Happenings

From the website for the documentary, Praying with Lior:

The Religion and Disability Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion has issued a call for papers for their annual meeting in Washington DC in November of this year. If you have an idea, you better get it ready fast, the deadline is March 1st. What they are looking for:

We invite papers that examine relationships between religion, disability, and concepts of the other, particularly emphasizing ways in which this otherness relates to understandings of community. Topics may include hospitality, borderlands, images of the wayfarer or traveler, construction of community, distinctions between guest/host/stranger, new vantage points, communal versus individual journeys, values of creativity or beauty, the role of invitation or love, the importance of struggle, and eschatological images. We also invite proposals that focus on deaf churches and deaf culture, particularly those that highlight the significance of the Washington, D.C., area.

More information at the AAR site

The University of Chester and the Committee for Ministry of and among Deaf and Disabled People of the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England are offering training for Deaf people who want to train for Christian ministry. The course is being offered in British Sign Language and will begin in January of 2006. While this may not be a viable option for persons outside of England, it is great to see the need identified and an effort made to meet the need, hopefully other organizations will follow suit. (hat tip BBC Ouch!)

"Where there is No Vision, the People Perish" (Proverbs 29:18)
Interfaith Disability Pre-Summit
(Before the Alliance for Full Participation: Many Voices, One Vision National Disability Summit) on September 20, 2005

This looks like a great event to get together with a lot of amazing people working in this area. Even if you are not able to attend, please take a moment to take their Pre-summit survey and turn it in to the folks who are organizing this.

From the Alliance for Full Participation website:

The Alliance for Full Participation is sponsoring a national summit September 22-23, 2005, in Washington DC. Summit 2005: Many Voices, One Vision, is an opportunity for all those committed to making the promises inherent in the Developmental Disabilities Act for Americans a reality to come together to dream, plan and organize around a common vision, to establish national strategic social and policy goals, and to create a proactive and responsive action plan for the future.