Worship for Everybody
What if our Church gatherings were designed with everybody in mind – from toddlers to elders, from disabled folks to neurodivergent thinkers?
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Sensory Rooms
Sensory rooms are needed places of quiet in the midst of celebration. Here Sarah Werner shares about the sensory room at Mennonite Church USA’s biennial convention.
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An Anxious Presence
Board member and field associate JE Misz shares advice for how churches can welcome people with anxiety.
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Opening Doors at Immanuel Mennonite Church
Chris Moore shares about the barrier free grant that Immanuel Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, VA received.
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CPE that Supports People with Disabilities
Kathy Dickson shares about her experience in a community CPE placement that helps people with disabilities.
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Wild Church for All People
Sharon Brugger Norton shares about wild church and how it is accessible to neurodivergent people.
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On Connections: Optic Nerves and Church Community
In this engaging interview, Eleanor Habecker shares stories of connection related to her blindness and faith.
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Typical
In this poem, Kathryn Newswanger challenges the notion that people who are neurotypical decide what is normal.
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The Future is Unknown
A song by Ann Hamlin acknowledges her anxiety of a future after her caregivers pass away.
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Christmas Gifts
Ann Hamlin recenters us on what is truly important, God’s gift of love, in this Christmas-themed song.
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Celebrating Seeds of Spiritual Growth
Chris Esau and Patty Andres share their baptism testimonies, with a short reflection by Chaplain Mike Gilmore.
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Come as You Are? Thoughts on Healing
Jasmine Duckworth grapples with the idea of prayer and healing in the context of her chronic illness.
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God Hears Me
Read and Listen to Ann Hamlin’s newest song about talking with and hearing from God.
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A Different Trip to the Ocean
With a poignant reflection of the beauty and barriers of visiting a personally sacred place, Jill Keyser Speicher sheds light on the daily challenges faced by wheelchair users.
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We Are Able 2023
Jonathan Shively reflects on the blessings and growth of the 2023 workcamp week.
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(Un)Loved: holding grace for myself in chronic illness
Jasmine Duckworth shares vulnerably about her struggle for self-acceptance after a chronic-illness diagnosis.
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Autism and Faith
Ann Hamlin relates her experience as an autistic adult in her church community.
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Lessons Learned
Shelly Kerchner shares her journey through addiction, illness, and disability.
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The Kin-dom of Heaven
In this poem, Sarah Werner provides an eloquent imagining of what it feels like to be wholly welcomed into God’s Community.
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Embodiment in Worship
Sarah Werner reflects on the church’s changing beliefs about physical disabilities and calls us to a more embodied approach to worship.
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A Seat at the Table
A story of moving from isolation to community with biblical hospitality by Heather Wolf
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Friendship: a Two Way Street
Naomi Epp recounts the ways her friendship with Chantel has been a blessing for both of them.
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I’m Living with Dementia; are you?
Marie Harnish shares the way her mother’s dementia has impacted the life of her family.
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Seeking an Accessible Church Home
Jill Keyser Speicher writes about searching for a church as a wheelchair user.
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The Gifts of Spiritual Community and Prayer in Navigating Dementia
Susan and Don Jeffers draw on the strength of spiritual practices and a community of support during Don’s dementia journey.
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The “Me” You Don’t See
With a poem and essay, Chou Hallegra calls congregations and individuals to consider how to support people with mental illness.
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I am Here
A song of yearning and humor by Ann Hamlin asks people to witness her humanity as a nonspeaking young adult.
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Taking the Mystery out of Mental Health
Clinical social worker Jon-Erik Misz reflects on his experience with mental illness and therapy.
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Choosing Life
Verne Sanford relies on his faith and support from his community while he lives and leads as a person with low vision.
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The Prince of Peace
Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming Messiah, well known to so many during this Christmas season, paints a radical picture of the Lordship of Christ.
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Christmas in the Midst of Loss
Rebekah Flores offers a reflection on celebrating Christmas in a time of loss.
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Jesus Street
I’ve lived for the past six years with chronic, phantom, pain caused by scar tissue that developed after radiation treatment for a brain tumor.
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The Least of These
A blog about the Intersections of Poverty Culture, Race and Mental Health
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Praying for Healing?
Rachel Joy sees her hearing loss as something that adds to her life, not as something to be cured.
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Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
“Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free,” as the Advent hymn goes. Oh yes, these weeks are full of anticipation of Christmas!
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The Hope of Waiting
The season of Advent is about the hope of waiting. When you’re the caregiver to a child with a disability, your life is all about waiting.
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Joy
Deborah Ferber reflects on finding joy during the Advent season at the L’Arche Community in Inverness, Scotland.
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Why I Went to a Funeral
It isn’t easy in the slightest to go to a funeral for someone you knew well and cherished, so why would one ever go to a funeral for someone they never even met?
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Shouting Out About Mental Health
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. A good time to beg the question…. Are our pew-mates who experience persistent darkness finding support here?
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Accepting the Gifts We’re Given
Anxiety and depression often escalate during the Christmas season. While the push-and-pull of joyfulness and despair during the advent season is exhausting, sometimes it’s more important to accept the gifts we’re given, regardless of how they’re wrapped.
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Impaired Speech in Silence
The Gospel of Luke precedes the birth of Jesus with the birth of John the Baptist. According to Jewish law, custom, and tradition, newborn infant boys were to be named eight days after their birth and were to honor their fathers by being named after them.
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A Vision We Long For
On October 13, 2017, folks from a dozen Anabaptist congregations gathered for Anabaptist Disabilities Network (ADN)’s annual Circles of Love Banquet hosted this year at Prairie Street Mennonite Church.
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Book Review: Detour
The problem with opposition is that it often hits us blindsided when we are least expecting it.
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The Harm of Self-Stigmatization
I’ve lived all my life with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). When I entered kindergarten in 1949 few doctors, mental health professionals, teachers, or parents were familiar with ADD (or ADHD).
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Three Barriers to Spiritual Formation
As mere humans, we are not the “givers” of God’s salvation, hope, or love. That’s God’s work and God’s gift. We are, however, called to provide the invitation and the environment in which all people can connect with the gospel message and grow in relationship with Jesus.
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Celebrating Birthdays
Birthdays are usually times of celebration. We celebrate the fact that one more year was added to a person’s life. For parents of kids with special healthcare needs, birthdays take on a deeper meaning.
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New Words of Thankfulness
Around a turkey dinner families will share words of gratitude and thankfulness. We typically thank God for good health, happiness, leisure time, quality time with family, the changing of seasons, delicious food.
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Spiritual Growth
These inspiring stories of spiritual growth among students with differing abilities show ways of worship as individual as they are.
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Faith, Disability and Bioethics
While we rejoice in the promise of God’s presence and comfort through life’s changes, many people face the fear, confusion, of transition. For people with transitioning to new limitations or disabilities, it can be hard to discern what God’s plans are.
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A Place to Belong
12.6 percent of the US population lives with a disability but few churches reflect this proportion. Tragically, it’s no secret that people with disabilities are under-represented in religious circles.
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Finding Strength in Grief
October 12, 1982 marks the day when I thought my heart would stop and the world would come to an end.
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Pain is Such a Pain
Pain is such a pain. You can seethe, groan, swear at it, pray over it, even scream, and it is still there. You just want it to go away, but it doesn’t. Finally, you wonder if there is anything you can do to put balance back in your life.
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Turning the Ground by Standing Still
The theme of a conference I attended a conference this past April was April showers bring May flowers: How do we prepare, plant, and cultivate inner (and outer) change in our lives whether quickly or deliberately?
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Getting Messy – Suicide Part 2
During Tiara Coleman’s most significant experience with depression, suicide, and self-harm her youth pastor Ross reached out to her and entered into her struggles head on.
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Suicide Personified – Part 1
I grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia and come from a well-known Mennonite family. In sophomore year I moved from the local public high school to Eastern Mennonite High School (EMHS). This is when I remember life started getting really hard for me.
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Healing the Wounds of War
Grace Mishler’s ministry in Vietnam with people who are blind increases access to care, raises awareness, and supports education and empowerment.
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A Worthy Part of God’s Family
A few weeks before Easter, the pastor made an announcement that we were going to have a baptismal service. Chrissie looked at me and gestured as if to say “What about me?” I said, “Chrissie, do you want to be baptized?” She said, “Yes!”
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Walking by Faith: Tips for assisting someone who is visually impaired
Pastor Don Longmore reflects on his own visual impairment and blindness, offering tips for assisting people who are blind.
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A Generous Exchange
When I was 22, I felt God calling me to live and work alongside adults with developmental disabilities. With the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit and after much discernment I began my life in L’Arche Daybreak in Ontario.
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A Church for All People
Mental illness is “the only illness in the world where you never get a covered dish!” remarks mental health advocate Joyce Burland.
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A Gift for Loving
Edwin Cardona Guzman and Jazmin Guzman Carrillo married young, and they were happy to start a family. When their daughter, Jeimy (now 18) was born with Down syndrome, they worried about the hurdles she would face.
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A Truly Perfect Heaven
Death can be a terrifyingly mysterious thing, especially when it happens in unexpected ways or to the most vulnerable people like children.
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A Salute to College Mennonite Church
We at Anabaptist Disabilities Network express our deep appreciation to College Mennonite Church (CMC) for the rent-free space they provided us over the past decade.
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A New Commandment
In communities that struggle ecumenically around who can and cannot receive communion, the tradition of washing one another’s feet has become a sign of true Christian unity. I
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A Lot of Fun Miracles
My life has been filled with experiences of reaching out those who are affected by disability. All of them are important. My stories below do not even come close to describing all of my life-shaping experiences for this type of ministry.
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Horses Live to Run
Christine Guth’s understanding of the word “human” shifted as her understanding of her autistic family members grew.
