Kirkyard

Call to worship, approach and confession prayers (version 2 here), thanksgiving and intercession prayers (version 2 here) and benediction for Sunday 4 November are available.

Call to worship, approach and confession prayer, thanksgiving and intercession prayer and benediction for Sunday 21 October are available here.

A call to worship, approach and confession prayer and benediction for Ordinary time 26B are available for this Sunday.

There are also resources from 2015 available on the same page.

An approach and confession prayer and a thanksgiving and intercession prayer for Ordinary time 23B (OT 23B, proper 18B, Pentecost 16B) have been added.

Call to worship, approach and confession prayer, thanksgiving and intercession prayer and benediction for Sunday 23 September are available in Ordinary time 25B. There are also prayers etc from 2015 there too.

Disability has been a feature of my life. Not due to any disability I may have, but people close to me. I have watched as places are hard to access; been the ears for someone who struggles to hear; been the opener of things for someone with limited dexterity. I know this is not the same as living with a disability, but I am so aware that churches often aren’t as inclusive as they could and should be.

Reading “Pilgrims in the Dark” has challenged and inspired me. It made me angry at the way the authors (Katie Tupling, Dave Lucas and Bill Braviner, with a little help from guide dog Jarvis) have been treated by the church. Each one of them is a devoted Christian, living with disability. Using theology, deep bible reading and honest personal accounts, I was taken on a journey of hope. Hope that the church (and by that I mean the whole Body of Christ, not a particular denomination or individual church) can be a place which sets the example of the kingdom of God. When all are accepted as God’s loved children, irrespective of their ability.

I was in awe of the authors for staying with the institutional church, despite some of what they have experienced. Not being able to access church buildings because there wasn’t a ramp; being told to not come back to a service of healing; being told where to sit; the list could go on.

The theology is much the authors’ own reflection, as there isn’t much disability theology out there. That which does exists is by non-disabled people writing about disability from a very abstract point-of-view. Why is this the case? I don’t have the answers, save to quote “nothing about us without us is for us.” The church needs to up its game in terms of inclusion. That means EVERYONE. Irrespective of ability.

For the church is a pilgrim people. Often I know I feel I am in the dark, but in reading this book I can see a light. The light of hope, in the words of those who live in hope from Christ where church has, too often let them down. The church, in doing so, is diminished in what it should be for God’s kingdom and the world.

The authors form part of Disability and Jesus. Join with them, engage with them, journey with them as fellow pilgrims on the way.

A benediction for Sunday 26 August, Ordinary time 21B, is available for use.

Call to worship and benediction for Sunday 19 August, Ordinary time 20B, are now available

Call to worship, approach and confession prayer, thanksgiving and intercession prayer and benediction for Sunday 12 August 2018, ordinary time 19B, are available.

Call to worship and benediction for Sunday 5 August 2018, ordinary time 18B, are now available.