Hollie Holt-Woehl

(Also published in the July 2008 issue of the Metro Lutheran)

May 20, 2008

Dear Bishop Kinney,

Greetings in the name of the Triune God, whose love reaches out in grace and forgiveness creating a community in the Holy Spirit.

I write to you out of concern for an article I read in the Saturday May 17, 2008 issue of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune. The article on the front page was titled “Church bars severely autistic boy from mass.” It was about a parish in the Diocese of St. Cloud taking out a restraining order to keep the boy and his family from coming to mass.

I am a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in , a scholar of the church (holding a Ph.D. in pastoral care), and mother of a child with mild autism.

As a mother of a child with mild autism (who also has a severe hearing loss), I need a worshiping community where my son can learn of God’s love, experience the grace and forgiveness offered to all people through Jesus Christ, and enter into a community in the Holy Spirit which accepts, welcomes, and supports him as a child of God. It is in this worshiping community where God forgives, empowers, and strengthens us so that we can grow in faith, love, service, and go forth to face the rest of the week, bringing this presence of God wherever we go.

I have wrestled with what it means to live with a child with special needs.[1] It is a unique challenge to be the one leading worship when my own son adds his own soundtrack to worship. It is another challenge to be sitting with him in worship when he is disruptive in worship, which I have written about elsewhere.[2] It is not a matter of discipline, we cannot control him, but we work to contain his energies. The goal is to help him grow in his own abilities to contain his energies. There is no cure for autism, we live with this reality. However it is possible to work with families and the individuals with autism to make it possible to worship God and be full participants in the congregation. We have been a part of congregations in which we have had to educate about autism. There have been members of the congregation who have come along side us to help us and encourage us and support us on this difficult journey. In so doing we have all learned and grown, not only in our ability to work together but also in our faith, as we see God in the midst of worship and this mystifying thing called autism.

As a pastor I know what it is like leading a congregation of diverse people with diverse circumstances and needs. I know what a challenge it can be to care for the people of God, to lead weekly worship, to administer the sacraments, to attend to the business of the church, to care for the spiritual and emotional needs of the people, and to engage in theological reflection and action of the congregation’s mission for God in this world. This is no small task for those of us who are called into the ordained ministry of serving Christ’s church no matter what denomination.

As a scholar of the church I have studied congregations who are accepting, welcoming, and supporting of those with mental illness and those with developmental disabilities.

These congregations revealed two attitudes which form an accepting, welcoming, and supporting environment toward all people. One attitude was that every person is a child of God and respected as such. The other was that all people are gifted by God and therefore have gifts to offer in service to God and the congregation.

A common characteristic which emerged was a conscious decision not to hide away those who have developmental disabilities but to include them in the activities of the congregation. Those who are different from the mainstream were not seen as problems to be fixed so that they blend in, nor were they seen as trophies to be placed on a mantle, but they were embedded into the fabric of the congregation and therefore are the congregation.

It takes work to be open to those who are different than ourselves, but it is worth it because we will see God in a new way and experience grace and community also. I pray that you would encourage your priests and parishes to enter into the mysteries of God through engaging in the difficult work of welcoming all of God’s children and embracing them as full participants in the body of Christ and the communion of saints.

In service to Christ’s church,

the Rev. Hollie M. Holt-Woehl, Ph.D.

[1] Holt-Woehl, Hollie M. “Wrestle A Blessing,” Journal of Lutheran Ethics 7:7 (2007): par. 1-5. http://www.elca.org/jle/article.asp?k=736.

[2] Holt-Woehl, Hollie M. “Listen, God is Calling,” National Health Ministries, Presbyterian Church ( ), October 2007: par. 1-7. http://www.pcusa.org/nationalhealth/healthinfo/godiscalling.htm.