We’ve been taking on a couple of prevalent ideas about disability: first, that it’s a problem that involves certain individuals’ brains and/or bodies and secondly, that “we’re all disabled” in one form or another. Yes, everyone is different. And no one is able to be or do everything they might like to be or do….
Month: January 2016
International Holocaust Remembrance Day – Katherine Quarmby on Roma and the Disabled
Today, January 27, has been designated by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The SERVEurope Catalyst Team, with whom I work, is passionate about healthy identification with and full inclusion into the Church and community of people who have experienced marginalization. We are particularly passionate about ministering to, and with, the Roma. And…
When is a believer not a believer? | Questions Jesus Asked 11
If you do not believe Moses’ writings how will you believe me? (John 5:47) Jesus has just been speaking about “accepting” praise from “peers” as opposed to “seeking” it from God. These peers were those who were assigned with “policing religious orthodoxy.” Jesus’ curing of a man’s impairment has taken place on a day that…
“We’re ALL disabled” – NOT! | “I see a church with no disabled people” Part 2
The marginalization of “difference” is not overcome by ignoring or minimizing the difference. That’s true in many areas of life, particularly disability.
Disability is not a matter of bodies or brains | “I see a church with no disabled people” Part 1
I have shared, posted about, blogged on and advocated for the proposition that “disability ministry” must not be seen as “optional equipment” on the “vehicle” of the church, but that it is essential to the church BEING (and becoming) the Church. I want to take some time to develop an argument that, I believe, leads…
Validation: Accepting it’s Easy; Seeking it’s Harder | Questions Jesus Asked 10
Jesus had just gone and cured someone – done something GOOD for a person in need… But, it seems, he did so in such a way that it violated the “religious sensibilities” of those “authorities” around him. Might there be some similar analogues to this in contemporary settings? Maybe helping someone who “doesn’t deserve it”?…