Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability
 

 

Hello!

Welcome to the online home of

Welcoming Church Forum

Welcoming Church Forum (WCF) is a group that has been created to provide support to children with a disability, their families, and the churches they attend across Aberdeen. WCF is committed to helping connect families and churches to a wider support network across Aberdeen so that children with a disability know they are loved, families know they are cared for, and churches know they have support to minister to all in their midst.

WCF Mission Statement:

  • We believe the Body of Christ is one in unity.
  • All people are equally valuable and welcome in the Body of Christ regardless of their abilities or disabilities.
  • We can grow as a Body by sharing our struggles, successes, stories and dreams with each other.
  • We can work to make the Gospel and our traditions accessible to every member of the congregation regardless of their needs or difficulties.

St Paul says:

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts;

and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with

Christ."

Welcoming Church Forum:

  • hopes to create places of belonging for children with disabilities in the worshipping community by building relationships in and amongst the churches in Aberdeen.
  • will work with any church, in any denomination, to develop their programme so that children with a disability or ASN* are equally included in the service and congregation.
  • will provide support, help to arrange training and networking events, and access to appropriate resources for each church to make this happen.
  • will work with families individually or collectively through city-wide workshops and events to help provide support.

* ASN is an abbreviation of Additional Support Needs, which will be used throughout this website and all WCF text as interchangeable with the term disability. Please forgive where these terms are insufficient and do not do justice to the children to whom they refer.

 

?About Welcoming Church Forum

WCF is an ecumenical group helping churches in Aberdeen to create places of support, welcome and belonging for children with disabilities and their families. WCF is made up of parents, theologians, ministers, professionals and others committed to voicing the needs of children with ASN and their families. The story of Welcoming Church Forum began for me on August 29, 2003, when my first son Adam was born with Down Syndrome and later diagnosed with Autism. As he has grown so have his challenges, and he does not leave his challenges at the door when we enter our church. Over the years many caring church staff have worked with Adam, but I always felt that something was missing. No matter how much other people accepted Adam, I felt they did not know what to do with him. I found that I was still not comfortable with who Adam is, in church of all places! Part of that problem was that we felt it was difficult for people in the church to understand Adam. Workers there would often see his behaviours as "problems" rather than as part of his unique person and the struggles accompanying his diagnosis. I would often spend a service trying to keep him quiet rather than listening and learning from God's word. Another issue was having enough support as a family to advocate on Adam's behalf, as he cannot speak for himself. I felt that I had to apologise for Adam's challenges, when in reality Adam was showing me all along the need there is in the church today:

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if youlove one another." (John 13:35)

"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." (Romans 12:10)

"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart." (1 Peter 1:22)

Children like Adam, by their very nature, bring out our deep need for the love of Christ to permeate our every thought, word and action, especially in the Church. Children with disabilities help us to realise that we often lack the courage and desire as a church to welcome and accept all people without regard to their presumed ability or need.

This is our mission at Welcoming Church Forum:

We want to see relationships thrive in and among the churches in Aberdeen, through networking and public dialogue. We hope to build this foundation by embracing and sharing the stories of families impacted by disability and how churches are working with them. We hope to see children with disabilities come to know they belong at the foot of the Cross and are deeply cared for, without regard to the challenges presented by their disability. We want to see families be empowered and encouraged at church and congregations be supported in their work with children with cognitive disabilities. We want to see an end to situations of grief, frustration, misunderstanding and isolation in the Church where situations of disability are involved.

Thank you for visiting, and please join with us in this endeavour by contributing to our website.

Stephanie Brock, chair of WCF

 

Contact: londonbrocks@yahoo.com

 
University of Aberdeen