A couple of visits

Last week we went up to one of our old haunts, Gillingham URC (Kent), to talk to Pam Tolhurst, the church's Local Leader. Pastor Pam, as she's better known, leads a monthly act of worship at Gillingham Deafblind Club.  Apparently very few people are completely unable to hear or see, and the people in the club suffer from various levels of disability. Communion Services are are kept very simple, as the hand language used to communicate with a profoundly deafblind person is laborious.

A number of members of the club are now Members at Gillingham URC, including one who went through a clear conversion experience after he started worshipping there. However, none of the more profoundly disabled club members is involved at the church. The hand language is fairly basic (although Pam showed us how to say, "God loves you"), and profoundly deafblind people tend to live in a very enclosed world. For example, prayer is only asked for close family and friends.

We are in the same territory as in the story of the severely disabled teenager of 'Wrestling with Angels', and those in severe dementia. The normal rules of the challenge to faith and the reasoned response don't apply. But God's grace always applies.

On Palm Sunday we had a great time of worship and celebration at Sonshine, a Prospects group meeting monthly in the West Sussex village of Climping to worship God and share the Good News about Jesus. The congregation consists mainly of people with learning disabilities and some of their carers. We started with the group's own worship song. We had simple praise songs; sketches; bible readings taking us through the stories of Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday; a little teaching though nothing remotely like a sermon; two 'sharing times'; and a couple of short prayers partly linked to the sharing. There was also an excellent demonstration of how it is possible to communicate by puppetry, and the group hopes to develop its own puppet team. It felt not unlike many Family Services Tricia and/or I have led in the past, and it was good to be there.

Over the next two or three weeks I shall be going to some more Prospects groups and finding out about the work the organisation does. After that, I'll offer some deeper reflection on what I believe the Lord might be saying to the wider church through Christians with learning disabilities.