Inclusive Church - An Ongoing Project

Categories: ecclesiastical-stuff

Date: 04 September 2012 14:33:03

Inclusive Church is an organisation, but it's a term which is and has to be wider than the organisation which takes that name - it's an ongoing project and challenge for us all which began in the first century and continues today. Sometimes there is or needs to be a sharper focus on wrestling with what that means in practice.

Last Sunday morning at church we began a series of sermons/ events wrestling with this as we heard a sermon preached on the subject of being part of the body of Christ which focused specifically on the part within the body those with some kind of impairment hold. The sermon by the Rev John Bradley, (which can be found in this post on the church blog),  began by putting the subject in context explaining that if all of those in the world with some kind of physical or mental impairment were put together as a country they would be the third largest populated nation on earth and have the highest level of unemployment and lowest levels of education and be one of the least evangelised to. After going on to highlight some of the societal attitudes towards disability which existed during the twentieth century (including social Darwinism) the preacher explained how God has a different attitude towards those with impairment - rather than being a difficult part of the body with no purpose (like the appendix) they have a special place of honour. He continued by referring to the Disability Act and the adjustments that churches had made - saying that churches had tended to do better than many commercial premises. But then he moved on to make the comment that even in buildings that had done a lot to make themselves accessible to the whole of the congregation physical barriers often remained in place when it came to accommodating those leading worship. In his conclusion he spoke of his own experience of acquired disability before reiterating that those with impairment are most honoured guests in the Lords banquet.

It challenged me in a similar way to reading Gordon Temple and Lin Ball's book Enabling Church which I reviewed in this post a while ago.

Next Sunday we have Rev. Cannon George Kovoor the principal of Trinity College, Bristol preaching for Racial Justice Sunday. This year Churches Together in Britain and Ireland have subtitled Racial Justice Sunday  Being an Inclusive Church...and not an exclusive club. This title sums up in a convenient soundbite the ongoing quest.

A poster in the church foyer, which Karl and I have both noted with enthusiasm, states we have a visit from Rose Hudson Wilkin who will be also preaching on this topic of inclusion in December. Her sermon I suspect will be an extended version of this talk available as a Greenbelt video.

As is often the case much of the teaching is intended to help the church wrestle with the implications of and move forward in light of what God has already been doing within the church and beyond. Exciting.