Bringing new stories from the marketplace

Deborah H Carney

Etd

Bringing new stories from the marketplace

Public Deposited

MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Deborah H Carney. Bringing New Stories From the Marketplace. Bangor Theological Seminary. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/8302d49e-b40c-4a26-b88a-03fcc21e2e1c.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

D. H. Carney. Bringing new stories from the marketplace. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/8302d49e-b40c-4a26-b88a-03fcc21e2e1c

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Deborah H Carney. Bringing New Stories From the Marketplace. Bangor Theological Seminary. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/8302d49e-b40c-4a26-b88a-03fcc21e2e1c.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Creator

Deborah H Carney

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Abstract

For too long people with cognitive delays and or mental retardation have been left out of the local congregation. The reasons for this are threefold. The first is that the local church in most communities did not have people with retardation among their congregations because most were institutionalized. The second reason is because with de-institutionalization came the need for adequate housing and day programming and people never looked at the spiritual or faith based needs of this group of people. The last reason is because we, as the Church, have chosen not to educate ourselves on how best to become more welcoming. By doing this we have maintained an 'at homeness' with our brand of Christianity. The method of research was participatory action through the use of story telling as modeled from the biblical literature. Also used were survey and needs assessments done with people who have developmental disabilities with in a geographical location in central Maine. The results of the participatory action research were that the Church in this local has not met the needs of this small community. The vast majority of people who told their stories or participated in the surveys and needs assessments have had terrible experiences with the Church and so called Christians. Of course, there are stories of hope and strength stemming from relationships developed through fellowship and prayer life. Education needs to happen within the local church. This education should come from those who live with disabilities on a daily basis. As a result of this work, an Advisory Committee has been set up to begin to speak to small groups within some local churches in an effort to bring about a better understanding of what needs to happen to try and bring all of God's people into the Body of Christ. The project report includes resources to local and national groups already doing this work. It also contains resources related directly to people with retardation and the Church. There is also an example of one of the workshops given to members of the area churches.

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