Church as Sign and Alternative: Disabled People in the Churches

Abstract

What contributions can people with disabilities make to the wider church? This question is asked and reflected on by a number of church publications on the greater inclusion of disabled people in churches. The questions and responses given, however, often emerge out of unhelpful ways of thinking about the experience of people with disabilities as well as unhelpful ways of thinking about the nature of the church. This paper reflects on contemporary thinking around the experience of disability and then reflects critically on how that scholarship may inform thinking about the church as ‘sign and alternative’.1 In turn, this will contribute to the ways that disabled and non-disabled members of churches may value and recognize one another's gifts more fully.