Litany for a Disability Awareness Worship Service

Pastor: The Lord calls us as his covenant people to care for each other.

Congregation: We who belong to Christ must answer his call to serve each other in his name.

Pastor: Remarkable examples in the Bible teach us how God uses each member of his community in surprising ways to enrich and enlarge his church.

Congregation: Our Lord is our supreme example.  He wanted and welcomed people with disabilities whom society rejected as useless.

Pastor: We have not always made it possible for people with disabilities to participate fully in this community.  We have often isolated them and their families.

Congregation: We pledge ourselves to be the caring church we should be, paying special attention to the needs and gifts of people with physical, sensory, mental, and emotional impairments.

Pastor: We pledge ourselves to remove the barriers which keep these people from being fully included in our fellowship:

Congregation: The barrier raised by attitudes we hold which make those with disabilities feel unwanted among us; the barrier raised by communication we carry on which ignores those who don't hear, see or learn like us; the barrier raised by architecture we tolerate which makes it hard for some people to join us.

All: Lord, alert us to barriers.  Teach us to eliminate them; and show us that in serving we will be served. AMEN.