ArticleBlog | Preaching and Disability – avoiding stumbling blocks
Preaching and Disability – avoiding stumbling blocks
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 23.09.22
Part of my ordination training was preaching classes, where we studied the mechanics of putting together a sermon. Length, content, style, depth and delivery were the key ingredients. We were dispatched to write a sermon on different passages of scripture, and allocated a different congregation to whom we would be speaking – all-age, older people, mixed church traditions… Dutifully we prepared, delivered and then faced peer critique.
Every time I preached at theological colleges, on placements during training, and into the first four years of my ordination (curacy), I stood up at a lectern. Something in me understood that people who preached stood up, and I had never seen anyone preach sitting down.
Since my ordination in 2003, I’ve been preaching sermons in a variety of churches and settings. Recently I realised that every model we were taught assumed we were preaching to a hearing, able bodied congregation, and assumed we were hearing able-bodied preachers. I have been pondering these assumptions for a while.
Around 12 years ago, during pregnancy and then when my son was born, I decided to begin sitting down to preach. Pregnancy and cerebral palsy reduce stamina levels, and I found myself admitting that I was too tired to stand up to preach – and so I sat down. The sky did not fall in,
the congregations did not complain, Jesus was still Lord! I have sat to preach and teach ever since, without exception and without fail, to the extent that I now lead services sat down too!
When it comes to preaching, leading, and disability, here are a few of my personal observations and lessons learned through my own lived experience with cerebral palsy, in my work as a Disability Adviser, and as a disability advocate.
