Ideas for working towards more inclusive worship by Judith Lincoln

In the autumn of 2006 Judith Lincoln took the subject of Learning Disability as the focus for “Unit 19” of her LP Studies. The project looked at what people with learning disabilities (and their families) find helpful or unhelpful in worship and church life. This article is the result of that research.

‘Preach him to all…’  So says one of Charles Wesley’s hymns (H&P 264, verse 6, line 3).  If we believe that God’s grace is for all, then the worship we lead should include all.  However, preachers and worship leaders know that it can be extremely difficult to satisfy everyone’s needs.  In any one congregation there can be a wide range of personalities, musical tastes and theological and liturgical persuasions.  In some congregations there may also be additional factors of disability and learning difficulties.

For most of my time as a Local Preacher, I have worked for a learning disability charity.  Several of the charity’s service users are active Christians who have told me how they feel welcome in their churches and enjoy taking part in worship.  Indeed, worship is enriched when all worshippers feel welcomed and included.  By contrast, worship is impoverished when some feel unwelcome and excluded.  

Stories from the charity’s service users of positive and negative experiences in worship led me to focus my ‘Faith & Worship’ Unit 19 project on worship with people who have learning disabilities. A small survey across denominations helped me see patterns that promoted inclusive worship:

• It is all too easy to make assumptions about how people with disabilities might (or might not) engage in worship.  We should be alert to ways that we might include all worshippers.  We should also be alert to ways that everyone might contribute to the worship.
• It is always worth checking how particular needs of worshippers might shape the leading of worship and preaching.
• A couple of short talks can be more accessible than a single sermon.  A narrative talk can engage attention well.  Purposeful story-telling is memorable and invites reflection and re-telling long after the event.
• Similarly, drama can be an alternative to a talk or a Scripture reading.
• Careful choice of hymns and songs helps ensure that language and music are appropriate and accessible.  There are times when action-songs (or hymns where sign language is used) can blur distinctions about who in the congregation has learning difficulties!
• Prayers also benefit from appropriate and accessible language, though candles, music, pictures and activities can aid praying and reduce the need for spoken words.
• Seasonal symbolism and ritual (like lighting Advent candles or decorating a Lenten cross) can carry deep significance for all.  Active ways to celebrate the festivals of the Christian year (including the Covenant Service) can help everyone worship.
• A short ‘News Slot’ in a service, when handled sensitively, can lead into prayers of thanksgiving and intercession.
• Hymn-singing is helped when the correct numbers are on the hymn board, when large print hymn books are available for any who need them and when overhead projection is large enough to see and timed so that all know which words are coming next.
• Visual aids and worship focus displays can be telling and memorable ways of expressing a message and creating worship.
• Each of us has a quality that can serve and enrich others.  How we help each other to put our qualities to the service of God and the service of other people is a challenge and an opportunity for all of us.

These are suggestions, ideas that might already work for you, or that you might consider trying in your own situation.  Not getting things right first time shouldn’t discourage us, but should help us adapt and improve how we prepare, lead and enable all to take part in inclusive worship.  The important thing is that we never lose sight of the truth that God’s grace is for all.

Judith Lincoln is a Local Preacher in the Nottingham Trent Valley Circuit, and an administrator with Nottingham Mencap.