Churches routinely exclude disabled people, says UK expert

A UK Christian think tank reports that disabled people are being routinely excluded from church life. Ekklesia quotes a disability expert, Dr Gordon Temple, as saying that disabled people have told him no one speaks to them when they attend church.

Temple was being interviewed by the religious broadcaster Premier Christian Radio, and his revelations are reported in an Ekklesia story published on the think tank's website today.

Temple, who is CEO of an organization called Torch Trust and executive officer of Churches for All, which supports disabled people, says he receives texts from disabled people who say: "I'm not sure I can cope with church anymore because I've been there, I sat at the table and nobody spoke to me."

He told Premier Christian Radio's Andy Walton: "When coffee's served afterwards, yes, somebody will go fetch them a cup of coffee but then they go off and talk to somebody else and leave them like a lemon standing in a room full of people who are having a happy conversation in which they're not included."

His comments come ahead of a major conference that will examine disability and church life, says Ekklesia, which adds: "In a four-page spread, the Independent on Sunday recently flagged up Britons' attitudes to disabled people with the headline, 'The well-meaning Brits who shun disabled people.'"

church to model something quite different that recognizes the intrinsic value in everyone that God made and to But he says this shouldn't be the case in churches. He told Premier Christian Radio: "What opportunity we have in treat them in a way that we would treat anybody else, and welcome and embrace them in the life of the church.

"If we fail to do that then we not only miss an opportunity but we really undermine the Gospel message which is the love of Christ."

Churches for All said on its website in June that 66 percent of churches had reported that they "need ideas" on how to better include disabled people in church activities.

"We believe that disabled people have an enormous amount to offer the life and ministry of the Church. However, too often barriers are put in their way that hide the contribution they can bring," said the website.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/297441#ixzz105ML4Kkd

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