Hi friends!

Every day I get the honor of serving as the coordinator for ELCA Disability Ministries. I love so much of what I am called to do, but I know I’m not able to get it done alone. The advisory team that volunteers with Disability Ministries does amazing work in this ministry. They craft and lead workshops, review grant proposals, develop new resources, speak at events across the church, and a lot, lot more. Every day I give thanks to God for them and all they bring to this ministry.

We have reached a point in our time together where we feeling a want and need for some new friends to be on this advisory team along with them and myself. So, if you sense God may be calling you to come alongside us, here is what that search process is going to look like and the qualities we are looking for in 1-2 new team members.

Volunteer Job Description: The purpose of the ELCA Disability Ministries Advisory Team is to advise and support the work of the ELCA Disability Ministries Coordinator.

Duties:

• Bring your ideas, experience, and insights to the work of the team
• Attend web-based team meetings as scheduled by the coordinator (at least once a quarter and typically on Microsoft Teams)
• Contribute ideas and material for the blog and the quarterly newsletter
• Review grant proposals and collaborate with the team on final selections
• Attend in-person planning meetings (Usually one a year)
• Prepare workshop proposals and presentations in consultation with the team
• Conduct workshops and presentations on behalf of the team as approved by the coordinator

Qualifications:

• Strong team player who will fit in well with the current team
• Knowledge of and/or experience with a disability
• Must be able to keep confidentiality
• Support the ministry of the ELCA and ELCA Disability Ministries

Next steps: 

• Write up a bio and a short document (300 words max) sharing why you feel this ministry is important to you and the life of the church, and why you feel called to serve in this capacity.
• Applications can also be received in a video or audio format. Do not exceed two minutes, please.
• Dates: Please send your materials to https://bit.ly/DMTeamApplication by no later than January 31st,2025. 

New members will be announced by March 31st. Thanks and God bless your discernment.

Peace,

Rev. Lisa Heffernan, ELCA Disability Ministries Coordinator

If you attended the Extravaganza last January, this resource may be familiar to you! It was revised and put together by Rev. Peter Heide in consultation with the rest of the Disability Ministries advisory team. We offer it here to share with our friends and colleagues who may wish to explore the Thanksgiving for Baptism from a lens of disability. It had quite an impact when Rev. Peter Heide and fellow team member Anita Smallin shared it with the assembly at the Extravaganza, and pray that it can be shared well in your communities, too.

Thanksgiving for Baptism

The assembly stands. The presiding minister invites all to make the sign
of the cross +, the sign marked at baptism.

Blessed be the holy Trinity, one God,
the fountain of living water,
the rock who gave us birth,
our darkness and our light, our life and our salvation.
Amen.

The presiding minister addresses the assembly.

Joined to Christ through the waters of baptism,
we are clothed in God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Therefore, let us give thanks for the gift of baptism.

Water may be poured into the font as the presiding minister gives
thanks.

We give you thanks, O God,
for in the beginning your Spirit moved over the waters
and by your Word
you spoke the amazing diversity of the world into being,
from darkness you brought forth light in rainbow colors,
from darkness you brought forth varieties of seeds and trees,
from darkness you brought forth animals of every size and kind,
birds of the air and fish of the sea.
And lastly, from darkness,
you brought forth humanity in your own image,
of all colors and in many sexual identities,
people able-bodied and disabled;
and, having called forth creation
and recognizing your image reflected in myriad ways,
you took delight and called it good.

Through the waters of the flood, you delivered Noah and his family.
By the Jabbok river, you wrestled with Jacob,
named him Israel and gave him a holy limp.
At the Red Sea, through Moses, your stuttering servant,
you led your people Israel from slavery into freedom on dry land.
At the River Jordan, your Son was baptized by John
and anointed with the Holy Spirit.
By water and your Word, you claim us as your children,
heirs of your promise and hope for the world, servants of all.

We praise you for the gift of this water that sustains life,
and above all we thank you for the gift of new life
received in the many-gifted, resurrected body of Jesus Christ.
By your grace, shower us with your Spirit,
renew us in your forgiveness,
embrace us in your love.
We give you honor and praise
through Jesus Christ our Lord
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Amen.

The service continues with gathering song. As a reminder of the gift of
baptism, the assembly may be sprinkled with water during the singing.

revised by Rev. Peter Heide in consultation with ELCA Disability Ministries
Advisory Team for ELCA Youth Extravaganza 2024, New Orleans, LA

ELCA Disability Ministries Workshops @ Extravaganza!

Have you registered for Extravaganza yet? Better get to it, because we would love to have you join us for our TWO workshops this year! Here’s a glimpse of what each workshop will be about. You can go to https://www.elcaymnet.org/workshops to find more information about all of the workshops happening at the E! this year.

D.A.R.E. to Play (Disability Access Resource Experience): All are welcome at church? Some of our youth group games don’t include all of God’s children. During this workshop, participants will learn how to make icebreakers, team building activities, and games more inclusive for those with disabilities and/or those who are neurodivergent. We will discuss the “why” of inclusion, along with navigating conversations surrounding youth with disabilities. Participants will also receive a list of supplies to have on hand at their congregation to make games and activities more accessible for those with disabilities. Come prepared to play some games and have some fun.

Catechism D.A.R.E. (Disability Access Resource Experience or Exploration): What does dying and rising mean from a disability perspective? Join the ELCA Disability Ministries Team as we explore the baptism texts of the New Testament, Luther’s explanation, and our contemporary Lutheran baptismal worship services. Mark Allen Powell, New Testament scholar and music critic, and others have demonstrated that we are influenced by our context. Indeed, it is Scripture’s content in conversation with our changing context that engages and reveals the Living Word of God. The Church often wrestles wondering how to make accommodation for the disabled student, but in this workshop come consider what might happen if people living with various disabilities are allowed to speak and interpret Scripture.

The Extravaganza is January 23-26, 2025 this year at The Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. Hope to see you there, friends!

Pastor Mack Patrick (he/they) serves as an Assistant to the Bishop in the Northern Illinois Synod focusing on communications, stewardship, and works with youth and young adults. As a transgender pastor in the ELCA, Pastor Mack strives to make the church a more inclusive and accessible place for all of God’s beloved children. Outside of work, you can find Pastor Mack reading in a hammock, building things with Legos, tinkering with technology, or riding roller coasters. Pastor Mack is proud to have served on the 2024 tAble Planning Team for the ELCA Youth Gathering.

Our blog post for this month is a sermon preached by Pastor Mack Patrick at the opening worship at the tAble, a pre-event to the 2024 Youth Gathering. Based on Psalm 139, it grounded attendees and staff in their time together, exploring “how we are created to be wHoly”.

Originally posted at: Created to Be: wHoly You (mackpatrick.blogspot.com) 

Dear friends of ELCA Disability Ministries,

Thank you for considering Disability Ministries to potentially help fund your request or initiative via grant. Grant applicants are required to follow the guidelines below to be eligible to receive grant funding through Disability Ministries.

All applicants seeking funds from Disability Ministries must demonstrate how the request or initiative addresses at least one of the following goals:

– Raising up people with disabilities for leadership positions, encouraging the participation of those with disabilities in the wider church, and preparing leaders for serving people with disabilities.

– Equipping our synods, congregations, and members with relevant and practical information that enables them to welcome and support individuals with disabilities so that they might participate fully in the life of the congregation, and that, together, all might experience being the body of Christ.

– Gathering and connecting those with disabilities and various groups within the church so that they might help us become an inclusive, supportive, and whole community of faith.

Additionally, all applicants must show that there is a current relationship, or that they are actively building a relationship, with people living with disabilities in their settings.

We want to recognize that we are moving beyond having an attitude of “If we build it, they will come” in the church. So, for example, not requesting funding for a ramp simply for the sake of having a ramp. But rather explaining how the ramp (or whatever your project may be) would be of a benefit to the disabled people in your setting and your ministry.

We will be funding a total of $50,000. Grant applicants can apply for a grant in the range of $5,000-$10,000. Previous applicants who were not funded may reapply.

The application will open on May 28th, and close on July 31st, or earlier if we have received 30 completed applications. Projects receiving grants will be announced before the end of October 2024.

To register with GrantMaker, please go to https://www.elca.org/grants/impact-church-ministry, and follow the links and instructions that follow. If you have a profile with GrantMaker already, log in here: https://elca.fluxx.io/user_sessions/new to begin your application process.

For questions, please email grants@elca.org or disability.ministry@elca.org.

God’s peace and blessings as you begin the application process!

—ELCA Disability Ministries

by Rev. Peter Heide 

At the 2024 ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza, several firsts occurred surrounding Disability Ministries. It had a more central place than in the past because, rather than offering the one 75-minute workshop we anticipated, in the end, our Disability Ministries (DM) advisory team, represented by coordinator Rev. Lisa Heffernan, Anita Smallin, Rev. Brian Krause, and Rev. Peter Heide, provided three 75-minute workshops, offered a revised Thanksgiving for Baptism service, and participated in a panel discussion with Rev. Jonathan Vehar, DEM for the South Dakota synod and director of the tAble, on the main stage. The DM advisory team also staffed a table in the exhibit area providing business cards with our contact information in Braille and Large Print. Large Print Guidelines | American Printing House (aph.org) Here we were able to make personal contacts.

The revised Thanksgiving for Baptism service may have been the first time that Braille was used at a national event of the ELCA or its affiliates. It was definitely the first time that an eReader, a refreshable Braille display, was used for the reading. NLS Braille eReader Support – Cleveland Public Library (cpl.org)  The Extravaganza may also have been the first time all worship services and other program details presented on screen were made fully accessible by providing document for reading through the eReader. (Many thanks to the organizers and Pastor Sarah Sumner-Eisenbraun, for making this possible.)

The importance of this work may make the difference for many Braille users who wish to be leaders in the church. Braille can now be made available by simply providing a thumb drive, SD card, or direct download with the program files in word, plain text, or rtf formats. This means that the high cost of Braille production no longer needs to be a barrier for many Blind people. The issue of Large Print continues to be a challenge, but we move one step at a time.

The presentations of the Disability Ministries advisory team seemed to be well received. One person stated that our workshop was one of the most practical workshops she attended. Another person responding to the presentation of the revised Thanksgiving for Baptism Service said, “My baptism has always been important to me, this service put faces on those who have gone before and really make a difference for me. It has made my baptism more important than ever.”

We thank the Youth Extravaganza planning team for their support of our continued ministry in and throughout the ELCA.