Disability Awareness Sunday Helps

REMEMBER: THE DISCIPLINE STATES THAT EACH LOCAL CHURCH WILL HAVE A DISABILITY AWARENESS SUNDAY ANNUALLY!

Disability Awareness Sunday 2006
Developing a Theology of Disability
Shalom to You

The 1996 General Conference of
The United Methodist Church voted to create
DISABILITY AWARENESS SUNDAY

WHAT IS DISABILITY AWARENESS SUNDAY? The 2004 Discipline states in ¶ 265.4, Disability Awareness Sunday shall be observed annually on a date to be determined by the annual conference. Disability Awareness Sunday calls the Church to celebrate the gifts and graces of persons with disabilities and calls the Church and society to full inclusion of persons with disabilities in the community. If the annual conference so directs, an offering may be received and the funds used by the annual conference to promote the work of creating architectural and attitudinal accessibility in local churches. The observance of Disability Awareness Sunday shall be under the general supervision of the General Board of Global Ministries.
This is a call to celebrate the gifts and graces of all persons and that everyone is welcome in our churches, especially persons with disabilities.

HOW SHOULD WE CELEBRATE DISABILITY AWARENESS SUNDAY? This special Sunday gives every congregation the opportunity to challenge our hospitality and our inclusion of all persons into the life of the church. This can be a time when persons with disabilities can offer their gifts and graces to the congregation and to God as participants, liturgists and leaders in this celebration.

HOW CAN DISABILITY AWARENESS SUNDAY HELP US? As you celebrate this special Sunday, let it be an opportunity for the congregation to launch or extend its hospitality to persons with disabilities. The trustees and other groups should involve members of the congregation along with their sisters and brothers with disabilities in identifying offering solutions to the physical, architectural, communication and attitudinal barriers. Develop specific plans and strategies to eliminate those barriers so that your congregation might be fully hospitable to all of God's people.

HOW SHOULD WE USE THESE WORSHIP MATERIALS? The material is designed so that you can use it as it is or excerpt from it to incorporate in your Order of Worship. You may photograph and print in this large size and use it with the cover Page for your Church Bulletin.
These materials were compiled and prepared by Chase Todd Bannister, MDiv, MSW, LCSW-P. Chase has served as a SEMAR summer intern, teaching workshops on disability awareness and providing program support for HIV/AIDS advocacy and affordable housing development. Many thanks to Dr. Thomas W. Binford III, the Pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Pulaski, Tennessee and former Chairperson of the Board of Directors of The Southeastern United Methodist Agency for Rehabilitation, Inc. (SEMAR), for providing a framework for these materials. Thanks also to the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries and the Presbyterian Church USA for resource support.

SEMAR is an agency of the Southeastern Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church and is funded through SEJ apportionments, grants, and special gifts from groups and individuals who share in this mission to make our church hospitable to all persons, especially persons with disabilities. Churches can partnership through contributing $1 per child in your congregation.
For additional information contact:
SEMAR, P.O. Box 128, Lake Junaluska, NC 28745
(800) 527-3627 (Voice); (828) 452-7640 TDD
(828) 452-4332 FAX; www.semar-umc.org
Email: ceure@sejumc.org

A SERVICE OF WORSHIP
DISABILITY AWARENESS SUNDAY- 2006
THE PRELUDE
*THE CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: We come together today as people with different skills, different abilities,
different disabilities.
People: We come, however, as one body in Christ.
Leader: We ask God to help us be compassionate toward all, even as God has been
compassionate toward us.
People: Gather us together, in compassion and in faith. Help us to welcome
and honor everyone in this community.
Leader: Regardless of physical strength and ability,
People: Regardless of differences of mind or spirit,
Leader: Open us, O God. Make us accessible to your Spirit, and accessible to all
your people.
All: Amen.

*THE OPENING HYMN We Meet You, O Christ 257
THE CONFESSION OF SIN
Merciful and Life-giving God, we confess that we have been wayward children. You taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves and we chose to be selfish with our love. You taught us to feed the hungry and poor at whatever cost and we chose to be greedy and limit our willingness to serve. We have disregarded Your example and dishonored Your name when we chose not to celebrate the holiness of Your created world or proclaim the sacred worth of our brothers and sisters with handicapping conditions. Forgive us, God of compassion, when we have veered from the path You created for us and when we forget what it means to welcome You in our midst. Help us remember Your teachings. Help us mold our life to Your example. Free us from our sinfulness, Holy Creator, and lead us in the ways of justice and truth.

THE WORDS OF ASSURANCE AND PARDON
Pastor: When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, and will
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In the name of Jesus
Christ, you are forgiven.
People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
ALL: Glory to God. Amen.

*THE PSALTER Psalm 99:1-9 819-820
*THE GLORIA PATRI 71
PRAYERS AND CONCERNS
THE LORD.S PRAYER
THE PRESENTATION OF OUR TITHES AND OFFERINGS
THE ANTHEM
*THE DOXOLOGY
THE CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
THE HYMN OF PREPARATION Jesu, Jesu 432
*THE GOSPEL LESSON Luke 14: 7-14
THE MESSAGE
*THE AFFIRMATION OF FAITH The World Methodist
Social Affirmation 886
*THE HYMN OF DEDICATION Many Gifts, One Spirit 114
*THE BENEDICTION AND SENDING FORTH
Leader: May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace so that you may
abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
People: So be it! Amen!
*BENEDICTION RESPONSE Shalom to You 666
THE POSTLUDE
*The Congregation will stand if they are able and if they so choose.

The Numbers are selections found in The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989

A Gospel Lesson Sermon Starter
The Guest List Luke 14:7-14
This pericope in Luke.s gospel account shows a Jesus keenly interested in messing with our guest lists. Jesus shows up at a Pharisee leader.s home for a Sabbath day meal and is disgusted by what he sees: a .who.s who. party complete with the noblesse oblige of social hierarchy and status. This was certainly the custom of the day, and still is today.when we draw up wedding guest lists or throw parties of all flavors, we like to fill up our lists with names of people who are like us and names of people who will make us look better just by showing up. Not only are they the focus of the invite-list, we put them at the head of the table when they get there. We talk to them at the party more than anyone else. We remember to get their coats at the door.
Jesus has no use for our self-aggrandizing list of invitees. He has a .who.s who. list of his own. Jesus. list centers in on those persons who have handicapping conditions, are poor, or are otherwise marginalized. This rips apart convention for the Pharisees, and reveals a new kingdom politics: God rebuffs our sinful social structure in favor of an explosive hospitality that welcomes those who are different from us. Those whom we have treated as .second-class. God welcomes as .first-class., and we are invited to renarrate our lives after his example.
Prior to writing your sermon, consider gathering a few persons from your church community who have a disability or are a parent of a child with a disability to talk about what they experience, what scriptures are particularly helpful or hurtful, what life experiences might be used as sermon illustrations, etc. It is the old adage: .Nothing about us, without us..
In worship planning, remember to include persons with disabilities as liturgists, ushers, communion servers, and preachers . all the ways people who are able-bodied share their gifts with the church. Some things to keep in mind when preparing your sermon:
• Use .people first language,. not the disabling condition (the child who is blind vs. the blind child).
• Scripture is rich with stories that can be used for developing sermons. Most of the accounts we have of Jesus interacting with individuals were with people who had some kind of disability, were marginalized, or considered outcasts.
• Emphasize that persons with disabilities are made in the Image of God and that we all make up the Body of Christ . with value, dignity and gifts.
• Scripture does not teach that having a disability is the result of sin or a lack of faith. A cure is not withheld because a person did not pray hard enough. Healing comes in different ways and there is a difference between the concepts of .healing. and .cure..
• Promote mutuality of ministry. Persons with disabilities can minister to others. They are not looking to be the objects of charity or to be .fixed..
• Persons with disabilities are not super-human, more spiritual, or more gifted by God because they live with a disability.
• Disability is not the will of God.
• We are all interdependent, wounded and broken.
• Preaching should never contribute to a person.s isolation or exclusion. Demonstrate pastoral care in the midst of preaching.
• Avoid using terms like .blindness,. .deafness,. etc. as spiritual metaphors (we are blind to our transgressions; deaf to hearing the word of God).
• Use persons who have disabilities as positive models.