wfn.org | KABUE: ALL, INCLUDING DISABLED, ARE CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

For Immediate Release
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KABUE: ALL, INCLUDING DISABLED, ARE CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE

November 25, 2003, Yaounde, Cameroon – “No one can say that 
someone
missing one organ of the body isn’t part of the image of God,” 
asserted
Samuel Kabue, a Presbyterian from Kenya who is a consultant to the
Ecumenical Disabilities Network, a program of the World Council of
Churches, today (Nov. 25).

Kabue, who is blind, addressed the more than 500 delegates who came here
from across Africa to the 8th Assembly of the All Africa Conference of
Churches, meeting in Yaounde Nov. 22-27.

We are all created in the image of God, he said, and “it’s not 
the body or
the intellect that reflects the image of God.  Each of us has talents and
gifts without which the church of Christ is not whole.”

He reminded his audience that “Christ’s body was broken on the 
cross for
our salvation.”  He continued, “People with disabilities are not
a
homogeneous group.  We are men, women and children with unique stories,
and not just a group with medical conditions to be fixed.”

Healing, Kabue said, is not so much about having the disability removed
as “restoration to society.  When the sight of blind Bartimaeus was
restored, he joined the procession and came under Jesus’ 
protection.”

Kabue described the work of the Ecumenical Disabilities Network (EDAN) to
press churches for the inclusion of people with disabilities, whether from
birth or as a result of disease, accidents, violence or war, as full and
active players in all aspects of church life – spiritual, social and
political.”

Among the network’s resources is the statement “A Church of All 
and for
All,” available in English and French.  Copies were distributed to all
AACC Assembly delegates to take home and use in their churches.

The WCC Central Committee has asked member churches to support EDAN and
promote it at all levels, lobby their governments to ensure that the U.N.
frame a convention on disability as agreed in June 2003 and to make
churches part of drafting of the convention.

He challenged churches to break down the walls that shut people out …
walls of shame of fear, of ignorance and prejudice, of anger and
misunderstanding.”  He urged congregations to set an example for the 
wider
society by “creating an inviting environment and space for 
all,” making
their buildings and their sanctuaries accessible to people with
disabilities.

“Just as we provide French-English interpretation at this meeting, we
should provide access so that people with disabilities can become
participants in worship,” he said.  Such elements as adequate light and
appropriate seating arrangements opens churches to “all the gifts and
challenges everyone brings.”

Churches can take many other actions, he said, among them including
training on disabilities in seminaries, campaigning against discrimination
against people with disabilities, including people with disabilities when
allocating scholarships, training suited persons with disabilities for the
ministry, fostering economic empowerment of people with disabilities, and
more.

Committees and official delegations also should include persons with
disabilities, he said.	Noting that he is at the AACC Assembly as a
resource person and not as a delegate, he said the requirement that
delegations include “a head of the church, a woman and a youth” 
gave no
room for him.  “I don’t seem to fit any of those 
categories,” he said,
drawing the Assembly’s laughter and scattered applause.

Kabue concluded by saying that “when God looked at Creation, God said
it
was good, not that it was perfect.  In our fragile world, we are all part
of the whole that reflects God’s image.”

Carol J. Fouke-Mpoyo	AACC