The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

The Disability/Ability Action Program is under way and so Unitarian Universalism begins a new chapter in its commitment to inclusion of people who historically have been on the margins of society.  A collaboration of Equual Access and the UUA, this groundbreaking program challenges congregations to welcome, embrace, support and integrate people with disabilities and their families into congregational life. 

Congregations seeking certification will conduct an assessment of accessibility and inclusion of people with disabilities, create an action plan of worship, workshops and projects, have that plan approved by the Disability/Ability Certification Committee and then implement the plan. When the plan has been fully implemented, the congregation can vote to be recognized as a congregation with a Disability/Ability Action Program certificate.  The program is designed to meet the needs of the entire congregation and includes workshops and activities for children and youth as well as adults.

Ten congregations are currently participating in the two year pilot project:

First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, MI
First Parish in Bedford, MA
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Buffalo, NY
First Parish Cambridge, MA
First Parish Kingston, MA
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Las Cruses, NM
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry, IL
The Congregational Society, Unitarian Universalist Peterborough, NH 
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, NC
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Rochester, MN

The plan is for the project to be offered to congregations around the country in 2015 to coincide with the 25^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Beautiful friendship, indeed.

For more information about the Disability/Ability Action Program, contact me at mbernstein@uua.org or Reverend Barbara Meyers at bfkmeyers@prodigy.net.

With respect,

Mark Bernstein

Consultant, Central East Regional Group and UUA Liaison to Equual Access

Getting There

As it pertains to issues around disability and accessibility, General Assembly 2013 in Louisville went, from my perspective, pretty well.  The workshop on creating inclusive worship services with Suzanne Fast, Sarah Dan Jones and Amy Carol Webb was well conducted and very well attended.  The Equual Access booth was busy with many ribbons, business cards and literature being handed out, many questions being answered, and many new relationships being formed.  The convention center was, as far as I knew, physically accessible. And the language during group worship and plenary sessions was generally appropriate and respectful.

So, all in all, I think it went okay.  However, there were a few times during the week when people were not as sensitive as they should have been.  We still have a long way to go in raising the consciousness of people around hurtful words and phrases and the suggestion of concepts that demean an entire group of individuals.

The most grievous example of this came during the Sunday Morning Worship and the sermon delivered by the Rev. Dr. William Schulz, President and CEO of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and former President of the Unitarian Universalist Association.  In his opening remarks, Rev. Schulz said, “I have been preaching to Unitarian Universalists now for more than forty-four years. One of the definitions of mental illness is doing the same thing over and over again without appreciable effect. Thank you, Peter, for giving me one more opportunity to prove my sanity.”  This was followed by uproarious laughter in the hall, including the dignitaries on the stage behind him.

First of all, Rev. Schulz, that is not one of the definitions of mental illness.  Secondly, it is not true that all people with mental illness do the same thing over and over again without appreciable effect.  Thirdly, I know many people who do not have a diagnosis of mental illness who do the same thing over and over again without appreciable effect.  Witness my New York Mets.

But the worst thing about these remarks was the effort to squeeze some laughs out of a blatantly stereotypical and negative profile of a particular class of persons.  Imagine what would have happened if, for example, Rev. Schulz had begun his sermon with, “One of the definitions of a lesbian is…”; or  “One of the definitions of an Hispanic is …”  At the least, it would have been met with stunned silence.  At most, it would have resulted in cries of protest and people leaving Plenary Hall.

Yeah, we still have a ways to go.  But I’m hopeful.  I truly believe that while words may sometimes divide us and preconceived ideas, judgments and assumptions may sometimes hurt us, if we pay attention to these things; if we give voice to it and speak out against it; if we strive to understand others with compassion and empathy, we will prevail.  And General Assembly will truly become the beloved community.

As the author Jose N. Harris said, “I may not be there yet, but I’m closer than I was yesterday.”

With respect,

 Mark Bernstein, CERG  Consultant and UUA Liaison to Equual Access

Being in Right Relationship: It’s all Monkey Business

At Emory University, researchers Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal conducted a fascinating experiment on the sense of fairness. They taught brown capuchin monkeys to swap tokens for food. Initially, the reward was a piece of cucumber, a food that capuchin monkeys were only too happy to work for. But when the researchers started rewarding some monkeys with grapes, a food that monkeys much prefer over cucumbers, and rewarding others with cucumbers, the latter group immediately took offense. In some cases, they refused to comply with the task. In other cases, they took the food but refused to eat it, and in some cases, they threw the food at the researcher. You can see a hilarious YouTube video

Scientists say that this research suggests that human’s sense of justice is inherited and is not a social construct. The experiment demonstrates our natural reaction to become angry or frustrated when we are treated differently from others or when we see others obtain or achieve things that we aspire to obtain or achieve as well.

Being in right relationship with people who have documented disabilities is more than etiquette. It is more than being polite. It requires that we treat others equally and fairly; that we work as hard as we can to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities, the same resources, and the same rewards. It stems from the basic belief that if I am eating grapes, all those around me should be eating grapes as well.

In our Unitarian Universalist congregations, this sense of justice and fairness is actualized through a proactive stance in making physical accommodations so that people with mobility issues can access our buildings, our classrooms, and our sanctuaries. It means acquiring or adapting equipment and other resources so that people can hear better, see better, and worship better. It means embracing the gifts and strengths that are inherent in everyone and looking beyond the images that cause us to stereotype and distance ourselves from others.

Victor Hugo wrote, “Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.” As Unitarian Universalists, we must begin doing the difficult so that everyone in our faith has equal access. In other words, we need to stop monkeying around.

Mark Bernstein
CERG Growth Consultant and UUA Liaison to Equual Access