The news site of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland: nourishing and connecting our faith community

Theology of disability

Saturday September 30

My Body is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church

“I stopped disclosing my disabilities after one conversation when I said I was autistic and had been having a hard time with sensory issues, and the person responded by saying that this was happening to me because I wasn’t praying enough. I saw this book, and my immediate thought was, ‘Yes! Someone gets it!’,” says Mel Maddox, Parish of Freshwater Synod Representative and Equitable Access Working Group member

Renewing the Church from the edge with disruptive prophets and uncomfortable conversations

“If the Church is to be renewed from the edge it must make space for the edge to come to the centre. That space needs to be open to disruptive prophets and uncomfortable conversations – and accessible,” say Fiona MacMillan and The Rev’d Jonathan Evens from St Martin-in-the-Fields

Bill Gamack with Denis Mullane, who EPIC helped secure work at Booyong Service Processing, near Lismore. Prior to getting the job at Booyong, Denis was out of work for five years.

It’s about different, not less

As part of this week’s #AprilAngel campaign theme ‘be a messenger of compassion through conversation’, disability advocate Bill Gamack, CEO of EPIC Assist and parishioner of St Augustine’s, Hamilton, encourages us to see the person first and take the time to have a chat: “Where I work we see the person before we see the disability. We have a conversation, we listen and we discover the person’s unique determination, skills, talent, creativity and resourcefulness”

When faith and dementia meet

September was Dementia Awareness Month, with the community encouraged to reflect upon the ways we think and talk about dementia – anglican focus explores how people with dementia connect with the Divine, and how the Church helps to foster this connection