I was reading around this morning and discovered the new ‘Social Issues Executive’ website. Terrible name, great website.
I was particularly heartened to see the lastest Briefing paper, entitled ‘Who has a Disability?’ Having had direct and intimate contact with a person with a ‘disability’ and knowing the issues that face someone like that entering into ‘mainstream’ society, I was glad to see some thinking on the issue and some resources being provided for churches to think through their approach to welcoming and including these people.
There are more people with ‘disabilities’ in our community than most people realise. According to the 2003 census, 1 in 5 people in Australia have a disability. Knowing some families of children with disablities, their experience is a hard one, where they have to constantly fight as advocates for information and access. Of all places, the church should be a place where they should not have to fight as hard, if at all.
I highly commend this paper written by Andrew Cameron, and the links that he provides to resources for churches to think through their approach.
In Anticipation 