In gratitude for 5 years since Of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability was published, and in honor of its second print run, I am hosting a zoom book club each month at 8PM Eastern time (New York/Detroit) on the 3rd Monday of the month, starting on November 18, 2024. We will go through the book one or two chapters at a time, with discussion and time for participants to ask questions and share stories of how they are living their faith with disabilities and with loved ones who have disabilities. I’ll send updates for each month as the group develops, but I have in my heart those kind instructions from St. Paul as a pattern for our interactions. We can deep dive into theological ideas, too, but mostly we are going to experience God who loves us.

Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

I Corinthians 16: 13-14

Since 2019, I have had the honor of speaking at many national conferences about accessibility and practical ways to welcome, accommodate, and include people with disabilities in the fullness of faith life. What began with my own journey of faith as an autistic woman with autistic children expanded through the many connections I made through writing this book, and I have had the joy of expanding a great deal on the educational and theological parts of the book. Lately I have found myself marveling at the ways that we get to know the joy and love of God more when we practice accessibility. Truly these sessions will be about encouragement, helping one another discern the courage-giving, joy-bringing, consoling presence of God with each of us.

You already know how to do this if you’re living the disability life. We are not going to preach to the choir and tell you how to keep vigil. But let’s spend some time considering how we can keep watch for God no matter our circumstances. How will we see joy? It is good to love each other in our broken bodies. Let’s be myrrhbearers to one another, and let’s be oil-bringers, too, revealing the goodness of God in each other.

Even if you cannot stand and if you suffer infirmities, we are going to fan the flames of the fortitude given to us through life with the Holy Spirit. We are going to listen to each other and look at resources so that when we face the hardest times, we don’t give up. We’ll look at ways to stabilize prayer in your daily life even with the challenges that your family faces with disabilities. We’ll look at boundaries and how they need adjusting and how our anger can tell us when we need to make changes. We’ll talk about ways to deepen our faith that might not be typical but are part of the rich treasury of God’s life with us.

We are going to keep it real. A lot of “theology” suffers from abstraction, but we are going to stick with what we can do 1) TODAY and 2) With our ACTUAL NEIGHBORS, people in our real lives now. In this way we follow the teachings of our Lord to ask for help TODAY and, when we seek to love God, to also love our neighbors as ourselves. Disability life is not the place for perfectionism and scruples, but it is a way that can make us perfect in mercy and rich in virtues.

Thank you so much for reading Of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability! I look forward to learning more with you.

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