Category Archives: Good News

The PC(USA)’s Disability Concerns Consultants help people overcome barriers to full participation in church

Small, dedicated group draws gratitude for understanding inclusivity issues

by Darla Carter | Presbyterian News Service

Original Article: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/the-pcusas-disability-concerns-consultants-help-people-overcome-barriers-to-full-participation-in-church/

Disability Concerns Consultant the Rev. Sue Montgomery speaks during a workshop at Big Tent. (Taylor Gash photo for Presbyterian News Service)

LOUISVILLE — If the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)’s cadre of Disability Concerns Consultants had a motto, it might be “We are small but mighty.”

That’s how Hunter Steinitz, an elder at Riverview United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, describes the group, which consists of four consultants who each have a different specialty: people with mobility or accessibility issues, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and people who are blind or have low vision.

Taking questions mostly by phone or email, the consultants help disabled people throughout the PC(USA) to feel welcome.

“The biggest thing I hear from people who call is that they are so grateful to have someone not only that is listening but someone who understands,” said the Rev. Sue Montgomery, who leads the consultancy team and serves as the mobility/accessibility consultant.

Steinitz interacts with the consultants as moderator of Presbyterians for Disability Concerns, a group that works for disability inclusion in ministries, communities and the PC(USA). She recently described the role of Disability Concerns Consultants this way:

“They are out there for congregations, for individuals, for people with disabilities (who are) looking to find faith communities that are inclusive and accessible,” she said. Consultants also “help anybody really looking to increase their inclusivity and their accessibility so that more people with varying abilities can be active and participate in the life of the church.”

The Rev. Dr. Bethany McKinney Fox (Contributed photo)

The Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) contracts with the Disability Concerns Consultants on a two-year cycle and recently hired hearing consultant Kathy McIndoe and the Rev. Dr. Bethany McKinney Fox, who’s the intellectual/developmental disabilities consultant. They join Montgomery and the Rev. Dr. Karen Moritz, the consultant for people who have low-vision or blindness.

“Working very closely with Sue to contract with her three Disability Consultant colleagues, I have become very aware of their importance to the Church’s ability to provide a safe, inclusive space for people living with disabilities,” said Lacey Hunter, a manager of Finance and Administration for PMA. “The lived experience, skill, and sensitivity they offer is crucial.”

Steinitz said she is “over the moon” that the consultancy team is up to full staff.

However, “I’m even more excited that most of our consultants are themselves people affected with the disability that is their subject matter expertise,” she said. “It’s so very important that people affected with the thing in question be the ones to provide the information because they live it every single day in a way that someone who just knows about it can’t quite match.”

The Rev. Dr. Karen Moritz (Contributed photo)

As a woman who’s been blind since birth, Moritz is sensitive to the issues that people with conditions that affect their vision face in church and community settings. “It’s kind of a thing close to my heart because I think the church still struggles to know how to include people with disabilities,” said Moritz, a former mission co-Worker and retired Nebraska pastor. “I know all of us want to be there to help make that process easier and less frightening for people.”

Examples of the questions and comments that come to the consultants include the following:

  • I have a gluten intolerance. How can I participate in Communion?
  • Help! I need curriculum help for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
  • Can you give me information about accessibility audits/checklists/surveys?
  • My presbytery meets in a church that’s not accessible. Don’t they get it?
  • How can our church begin a ministry with persons who are deaf?
  • What do I say to a child who asks, “Why me?”

Montgomery, an honorably retired pastor who has a birth defect that has limited the use of her legs, said the people they hear from often are “looking for answers to a situation they’re dealing with in their congregation.” They may be a parent with a child who has a disability, or they may be “a teacher in a confirmation class looking for curriculum that’s geared toward people with cognitive or intellectual disabilities.”

Consultants also hear from people who have financial questions such as “How do we receive grants?” she said.

In addition to having conversations with people who have such questions, the consultants and Presbyterians for Disability Concerns can provide people with various resources.

Hunter Steinitz (Photo by Annie O’Neill)

“We have a blog,” Steinitz said. “We also have a number of resources,” including Sunday school materials for multiple age groups, so “check out all of the things that we have to offer and if there is something that you think you need or want that you don’t see, let us know. We’re always developing new and better materials to help folks think about ways to better include people with all abilities.”

The overall effort “is about participating in worship in whatever way people are able and want to and it’s also about enabling individuals with disabilities to serve in leadership capacities,” said Steinitz, who has a rare condition called Harlequin ichthyosis that gives her skin a red appearance. “So, it is about being able to come through the door, but it’s also about preparing for them once they’re here.”

Fox, the founder of a new worshipping community called Beloved Everybody in Los Angeles, expresses the need for inclusivity this way: “Particularly in a tradition like ours, with such deep regard for theological scholarship and meaningful verbal liturgy, there can be folks in the Body of Christ whose leadership, gifts, and participation are left out, simply because they may not express themselves primarily through verbal language or abstract concepts,” she said. “I hope that in this role I can work alongside folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities, whenever possible, to broaden the imagination of some of our practices and create more ideological and practical space for the beautiful diversity of bodies and brains among all of us whom God has created.”

Fox added that she has been “so encouraged by … the faithful commitment that folks from all over the country have shown for making a way for everyone in their community to participate and thrive, even when things become complicated, or a situation arises that doesn’t have an easy answer.”

Montgomery, who lives in Pennsylvania, noted that it’s important for people who want to make their churches better for people with disabilities to take the time to seek input from them.

“Get to know the person,” she said. “Get to know the family. Get to know what” their ministry needs are, because “if you don’t, you can end up paying for an elevator that nobody can use or a ramp that can’t be used because it’s too steep.”

That’s where a consultant can be helpful, Moritz said. “I feel like my job is partly, especially with congregations, to allow them to have that conversation with me, and then hopefully get some tools about how they can have that conversation with people in their congregation.”

Moritz also can be helpful to those who need help beyond the church. As a former vocational rehabilitation counselor, “I have an awareness of some of the other services that are available outside the church,” she said. “… Sometimes, people just don’t know where to go to get the help that would improve their lives.”

For more information about Disability Concerns Consultants, go here. Additional information can be found here.


Taking the ‘plunge’ to improve basic sanitation and hygiene worldwide

Indiana youth group uses lighthearted approach to address serious health issue through the Presbyterian Giving Catalog

by Emily Enders Odom, Mission Communications | Special to Presbyterian News Service

Youth at First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Indiana, have some good, clean fun playing plungerball. (Contributed photo)

ST. LOUIS — Although ballplayers have been swinging since ancient times — whether with bats, rackets, hands or clubs — recorded history is strangely silent about plungers.

Yes, plungers.

“Plungerball started about 20 years ago when I first started leading the youth group,” said Sunny Currier, youth leader at First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Indiana, who was attending the 2024 APCE Annual Event, Jan. 24-27, in St. Louis with a group from the congregation. “It’s just like softball, but instead of a bat you use a plunger. It just became a thing in our youth group.”

But the mission-minded youth of the church are not all fun and games.

“They are interested in social justice,” said Stephanie Cunningham, who leads the youth group with Currier at the 400-member church in the Presbytery of Ohio Valley. “Whenever we have conversations about topical issues, I find them to be really engaged.”

And that’s where the Presbyterian Giving Catalog came in.

“We already knew about the Giving Catalog from the congregation,” said Jen Riddle, the church’s director of Children, Youth and Young Adult Ministries. “Our social justice committee was working with it.”

The Presbyterian Giving Catalog is filled with a wide variety of gifts that provide real and positive impact around the world.

The 2023–2024 edition offers a total of 43 items — large, small and in between ­— to fit every congregation’s missional interests and every individual’s budget. For ease of use, it is available both in print and online, in EnglishSpanish and Korean.

When committee members Mary Ann McCray and Vern Jorck approached the two youth leaders and Riddle with a proposal, they were ready and eager to answer not only God’s — but also nature’s — call.

“Mary Ann and Vern thought it would be a great idea for the children of the church to raise money for families of chickens,” recalled Currier. “When they asked us if we could get that going, I thought that our youth group could also do something. So, when I picked up the Giving Catalog and saw the latrine item, considering that our youth group’s favorite activity is plungerball, the decision was obvious.”

Youth ministry leaders at First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Indiana, pose with Gracie the fish during last week’s APCE Annual Event. (Photo by Margaret Boone)

Currier said that reading the accompanying description in the Giving Catalog helped her to explain to the youth why latrines are important. According to a United Nations website, there are 3.5 billion people living without safe toilets.

The Giving Catalog explains that for women in particular, latrines promote dignity and safety, minimizing the risk of assault when they venture out alone in search of privacy.

“We explained to the youth that we have places to go to the bathroom, but not everybody does,” added Cunningham, who works for a domestic violence organization. “Even though it’s a heavy topic, you can pair it with something fun.”

And the teenagers — and youth leaders alike — had plenty of that.

The youth group kicked off their fundraising campaign in the late fall of 2023 with a table set up during coffee hour for the first two weeks of Advent and also as part of the church’s alternative giving fair.

Their creative displays gave a knowing nod and a wink to the latrine project by giving away Hershey’s Kisses, chocolate emoji-themed cupcakes and lemonade.

Currier had also found a broken chair in the recycling bin, which she outfitted with a toilet seat and mixing bowl to further raise awareness.

Youth at First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Indiana, encouraged gifts to the Presbyterian Giving Catalog with this creative display. (Photo by Sunny Currier)

For the children’s chicken project, Riddle said she found instructions to make paper plate chickens on the Giving Catalog’s website, which they displayed.

“We also made our ‘time with children’ sermons during the first two weeks of Advent related to the Giving Catalog project, first the chickens and then the latrines,” she said. “It’s great to have something visual for the kids.”

The Giving Catalog offers a wealth of hands-on activities, including the “I Spy Activity,” complete with downloadable coloring sheets of a chicken, cow, piglet and veggies designed to help children better understand how their gifts make a difference for families and entire communities.

At the APCE Annual Event, adults like Cunningham also enjoyed the opportunity to color — for a cause. And for a prize.

APCE attendees who completed and returned their coloring sheets on day 1 of the annual event were awarded a Piggy Tote; on day 2, a Chicken Tote; and on day 3, Veggies.

Completing coloring sheets featuring items from the Presbyterian Giving Catalog gave APCE Annual Event-goers a welcome respite. (Photo by Margaret Boone)

“I appreciated the coloring because self-care is important,” said Cunningham. “I also wanted to win a chicken tote bag badly! It means something to me because our kids worked on that project. Anything with children and youth is close to my heart.”

Although the chicken and latrine projects were the church’s first experience with — and gifts to — the Catalog, the results from the congregation were remarkable.

“Because the church was so incredibly generous, we ended up with enough money for 15 1/4 families of chickens at $25 each, and 3 1/2 latrines at $350 each,” said Currier.

Riddle explained that when the church’s men’s group heard about funding the latrines, they were so moved by a need that they weren’t previously aware of that they made a gift of a whole latrine.

“It’s sad that people don’t have access to latrines for safety and privacy,” said 12-year-old Maddie. “I’m glad we can help them.”

To which Maddie’s best friend, 13-year-old Violet, added, “We take a lot of things for granted.”

Like First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Indiana, please consider using the Presbyterian Giving Catalog to  spread hope and help create lasting, positive change around the world.

The original article is found here: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/taking-the-plunge-to-improve-basic-sanitation-and-hygiene-worldwide/

Creative_Commons-BYNCNDReprinted under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.

Festival Choir of Praise, June 24-25, 2023

UPDATE! — The registration deadline for the Festival Choir of Praise has been extended to June 4th.

Westminster Presbyterian Church in Washington, Indiana is hosting a choir workshop on the campus of Vincennes University under the direction of renown composer, conductor, concert artist, and humorist Pepper Choplin on June 24-25, 2023.

The Festival Choir of Praise (FCP) is open to all adults and students ages 12 and over. This two-day event will consist of a rehearsal on Saturday and a performance on Sunday in the beautiful Red Skelton Performing Arts Center. Thanks to a generous gift from the Center for Congregations, the cost of registration is only $20 with an Early Bird discounted half price registration fee of $10.

Included with your registration you will receive music for 12 anthems, lunch on Saturday, a post-concert reception, participant gift, as well as the experience of working with Maestro Pepper Choplin and performing in RSPAC. The entire package is valued at $200 and is limited to the first 160 applicants.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Saturday, June 24, 2023

  • 9:15 a.m. – 9:50 a.m. Check in. Receive packet with music and folder, seating assignment, lunch ticket, and participant gift.
  • 10:00 a.m. Rehearsal with Maestro Pepper Choplin.
  • 12:00 p.m. Box lunch provided.
  • 1:00 p.m. Rehearsal with Pepper.
  • 3:00 p.m. Travel home or visit historical sites in Vincennes.
  • 5:00 p.m. Dinner for all choir directors and accompanists with Pepper Choplin.

Sunday, June 25, 2023

  • 12:30 p.m. Doors open at RSPAC for performers.
  • 1:00 p.m. Dress rehearsal on stage.
  • 2:30 p.m. Doors open to the theater for the audience.
  • 3:00 p.m. Festival Choir of Praise in concert with Pepper Choplin.
  • 4:00 p.m. Post-concert reception at RSPAC.

MORE INFORMATION:

TO REGISTER: https://festivalchoirofpraise.rsvpify.com/

  • Or, download, fill out, and mail a paper registration form.

QUESTIONS?

You will receive more information about the festival weekend after you register. If you have any questions before you register, please contact Joyce Kim-Rohrer at swindcantatachoir@gmail.com

Pyoca Update

PASTORAL RESPITE

Pyoca is on a path to re-opening our doors, beginning in mid-July.

Our soft opening will start with overnight respite for Presbytery of Ohio Valley and Whitewater Valley Presbytery ministers and chaplains. Each pastor (immediate family is welcome to join) will be housed in their own cabin, either the Poplar Apartment or Oak/Cedar cabins. Guests will be responsible for their own meals. Dates and cabins will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. Stays are of no cost to pastors, made possible with the generous support of both presbyteries.

Pyoca is following enhanced cleaning procedures set fourth by the CDC, and additionally, air purifiers have been installed in all cabins.

Call Pyoca at (812) 358-3413 or email molly@pyoca.org for more details and to reserve your visit today.

A Message from Mike & Molly:
We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support of camp in this season. It has been incredibly strange for us to be at camp without hearing the melodious sounds of campers laughing, singing, and lifting up their prayers to God.

That said, working on Camp to You has been such a joy. We have loved seeing pictures of campers and their families opening their boxes, making their tie-dye shirts, and getting a bit of camp at home.

In total, we were able to send out nearly 300 boxes to campers and alumni with this program. We are incredibly grateful to our four summer staff Eli, Ethan, Kari, and Abigail who were able to help us make this program a reality.

We are still at work with our board discerning how to open safely in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we are committed to staying connected virtually through all of our social media platforms.

If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel,
Pyoca Camp and Retreat Center, where you can watch devotionals that go along with this summer’s camp theme, craft and outdoor cooking tutorials, silly songs, and more.

This Summer of Sanctuary is unlike any other we have had in 68 years, and it is one we are likely never to forget. You are missed. You are loved. We can’t wait to see you.

The peace of Christ be with you,

Mike Davis, Senior Director
Rev. Molly DeWitt, Program Director

CROP Hunger Walks – stepping up to end hunger since 1969

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the national CROP Hunger Walk movement, CROP Hunger Walks continue to raise millions of dollars each year to help end hunger and poverty through long-term sustainable approaches to significantly reduce or eliminate hunger.  In each CROP Hunger Walk community, 25% of money raised comes back to local agencies. Across the country, over 1600 local agencies receive funds from CROP Hunger Walks

This year some 800 communities nationwide are joining together in interfaith CROP Hunger Walks around the theme “Stepping up to End Hunger Since 1969.”  The CROP Hunger Walk was started in 1969 by a group of energized young people in Bismarck, North Dakota who wanted to mobilize their community to fight global hunger. Today, the CROP Hunger Walk is a national movement raising funds for the global hunger-fighting work of Church World Service and local hunger-fighting agencies. Last year, over 800 events raised over $8 million dollars.

For more information or to find a local Walk at www.crophungerwalk.org.