Presbyterian Notes

Social Service agencies of the church are responding wholeheartedly to the new legislation in the North requiring "churches and…

Social Service agencies of the church are responding wholeheartedly to the new legislation in the North requiring "churches and other public buildings to make adequate provision for disabled persons".

In fact, in a comment with a hint of supererogation, Mr Norman Chambers, director of Social Services (Presbyterian Church), said "We consider it important that churches move beyond just what they have to do and make every effort in their programmes to make people with disability part of their church community, showing practical Christian love and compassion to them and their families".

Mr Chambers made his comment at the recent launching of the video May I come in? in the hall of McCracken Memorial Church, Malone, Belfast. Commissioned by the Social Service Agency and launched by the Moderator, the Rt Rev Dr Trevor Morrow, the video was made by an award-winning production company, Callister Communications.

It portrays real-life situations of individuals and families affected by grievous disability, with practical examples of how the churches might provide for these a welcoming environment. In one case, it shows how a ramp at a certain church greatly changed the life of a multiple sclerosis sufferer; and in another, how acceptance and support in youth club and church transformed the life of a family with a Downes syndrome child.

READ MORE

There was a reminder at the launch that the church has for many years served disabled deaf and dumb in the Kinghan Mission, which was specially built with facilities for the deaf.

The video has been distributed to all congregations of the church. Mr Chambers believes its presentation will present membership with "the responsibility of valuing each person as an individual" and remind each member "of the privilege of getting to know and learn from the experience of those with disability, without which experience of life is the poorer".

Copies of the video may be bought from the Board of Social Witness, Church House, Belfast. Tel 028 9032 2284.

In a recent Church and Government Committee report to the General Board of the church, it was stated that "so many evidences abroad of self-serving factionalism which has the potential to bring the multi-faceted negotiated political accommodations of the Belfast Agreement to an end" are causing widespread dismay.

Political parties and their associates must do more than look after their own. If the present arrangements fail, the report says, the alternative will be direct rule with considerable influence from the Republic and the marginalisation of Northern Ireland parties. The repercussions would be felt across the political spectrum.

The Christian imperative "to love our neighbours and our enemies, pray for them and treat them as friends", it says, "will mean compromise", the exercise of constraint, good faith, and a willingness to understand and alleviate other people's problems, with all the inevitable risks involved.

This process will be assisted by both governments being even-handed, and by Christian churches being more than tribal chaplains. The Presbyterian Church will fail Christ if it does no more than reflect Unionist opinion".

The committee shares the widespread concern about the inability of the security forces and the judicial system to make the perpetrators of the Omagh bombing amenable to the law, even though there appears to be sufficient intelligence to identify the guilty people. Concern deepens with news about reorganisation of dissident paramilitaries.