Worship Weblog

"Access to Liturgical Spaces: Welcoming ALL to this Place" Webinar Reflections

Posted by cicw

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

From Kristen Verhulst:

On March 10, EnVisionChurch, in partnership with the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, conducted a webinar called “Access to Liturgical Spaces: Welcoming ALL to this Place.” Rev. Mark Stephenson, Director of Disability Concerns for the Christian Reformed Church attended this webinar at the Grand Rapids Diocese office.

The webinar opened with a series of thought-provoking questions about the worship space such as these,
“When others see us at worship, what does our liturgy and our space say about who we are as the body of Christ?”
“What are the attitudes that are shaped by the worship space itself?”

When applied to accessibility issues, such questions take on another dimension regarding hospitality, welcome, and who is welcome to worship God. The speaker developed the idea of “Equivalent Experience” with regard to accessibility in the worship space. Equivalent experience embraces a person’s full, conscious, and active participation in worship, maintaining a person’s dignity while creating a similar experience. This similar experience begins with allowing for all worshipers to follow the same path in liturgical movement from entry into the building to coming forward for the celebration of Eucharist. For example, what does it say to the person in a wheelchair when he or she must use a ramp to the back of the altar area when all other worshipers ascend to the altar via steps in the front? Not only are there physical barriers to equivalent experience, but also there are psychological barriers such as accessible seating which will not allow a person who uses a wheelchair to sit with family, or accessible seating which only allows wheelchair and walker users to sit in the front or the back of the sanctuary. Doors, seating, floors, access/movement, and visual/aural/touch issues all must be considered in working toward equivalent experience. The full webinar will be available on the NCPD and EnVisionChurch websites on March 25. The NCPD is currently developing an access manual and will soon post a Checklist for Equivalent Experience, both of which will be available on the NCPD web site.

Also see our related resources on this topic.

Tags: accessibility, disabilities, webinar