Faith and People with Mental Disabilities

New working committee set up to help with faith in practice

At the recent bishops’ meeting three bishops set up a working committee to help the 36,000 people with mental disabilities in Denmark grow in the Christian faith and live it out in practice. Along with the bishops there are pastors, parish assistants, and representatives from the National Council for People with Mental Disabilities (LEV).

 

Change of mentality needed
Bishop of Viborg, Karsten Nissen, says: “We need to improve the conditions for people with mental disabilities at all levels. We take inspiration from the book by the Norwegian pastor, Tor Ivar Torgauten, Together We Shall Build the Church, but we need a change of mentality to fully integrate people with mental disabilities. The subtitle of the book, “People with mental disabilities are the Church’s Guides”, reflects the author’s experience with his own daughter, who lives openly with her disability – and openly with her faith too. Karsten Nissen agrees that the spontaneity of such people is a good guide for the rest of the congregation. “They have an immediacy that is the prime tone in the gospel,” he tells the Christian Daily. “They are present in a quite different way, with no reservations about their faith, Christianity, and the church. That’s something we can learn from them.”

More visual activities
Two of the organisations for People with mental disabilities in Denmark are optimistic about the committee’s work. LEV and the Christian Handicap Society (sic) argue that the right of all Christians to practise their faith must be secured for the disabled too. Chair of LEV, Sytter Kristensen, wants the committee to involve the staff at the sheltered homes where many of the people with disabilities live. “At present it’s just too haphazard. We need to realise as a church and a society that like everyone else people with mental disabilities have a right to their faith; the church in particular needs to look at making its activities more visual rather than oral. But this goes for all faiths,” she says.

 

Pastoral care in practice
Pastor Line Rudbeck serves the sheltered village of Sølund near Skanderborg, home to 237 adults with disabilities. She welcomes the initiative and wants better pastoral training. “In hospitals, hospices, and prisons we have pastoral staff trained to help. A good deal of my time is spent with pastoral care,” she tells the Christian Daily. “Today, for instance, I visited a woman who lives in her own apartment and has good language skills. Since her parents’ death she has needed to talk about her loss, about death, and about hope. I then visited a young man with limited language skills who wants to share the Lord’s Prayer, the creed, and a blessing. We sing hymns of joy and God’s caring love that remind him of his confirmation, and a smile splits his otherwise careworn face.”

 

Picture: from sxc.hu

 

By: Edward Broadbridge

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