and from personal experience about ways churches can become more caring communities for persons with disabilities. It was sponsored by the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta and held at Peachtree Christian Church.

Ms. Schmitt described with love and humor how a small country church in Jesup and its members supported her during the long and painful struggle she endured after getting polio at the age of five.

“I have to go by the church,” she told her parents every time they started the journey to Warm Springs for treatment. Always, the church gave her strength as they left for each of the seven operations she required. Coming home each time the church gave her joy and celebration. Through iron lung, crutches, hand braces, the little church and the country school she attended were a continuing miracle of friendship, love and expectation.

“My peers helped me to use my hands,” the slender blonde woman told her attentive audience. Recalling how she played handball as a child, she said at the urging of her friends she took off her hand braces and “hit a home run.” They had faith that she could hit the ball and she did, she said.

She talked of the language of imagery, stereotypes, clichés from a personal viewpoint. “Special child” she termed unfair. “We may become special people with the support needed to realize our greatest potential. Let us be people, children first.”

“Stricken” is another word not in her vocabulary. “No. I am a person who had polio, crippled I am not.”

“Mental retardation” and another label, “retardates” were mentioned. “How would you feel if you were referred to as a ‘normate’? Maybe someday we will be just people.” Other terms in need of rethinking are “wheelchair bound” and “confined to.”

“They conjure up visions of ropes and chains. We are people who use wheelchairs. We need to build a language reflective of people, not the disability. We need you to work with us and for us.”

Her faith in God and the unwavering support of her church friends reinforced her through the pain and loneliness of her battle against polio, three miscarriages before the birth of her son, John, now 20, the death of her first husband, and two mastectomies.

“The church was always there. Having the church door open is important to me. I need to go in and kneel and talk to my friend,” she concluded.

The seminar opened with an address by Dr. David T. Shannon, vice president for academic affairs and professor of Old Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. From chapter nine in St. John’s Gospel he said, “In the midst of his life, Jesus saw a man blind from birth,” was sensitive to his presence and healed him of his blindness. But we, he added, “use our busyness as a way not to see, to ignore persons who need us.”

He spoke of the disciples asking Jesus who sinned, the man or his parents, for him to have been born blind? Neither, Jesus replied, “he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

“We need to see them (people with disabilities) through the agenda of God,” Dr. Shannon said, “and ask what God is doing with that person.” When we are open-minded, he said, “God provides ways for us to participate with the disabled, just as Jesus made the blind man a partner in his healing by instructing him to go wash the mud and spittle from his eyes. Join with them so they, with us, can glorify Almighty God,” he urged.

A panel discussion concluded the morning program. First to share his ideas was Dan Stewart, a young man, developmentally disabled, who is in a semi-independent living arrangement and has worked as a kitchen helper for five or six years. He told of the love and acceptance he gained through membership in Dunwoody Baptist church. Some concerns he would like to see churches become more involved in would be the sponsoring of group homes and apartments, transportation, “fun times,” counseling and more Sunday school classes.

Mary Land told of her silent world through Rev. Russel Johnson, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Newnan, who served as seminar interpreter. Mrs. Land, hearing impaired since birth, said she attended a small country church as a child, sitting quietly and looking around, with no understanding of the service. Later, while enrolled at a school for the deaf, she learned about God by attending a church that had an interpreter.

After finishing school she worked at a low paying job until she realized she had the ability for more challenging work. She passed the tests and has been a state employee for 19 years. The older of her two daughters is a full-time interpreter and she, herself, teaches signing classes. She is a member of Rehoboth Baptist Church in Tucker and of the Stagehands, an organization of people who interpret plays from onstage with the actors.

Another panelist, Bernard Ikeler, a member of Central Presbyterian Church and a free-lance writer, spoke of his gratitude to the church “as a community that encourages family lifestyles…Church allows families to cope and is a model of solidarity with the helpless.” As a person who uses a wheelchair he stressed the importance of eliminating architectural barriers, “the eternal hill that cannot be reached by any kind of a ramp,” and expressed regret that churches have not yet developed adequate liturgical programs to take the edge off the guilt which parents and families feel when one member is disabled. “You have to work around, destroy the myth of guilt,” he said.

Sigrid Swenson gave a poignant account of her daughter, Laura, 10, a bright and lively child who loves church, choir singing, school, and who must use a motorized wheelchair to get around. Mrs. Swenson likened the birth of Laura, her second daughter, to both life and death, the death of the idea of a healthy child, and said people have difficulty in reacting to parents of a child born with disabilities. “They tend to stay away.”

Passages from her journal were sensitive testimony to the love mother and daughter share; her thoughts as she watched the girl sitting in her wheelchair on the deck while the other children ran off into the woods, what it means for Laura to be included in church groups; the lifting, toileting, “all the needs she needs done for her.”

Mrs. Swenson shared her concerns for her daughter’s future, when she grows up and moves away from home. She sees the churches as a resource for helping establish group homes, and the many people in congregations who have their own businesses as a source of job opportunities for the disabled. “The world must be willing to adapt some to the needs of the disabled,” to ease exclusion, lack of mobility, and lessened expectations, she said. And “the disabled must adapt to their own growth or to their own death, in a sense.”

Anne Martin, Catholic and blind from birth, said she never felt included during her growing up years of attending church with her father, a man who believed that religion was attending church on Sunday and not talking about it the rest of the week. Not too long ago, she said, she started attending St. John the Evangelist church in Hapeville while the parish was in the Renewal process.

“Is this a Catholic church?” the pretty young woman said she asked after the warm welcome she received, the hugging and kissing that was a new and wonderful experience for her. Someone told Father Michael Woods, the pastor, of her remark that she didn’t know anything about the Mass. He invited her to join him on the altar for a Sunday evening Mass and the liturgy came alive for her on a spring Sunday in 1985 as Father Woods told the congregation that “Anne is blind” and then, her hands on his, guided her in experiencing the Mass in a “most beautiful way.” Now, the Mass is a spiritual celebration “sometimes overwhelming” for her. And her journey has brought her to where she is sharing her own special gifts of cheerfulness and enthusiasm as a member of the Legion of Mary, visiting the sick of the parish who are hospitalized.

Mrs. Martin shared her experience during an afternoon workshop on “Helping Your Congregation Become a More Inclusive Community.” Leaders were Rev. Tom Atkins, pastor of the Lawrenceville Road United Methodist Church in Tucker, and Jan Robitscher, a member of St. Bede’s Episcopal Church and a liturgical consultant who wrote the worship materials used by some churches on Access Sunday in October.

Pastor Atkins spoke of how his congregation is removing barriers, both physical and attitudinal, because of one little girl, hearing impaired and with some mental retardation. “There was nothing for her at church and nobody seemed to care. Except one lady who said ‘We need to do something for Stacy.’”

What they did in the beginning, he said, was to have a vacation Bible class “just for her,” with an interpreter. “We became the first United Methodist church in the state to have an interpreter.”

He admitted to “being scared” at the thought of an interpreter standing beside him as he preached, afraid that the congregation would be looking at the interpreter rather than at him. From that beginning with a little girl and “one woman who put a fire under me,” the ministry has drawn other families and individuals with hearing impairments and includes sign language classes and a special Sunday school class.

“Some people will fight,” the minister said, “and ask why should we spend all that money on one person? People are afraid of people who are different. Association is needed to break barriers.”

Ms. Robitscher, speaking of the physical barriers that discourage people with disabilities, said inadequate lighting over the lectern can be “terrible” for someone like herself with low vision. Signs are important, she said, yet many times people with handicaps can’t get close enough to read overhead signs or hymn boards. Ramps, she said, only scratch the surface of the needs of people with varying disabilities.

In renovating, congregations should keep in mind that they are not just adapting for one disability but for everyone with disabilities. Such renovations, she added, are also important to the growing elderly population.

Adam Shapiro, who is blind, said transportation is another area where there is a big need. Ms. Robitscher added that it is necessary to get the pastor to see that involvement of people with disabilities often depends on providing transportation. Shapiro made the point that the disabled “need to know they can function in the world” and should be included in regular program. “Churches and synagogues can do a lot in that area, they are not restricted by bureaucracy. They can help you find your own gifts in a nurturing atmosphere,” he said.

“There has to be something for a person to be included in once you are in the door. How to channel the energy into useful ministry takes time and effort,” Ms. Robitscher said. Shapiro added, “It takes guts. How do you tell the disabled they can’t cut the mustard. I suggest you not take any garbage from us just as we don’t take any garbage from you.”

Brief summaries of other workshops were presented at the closing. Dr. David Benham, of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Atlanta, who led the workshop, “Breaking Down Isolation and Loneliness,” borrowed from Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, who defined the handicapped thus: “They (the handicapped) cause us (them) to see that thing to be avoided at all cost – to see ourselves.” In including the disabled, he said, there should be no clinging, smothering or pushing them away.

To be totally present is most important, said Mona Mercardante, of St. Joseph’s parish in Athens, in summarizing the workshop, “Dealing with Death and Suffering” led by Father Alan M. Dillmann, pastor of Holy Spirit parish, and the Rev. Jerry Gardner, a minister of the United Church of Christ and chaplain at the Shepherd Spinal Center. Mrs. Mercandante said it is important to help the dying explore the meaning of their life and also to respect the unique grieving process of family members.

The importance of honesty in helping the disabled was stressed by Dr. Robert M. Urie, director of the career development center in the southeast for the Presbyterian Church. Only when people get beyond the demand for fairness that rational minds seek are they ready to begin to deal with disabilities, he reported for the workshop on “Confronting the Psychological Dynamics of Disability.”

A theology to establish “who we are” and “whose we are” is necessary, Rev. Henry Wohlgemuth, executive director of Lutheran Ministers of Georgia, said in reporting on the workshop, “Developing a Ministry with Disabled Persons in the Local Congregation.” It was recommended that networks with government be developed while helping roles for the congregation could be centered on socialization and advocacy.

The workshop, “Exploring Issues of Faith and Theology,” was summarized by the Rev. Ed Brewer, pastor emeritus of St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta. Have the handicapped work with the “normates,” he suggested with “theology and faith to be taught, shown and shared from birth,” not when catastrophe arrives on the scene. “Congregations need to find handicapped individuals with strong faiths so they can talk to their likes. They can be our speakers to those on the other side of the wholeness fence. We need to find those with ears and eyes and understanding. We need to know God before we know ourselves and those who are handicapped.”

A member of the seminar planning committee, Dr. Cecil Etheredge, chairman of the Task Force on Disability Concerns of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta, said the seminar should be considered as part of the unending commitment of the council to disability concerns of the churches.