Meet in the Middle
Meet in the Middle
Disability and the Church Part 1
Rev. Zayzay Kpadeh begins a two part series on Disability and the Church, starting with Rev. Debbie Hills, a retired Deacon who continues to support the Disability Ministries within the Western PA United Methodist Conference and at the General Church level. Rev. Hills shares her experiences, and provides direction about how to better serve those with special needs.
The Western Pennsylvania conference of the United Methodist church presents meet in the middle, a weekly podcast of the Western Pennsylvania conference. Anti-racism Jean get ready to meet in the middle.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much for joining us. We want to welcome you to, uh, another interesting and a fascinating edition of our podcast meet in the middle. This podcast is designed, but the Western Pennsylvania annual conference of the United Methodist church, this is where we discuss Benton and issues of diversity inclusion. And of course, uh, just justice in today's, uh, edition. Uh, we are looking at, uh, visibility and the church. And of course, uh, it's interesting that, uh, we can have, uh, someone who has a considerable knowledge, uh, in the area of, uh, disability, working with people with intellectual disability, challenging behaviors, uh, doing that aspect of ministry. We're glad to have with us, Reverend Debbie Hills of the United Methodist church, Reverend Hill's about way of history is the former executive director and founder of, uh, all girls, children, ministry, all God's children. Ministry is bears in the area Mevo district of, uh, the Western Pennsylvania annual conference of the United Methodist church. She played a considerable role in that particular aspect of ministry, and it is our understanding that, uh, Reverend Hills has, uh, uh, retire from that area of ministry. And, uh, she's, uh, currently rendering hall expertise to a visibility ministries committee of, uh, the United Methodist church within the context of the WPA. That is the Western Pennsylvania annual conference of, uh, the United Methodist church. Uh, and, uh, this particular disability ministries committee of the UMC also has a core partnership with, uh, the general commission on race and religion. It is a great privilege that, uh, we can have, uh, Reverend Hills who will be able to share with us a considerable level of knowledge and experience, uh, in this particular area of, uh, ministry. Let me use this opportunity to welcome our sister, uh, the Reverend Debbie Hills, uh, welcome to, uh, the, uh, meet in the middle podcast of otherwise thin PA annual conference. It's good having you here with us welcome Reverend house.
Speaker 3:Uh, it's great to be with you too. Um, I'm excited for this opportunity to discuss a little bit of what's going on in the United Methodist church, the general church as well, and how we are trying to move this area of justice ministries forward.
Speaker 2:That's right. And, and, um, you know, this is truly a genuine, uh, an anchor of true discipleship, uh, emphasizing inclusion and, uh, justice. This aspect of ministry, uh, rather than Hills is quite challenging. I've done some work as well in the area of social work for quite some time, uh, as a social worker in, uh, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Let me begin by first of all, asking you the pivotal question, what gravitated you to this aspect of ministry? Is it, uh, something quite satisfying, the challenges associated with such an expert of a social justice ministry catering to the Lees of these is India part and the Cardinal principle of scripture. Talk to us a little bit about how this process, first of all, started with, uh, the, uh, all God's children ministry, which you are, you are retired now and a different person is managing the affairs, but what gravitated you to this expert of,
Speaker 3:Well, the short answer would be God. Um, the long answer would be a lifetime of work and struggles. When I was a young girl, probably 13, 12, 13 years old. I had my first taste of working with people with disabilities. I helped a neighborhood lady, a friend of my mom's who had a backyard pool and living up on lake Erie every year. She taught swimming lessons to kids trying to drown proof them every year. It seemed to, we would have several deaths of children like Erie in our area. So it was kind of a passion of hers. And she had asked me to come, I was pretty good swimmer, and she asked me to come and help her with the swimming lessons. And I'm one of the children that came that year, was a child with cerebral palsy who walked with crutches, but very definitely had significant physical disabilities. And my job was to keep him safe during swimming lessons and make sure he doesn't drowned in the pool. And it just sort of took hold of me and, um, went into a profession eventually as a pediatric physical therapist and worked in that in a number of years until God called me into international missions. And I started doing international disability work, um, in central America, distributing and fitting wheelchairs and other adaptive equipment to people who otherwise would go without, out of that, God started really working on me and telling me he had a new thing that he wanted me to do. And over time I figured out what that was went back to seminary, went through process in Western Pennsylvania to become an ordained deacon, knowing that God was wanting me to do something with disability ministry work. There's a couple of issues, major issues that, um, were placed on my heart. One of them was just how unseen people with disabilities are when we think that in our, in the world between 20 and 25% of our population in the world and in the United States have at least one significant disability look in our churches. How many do we see? Not very many. And so that leads to a question of why is it that we don't see them well, as I've done more and more work inside the church and interviewed and spoken with and sat alongside and mostly listened to people with disabilities. It's not because they don't believe in God. It's not because they don't want to be in a community of faith. It's because they feel unwelcomed in our communities of faith. So we've got a lot of work to do on a lot of fronts and, and there is work going on, but we need more workers in the field. You know, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They own work. Um, nature of, uh, the, this able community. I found that quite interesting, 20 to 25% of the global population, as you just stayed in one way or other have some form of disability. Why do you think, because you've worked in this area for quite some time, you know, serving probably a or a decade and a half, uh, on the, uh, or God's children ministry, and now, you know, gravitating to the level of, uh, working with, uh, the, uh, the annual conference, uh, since you retired from that engagement, why is the church slow in gravitating to this level of, uh, of, uh, ministry administering to people, uh, who are just as human as we are just as important as we are just as intelligent as we are. Uh, although they have physical challenges, we all do one way or the other.
Speaker 3:Well, um, first of all, um, at this point in time, I'm actually working at the general church level. We do have a conference committee and there are leadership there's leadership there. Kristin Sanders is actually the one that's setting up the conference committee on disability concerns. Um, so my work at this point is, is looking at the general church. So I'm actually have a world focus at this point, which is new and exciting and lots of opportunities. But, um, back to your question of why are we so slow? That is an age old question. We're living in a culture, especially in this country, that youth and physical ability and beauty as the hallmark points of how we value people. That's not how God sees people. Yeah. I mean, I think if we go back to that book, we all claim to live by that, you know, that, that good book, that there is a lot of scripture references in there that talk about that man does not see as God sees that woman does not see as God sees. And I think we've got to get back to the basics of our faith. What did Jesus teach us? Who didn't Jesus value, who did Jesus spent his time with? Who did Jesus ministered to and with, who did Jesus bring up through the ranks to lead our church? Was it the brightest and the richest and the most handsome and the most eloquent of people falling out with, Out with these ropes called the disciples. It came from every common walk of life with tax collectors who were reading, you know, they, they were just the most repugnant. He brought tax collectors in. We are still not doing that very well. And if we claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we've kind of gotten back to doing things that Jesus called us to do, and we're not always doing that, but we're starting, there are little tiny, um, glimmers of hope that we see from time to time that, um, give us just enough to take the fight on into the next day and the next week and the next year. So I think it's, we've gotta, we gotta look at culture. We gotta look at culture change and we all know that culture change comes very slowly. It is not a sprint. It is a marathon. And so we have to be in this for the long haul
Speaker 2:Genuinely. I agree with too. We, we have to, to be intentional and we have to be in this for the long haul. Uh, talk to me, uh, about, uh, the work that you are doing right now, uh, the general and a global level, uh, with, uh, the GC or RR, uh, in Tampa stuff. I'm trying to, uh, gravitate, uh, what, what is, what is transpiring at the moment on the national level? You talk about culture that, uh, concentrate on beauty and the young that is so true, leaving out the Adelaide and, uh, people with disability most of the times, uh, but on the global level, uh, if we are struggling at this level, at this micro level on the, on a national level, uh, the United States, uh, for instance, uh, what is it like on the global level for the church? What are some of the emphasis being made at the moment to, to be intentional and, uh, keeping in mind the various social principles, we have social principles within the Methodist tradition that emphasizes inclusion. And just as you say, Jesus taught, Jesus spent most of his time, not with the eloquent field, not with the people, the elites people are the top. Jesus was always catering to the needs and the explorations of the vulnerable.
Speaker 3:Yes, indeed. Well, at the general church level, there are struggles. I mean, we all know the struggles, our churches going through. That's not, that's no news to any of us who have read anything in the last years, but alongside that, you know, I love what our Bishop in Western PA said, she's she asks us to be actively waiting. You know, if we put everything on hold until we figure out what's going on at the general church, we're going to lose valuable time and valuable energy and people, we're not going to reach the people who we are called to reach. So I would say, um, our work, other disability ministries committee of the United Methodist church, our work right now is very active. The struggles we have, number one is funding. Like we know we talked about 20 to 25% of the people in the world have a disability in the United Methodist church. There is zero apportion funds being given to support the work of disability ministries. We are totally unfunded through a portion of funds. So we have to fundraise. Um, we have to engage with a different general agencies and committees and try to partner with them. And a few of them help support us in a small way will send us a little bit of a financial support to keep us going so that we can help continue to resource them. Um, so we get a little bit that way, but the majority of our support has got to come from individual donors and churches. And so we're working hard to get that word out and to let people know what the need is and let them know what we're doing. So let me tell you a little of what we're doing right now. We are working really hard on provide development and provision of resources. Okay. We talk about training and equipping a lot because our role as a general church committee is to provide what the conferences and the districts and the general agencies and the local churches need to reach out and bring in people with disabilities and minister with them, not to them. Our emphasis is on giving voice to people with disabilities to making space. You know, you hear this, this, this saying over and over, we need to make space at the table for everyone. Well, we, haven't done a very good job of making space for people with disabilities and we need to do better. So, um, our committee is largely made up of people who have disabilities. And those of us who don't have a significant disability, I won't say I don't have a disability. I do have some real mild ones that have been diagnosed that people who know me love me anyway, but I don't have a disability in the true sense of the ADA definition of disability. But those of us who don't have worked with an inside the disability community for a number of years we're therapists, we are parents, um, family members of people with disabilities, um, people who have journeyed alongside people with disabilities. Um, so we are giving spaces table for people with disabilities to bring their reality and bring their stories to the table to inform every aspect of our work. And I think that is really important. It would be the same thing. Um, when we're talking about race issues that if we're talking about that, and the only people sitting there talking about it are white folks, the dominant majority group in the country, that's not being authentic. If we don't have the people who have the lived experience, they're in the forefront doing, being the spokespeople, being the people on the front lines, then we've missed the boat. So it's really important to do that. So we are working with, uh, almost all of the general agencies at this point in some way or another, we work with the general agency for church and society. Okay. That group who is, uh, has a justice of strong justice emphasis, we work with them and development of resources with going back and forth and, and, and holding each other accountable, so to speak. And we do the same thing with, um, G Corp right now. Um, our communications person on the committee is working with their communications person on that committee to further make their website more accessible. We're working with GVH GM on, on issues around, um, candidacy and ordination. So we are doing a lot of cross agency work, um, at the points of intersectionality and doing whatever we can to support them in the work that they're doing so that it will be more inclusive and more open to all people. We also have, uh, uh, over the last year or so, we've been working really hard to move us from a us centric committee to becoming more of a global committee. We've just recently brought onto the committee, um, a member from Africa, from Nigeria. So she is a part of our committee. So we're bringing that voice to the table. We're working on finding ways to make our resources more contextually relevant to the, the, um, central conferences. So we have people in the Philippines and people in Africa and people in central America and south America and different areas where we were Methodism has a root and a grounding to have them check our resources. What in this resource is not culturally relevant to your context, how can we change it and make it more culturally relevant, and then working on translating resources into the language of the people. So we have a lot of stuff going on. And when you think that probably 80% or more of the work that's going on in this committee is all volunteer based. It's, it's a pretty amazing group of people to be involved with. Um, we have some phenomenal people on this committee doing some amazing work and I just get to kind of lead them and they keep us all going in the same direction. So, um, it's, it's really quite energizing work and very exciting.
Speaker 2:I find it quite fascinating when you talk about the apportionment piece of it is that intentional. Uh, and I know we are in the early stages. Uh, uh, if we emphasize the whole concept of open doors, open hearts and open minds, then we should be a much more work humming community. I'm just wondering, it's good that you say you started with the clergy and across the conference level with general agencies, uh, come to talk to us a little bit. It's my understanding that in, uh, this gone October, you had a training with boom and of course, uh, collegial members, uh, w was that within the Western PA annual conference of the United Methodist church, or was that done on a global level? Talk to us a little bit about that training. What was it intended for trying to bring some level of clarity, uh, to the clergy? Uh, even those who have been recruited, uh, to be a part of, uh, the, uh, spiritual aspect, uh, meaning, uh, pastors and ministers, uh, within the, uh, Western PA annual conference on a global level.
Speaker 3:Okay. That specific training was for Western PA, but it has, uh, it has global implications implications. From, from this perspective, there has been a long history of unequal treatment in our credentialing and appoint appointed processes within the United Methodist church. When it comes to bringing in clergy members who have disabilities, they have been held to different standards. They have been seen as problems, not gifts. And there has been a lot of hurt around that. There's been a lot of hurt. There have been a lot of people hurt, and there've been a lot of gifts and graces lost because we have not known how to engage appropriately with people with disabilities. You know, we're told again, in that book, we claim to live by not the book of discipline, the Bible, um, that each of us have been given at least one gift. And many, many of us have been given many gifts. People with disabilities are gifted by God for service. And we have overlooked that. So anyhow, this training that went on in Western PA, I am so proud of Western PA. I feel like a mama just bursting at the seams with pride because, um, when an issue came up in our board of ordained ministry, they took action. They wrestled with some hard questions. They found some beginning answers to some hard questions and they were ready and willing to have hard conversations around these issues. And what came out of that, I serve on the board of ordained ministry. So I kind of have that in a little bit on, I know those folks too, and I know their hearts, they have good hearts and they're trying to do good work, but I also have a lot of friends in the clergy and lady community as well. Um, from across the denomination who have disabilities, who have managed to get, or Dane who have managed to, um, be appointed and are doing phenomenal work in our churches, phenomenal work. So I could tap into some of those folks, bring them to Western PA and have them lead us again. I could have gone up and stood in front of that body and tried to teach them what they learned. It would not have been nearly as authentic or valuable if it had come from me as a person, without a disability, as it was from two of our clergy members from other conferences, one a deacon, one, an elder who came and that us on a two day journey through, um, some of their struggles, some of the things we might be able to think about doing, um, to put in place, to make our processes here in Western PA, better with the big picture of you, of taking this back, our experiences, what we're able to do here and using it to teach and lead other conferences and other, other areas of the general church in the same area. We've had some beginning dialogue with, um, GVH GM along these lines. And hopefully that relationship will grow and develop. And we'll be able to partner with them as we've partnered with some of our other general agencies to help move this forward as well. So Western PA is on the cutting edge of this piece of disability ministry work and are a major force right now in helping to move that forward. So yea Western VA,
Speaker 2:That is quite a fascinating answer. The, uh, Reverend Hales, uh, those of you who just joined us, I want to welcome you to meet, uh, in the middle. This is a podcast of the[inaudible] and team of the Western PA annual conference of the United Methodist church. If you just join us, we want to welcome you. Uh, we are in a special conversation with, uh, Reverend Debbie Hills. Reverend Hills is semi retired, but she's doing a considerable work at the moment with the disability ministry committee of, uh, the United Methodist church, uh, a partner with general commission on race and religion at the United Methodist church. We're talking about disability and the church, those listening to us, revving Hales at the moment, uh, pastors, who haven't had the encounter with, uh, the, uh, disability, uh, ministries committee or the UMC lately who are listening the concept that we'll need to encourage at the local level. Now I'm talking about other local level, what message can you give to them that people can keep an open heart open mind to was creating a welcoming community. They, the essence of it, that we are all of God's creation and, uh, we all have different talents. We all have different gifts, but we are all equal in the eyes of the almighty God and of the law.
Speaker 3:Okay. A few things. The disability ministries committee of the United Methodist church can be found online at a website, M C D M c.org, U M C D M c.org. On that site, you will find a Pola thorough of resources that will help you at the local church level. There are things on there, like how to train your greeters for your church on Sunday morning when they come, when people come in the door to help them be aware of disability, etiquette, how is it that you greet somebody with a guide dog? How is it that you greet somebody in a wheelchair? How do you make them feel welcome? So that's just one example of resources. There are many, many, many how to make your church assessable for little or no more assessable for little or norm money in a hundred ideas on what you can do. You can't put in an assessable drinking fountain, but you can put a cup holder there with cups that you can pull a cup out and get a drink of water. You can't reach up to where the water comes out of the drinking them. I mean, just tons of things like that, um, from the perspective of, um, pastors and how they would lead in the local church and how to lead lead this need forward, get yourself some training, get online at that website, check out the ableism resources. Um, that's a term that a lot of you may not be familiar with and that's okay because you'll learn Abel ism is to disability, as racism is to race. So Abel ism is a set of prejudgments that we may hold so that we prejudge people based on what we see. We see a person in a wheelchair. We make certain assumptions. We see a person with a guide dog. We make certain assumptions that most of the time are not accurate. And most of the time de-value that person. So become familiar with ableism. There's a whole set of resources, unable ism, ableism, 1 0 1, you know, what do you need to know? What do you need to do? How can you help your congregation grow in this area? How can you put together a Bible study that will explore this topic? So there's tons of resources there. All you gotta do is go online and grab them and put them to work. And if you need help, you call the disability committee, people in WPA, or you call me because I'm still in WPA, and I'd be more than happy to talk with you. Come to your church, work with you on this issue, preach on Sunday morning about, um, disability issues, whatever there is help out there. The biggest problem with disability issues right now is that we're not even on the radar. So becoming aware and starting to raise that level of awareness is the first step
Speaker 2:I to work on me. And, um, I find this conversation quite fascinating and, uh, what churches, what we could do in collaboration with, uh, the disability ministries or the United Methodist church and creating this avenue through which that this aspect of ministry can be strengthened, how you were talking about the apportionment earlier about you not even being inclusive in that particular area. So foreign raising for an example is something that I see it listening to you that it's quite challenging churches. How can they reach out? Should they have interest in wanting to contribute towards this particular aspect of the disability ministry? It's you said U M C dmc.org start the website, is that on the, the, the, uh, the annual webpage of the WPA is that a separate webpage visibility ministries?
Speaker 3:It's a separate webpage. The disability ministries committee for the annual conference for Western PA has some portion funds that go to it through Western PA in your conference. They are a line item, but the work that the general church is doing that we are doing through the general church is where we, there is no specific funding designated. So if you go to that website up in the corner, you'll see a nice yellow donate button. You may not know that yellow is one of the easiest colors for people with low vision to see. So we've designed our websites so that we are most as assessable as we can be so yellow. Uh, that design was intentional to make it easier for people with low vision to see as well. So anyhow, you click on that donate button. It will take you directly to our page of the advance. Most people know a little bit about the MDs, which is, is part of the general board board of global missions and particular particularly it's part our second mile giving kind of avenue. So we have an advanced number. If you click on that yellow button on the UMC DMC page, that will take you directly to that page, and you can donate through there fairly easily. If you go on to, to, um, GBG M site and Encore site, it's very hard to find a specific ministry. Um, so the best way is to go through the DMC website that we gave that to you, that, that UMC dmc.org, you know, we don't need people. Um, it'd be great if we found someone who wanted to give us$10,000, but if we found a bunch of folks that would give us$10, that would be huge for us at this point. You know, if we, uh, if we had 2000 donors at each, gave us$10, we could fund our ministry what we're doing for a year, because most of our work is done through volunteers.
Speaker 2:What are some of the basic needs now within the, the, uh, disability ministry it's at the conference level? Do you indicate that you're getting a little bit of apportionment from, uh, the, uh, annual conference WPA annual conference and, uh, on the global level, I listening to you, I will say the need is probably I enormous, but talk to us a little bit about that. The difference between the two,
Speaker 3:Between the two. Yes, but the general church level are our biggest goal is to provide resources, consultations, points of connection, logistical help that that's where we focus at the local level at the, at the conference level, it's getting down to that individual church. And what do they need if they're, if they're going to take this on as part of their ministry to become a more inclusive church for people with disabilities, they're focusing more on that. So while we have a helpline at the general church level, and if someone calls us or emails us with concern, we have people who get right back to you and, and route you towards resources, route you towards help connections back more locally of people we know that might be able to help you closer to your context. We have a huge web of people who work with us as volunteers. So the big difference is we are looking at equipping and resourcing at the general church level. The conference level is looking at individual church need and trying to reach out at that micro level.
Speaker 2:Well, let me, let me thank you. Uh, Revan Hills, uh, for taking up the opportunity to be with us today. I found this conversation very fascinating, uh, quite educational. And there's a lot that we have to do in this area, collaborating with, uh, the disability ministry committee at, uh, both the conference level and, uh, on the global level, I'm hoping and praying that we will find some time outside of these walls to, to even engage more father, to see how on the local level, to, to begin, uh, doing some work together, to, to be able to create an avenue through which that we can be much more welcoming, receptive, and keeping with, you know, those steel, logical concepts that we hold open those open hearts and open minds that those then hearts and minds can truly be open. And that we are not just doing it, not on a genuine level, but say it as we mean it, and, uh, be able to be an example in our respective communities. Uh, talk to us, uh, as we come to a closure here, what are some of those things that probably we did not touch on? You like to leave us as a full for Todd, for those who are listening, this is a quite a fascinating area of ministry. And there is a lot of catching up we have to do with Jesus if we are to be true disciples, because like you indicated Christ was out there truly engaging with the vulnerable and the poor, the weak and the meek and the widow and the blind, and those who were ostracized by society.
Speaker 3:Um, I think what I would say is when you pull out not the Bible, but the other two books that we as Methodists, we say, we live by the book of resolutions and the, uh, the book of discipline. There is a ton of stuff in those two books telling us what we need to be doing. We are not living into those two books. We are not living them. For instance, is mandated by the book of discipline that every local United Methodist church, once a year conduct a disability audit of their facilities. And all that means is taking stock of what are we doing with our physical buildings and what are we doing with our attitudes that block people with disabilities from being able to fully participate. So, you know, looking at some of those mandates and just seeing what we can do to live into them is huge. I think the, the other thing that really weighs on my heart is our attitudes. We have to check and be honest with ourselves and come to grips with our biases and how we may or may not include people based on how much value we place on them and what they can give us what they can give us in our churches, in our personal relationships. And I think that the third thing I would say is look around yourself. Do you have any friends that have a disability? And if you, don't why I think that's what I got.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes. Poignantly stated, uh, we've got to find some time to see how we have you here. Uh, one of these, this, uh, what is the training, uh, preaching, uh, some engagement I found, I found the conversation quite a fascinating Reverend Debbie Hills. I know the minister, uh, uh, an elder in the United Methodist church, uh, speaking to us on, um, meet in the middle of this, uh, this conversation around this ability and, uh, what a way, uh, to wrap up elicitation the conversation this week has centered around his ability. And that is good that we have had the opportunity to be able to speak to Reverend Hales and also talked to Reverend, uh, Rob Wilson, uh, who is at, uh, the Adelaide ministries of soul there in airy. I'm hoping I can bring the two of you together, uh, maybe, you know, next series to be able to share notes and bring some, some level of education, but inside it has truly been a wonderful experience having you with us, uh, Reverend Hills, uh, I'm looking forward to, uh, have continuing this conversation, uh, both on a national and also on a global level. What can we do? I mean, looking at what is happening within the continental United States or continent or north America as developed as we say we are, and, uh, the least attention we pay to that level of, uh, society. Uh, then I'm just wondering what is happening on the, the, uh, the global south, the challenges and the global now a huge towards issues of disability and this, the slight progress have been made here that I'm wondering on the global level, uh, when we have not even begun the actual conversation and some of the challenges that you have, what is as in funding or how you can bring some people on board, as you have started with, uh, the lady from Nigeria, hoping this can be expanded, but we want to thank you for the time for being with us today on our podcast. It's been great having, you has been a blessing.
Speaker 3:I've enjoyed my time with you,
Speaker 2:Quite a fascinating and educational insight. The voice of Reverend Debbie Hills of the disability ministries committee, Debbie Hills, is currently managing the affairs of the disability ministries committee of the Western Pennsylvania annual conference of the United Methodist church, rather than Hills is an ordained minister of the United Methodist church, a justice advocate for people with intellectual disability. Today, we have been examining the topic, the church and disability disability is not a crime, but a human condition. And as the ordain minister indicator and our conversation today on this podcast, more than 20 to 25% of, uh, nearly 7 billion people in the world have some form of disability. The Bible teaches that, uh, we are all equal in the eyes of the almighty God in the eyes of our Lord and, uh, make, uh, in continuing this particular conversation, we will have, uh, Reverend Rob Wilson of, uh, the Adelaide ministries of his in, uh, airy Pennsylvania, and our next edition in next week's edition of our podcast, meet in the middle, continuing this conversation about disability and, uh, the church hope you can join us next week when we are back here again on the same dial for the program, meet in the middle. This is where we discuss crucial issues about diversity inclusion and equality. My name is pastor Caesar, part of thanking you so much for being a part of this particular trusting edition of our program. Hope you can join us next week for another fascinating conversation around disability. And, uh, the church we have that, uh, Maura and, um, moral and ethical responsibility as people of God and as advocates of the marginalized. So the poor of the week of the meek to stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up for justice to ensure this equity and justice in the world until we are back next week, take care. God bless solo
Speaker 1:Made in the middle. It was a production of the Western Pennsylvania conference of the United Methodist church. If you have comments or suggestions for future shows, email us at anti-racism at WPA umc.org. Thanks for listening to find out more about the Western Pennsylvania conference. Go to WPA umc.org.