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Riverview, Queensland, Australia
I am a retired church pastor exploring the dynamics of life in Christ in this exciting world.

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Monday, February 5, 2018



“Faith In The Shadows: The Other Side Of The Fence”

After 7 years of writing my seminal project, “Faith In The Shadows: The Other Side of the Fence” will soon be ready for publication. Currently this work is going through its final edit – check with a few friends who have contributed suggestions along the way. There is a long way to go but I am pleased to be at this point in the project where I am happy with its development over the past 6 years and look forward to the completion of the project.

Faith In The shadows is presented in two (2) parts, Part I, the Paper itself and Part II, References and Resources. The division became necessary as Part II grew into its own work which will be of value to those looking into the topics of disability, faith, spirituality, inclusion in sacramental and worship aspects in our faith communities.
The following is a brief overview of the thesis and discussion in the paper.

Faith in the Shadows: The Other Side of the Fence
Fences separate, divide and sometimes hide one side from the other. Disability can, at times, be a fence. We have to admit this first in order to overcome its barriers and move our churches forward to full inclusion in spiritual worship and life for its members. I don’t mean only wheel chair ramps, hearing loops and special diets, but spiritual inclusion within the sacramental worship and body of Christ on earth.
In the essay, ‘Faith in the Shadows: The Other Side of the Fence’, we examine inclusion from both sides of the fence, our world and theirs. We begin with a historical survey of how churches and faith communities have dealt with the issue of inclusion and conclude that the record is not that great.
Establishing a need to raise awareness of the barriers that disabilities can present to spiritual inclusion within our churches we look at disability itself and its effect on the sociological and spiritual experiences of the disabled. Next, we examine faith and discover that its primary characteristic is ‘spirit’ – spiritual in nature not intellectual-cognitive as we accept within the general church community.
Identifying ‘faith’ in this new paradigm we come to realise that spiritual inclusion of the disabled within our faith communities is not only necessary but essential for the social and spiritual growth of the church body. We also look at means of and limitations to spiritual inclusion within our fellowships taking a step of faith towards removing the ‘fence’ that divides and initiate a healing of the body of Christ on earth.
Discovering, in this process, that God is transcendent we find disability no barrier to His grace and realize that Faith in Christ (God) is equally present, active, salvic and experiential in the life of the neuro-typical and disabled alike.
With Faith, now no longer the property of the intellect but God’s Spirit in the life of the disabled person, we step back into our world with real life examples of inclusion that have added to and enhanced the spiritual faith experiences of the person and the church fellowship to which they belong.
The challenge we face in accepting that faith is primarily a spiritual attribute is to positively act upon this realization through full inclusion, in spirit, word and deed within the sacramental and social fellowship of our churches and faith communities.
The background of this paper is the real-life experience of a country pastor working through issues of faith, inclusion and church membership in the life of a profoundly disabled young woman who, after several years, was brought into full communicant ‘spiritual’ fellowship with her local church.
The concluding statement of the paper says;
“Faith in God has, is and always will be a matter of spirituality and any other definition of faith is flawed, on both sides of the fence, for it dismisses God who is Spirit as the prime cause and facilitator of faith in those who believe (whatever ‘world’ they live in) and marginalizes the disabled we may perceive, from our side of the fence, to be incapable of facilitating a faith statement.”

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You can contact me through this Blog Page or my Email address for discussion and interest in this work.
Kind regards,
Rev. Keith Harris, DipEE, ADipTh, BTh.

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