As an advocate for people with disabilities, I’m always encouraged by people who want to create inclusive spaces and find ways to inspire and affirm others in the work. Friendship with Jesus calls us into that kind of compassionate support. This time, I want to write about a specific group of people who have encouraged me.

I felt deeply empowered in late February when I received a friendly email for a Zoom coffee chat with a new colleague. My new acquaintance, who’d found me in part because of the numerous blog posts I’ve written for Do Justice, was Carl Henderson, executive director of Friendship Ministries Canada. According to their profound and accessible website, Friendship Ministries Canada (I’ll call it Friendship as shorthand) has a succinct and unique mission: “Our mission is to provide resources that support faith formation and congregational inclusion of individuals with disabilities.” 

The organization creates curricula and resources that support faith formation and inclusion for people with disabilities. One of their cornerstone ministries is the “Friendship group,” where people of diverse abilities gather for fellowship, Scripture reading, and shared learning. These groups exist all across Canada, and their website gives any interested groups a clear idea of how to sustain them. Their website strongly indicated that I would want to help support this ministry!

That sense of solidarity was mutual. Carl told me in our first email, “I'm reaching out because I believe in the work you are doing.” His message encouraged me because, especially in recent days, I haven’t always believed in my own capacity for accessibility advocacy. We arranged to have a friendly coffee, which turned into a cup of tea and an hour of geeking out over disability theologies. We promised to share some written resources, and said that we would meet again.

A few weeks later, Carl and I met with Friendship’s communications coordinator, Laura, and they invited me to collaborate on newsletters and share theological resources related to disability ministry.

So far, we’ve already had a couple of dense conversations about one newsletter in particular, and I’ve asked other colleagues to share with us other theological and worship-related documents that can make that collaboration even more inclusive. For instance, once Laura and I had a short chat about the distinction between “inclusion” and “belonging” that John Swinton makes in Becoming Friends of Time. For me, being able to share these resources with Carl, Laura, and the wider Friendship community has been both joyful and deeply fulfilling.

It’s clear that Carl, Laura, and their team at Friendship want to form friendships between people with developmental disabilities and those of (temporarily) able bodies. As ever, Scripture provides a solid foundation for that sort of belonging. God forms a friendship with Abraham, promising repeatedly to bless him and his offspring if he keeps the covenant he has made with YHWH (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-11, and 18:1-15, NIV). Likewise, David and Jonathan have a vivid, intentional, and wonderfully deep friendship (1 Samuel 19-20, NIV); their friendship even results in David’s taking Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son with disabilities, into his house in order to do good to Saul’s family (2 Samuel 9). In the New Testament, Jesus calls his disciples “friends,” especially during the last meal they share before his death (John 15:12-17, NIV); thereafter, the Apostle Paul engages his colleagues like Priscilla, Timothy, and Philemon with encouragement and empathy during his itinerant ministry (e.g., Romans 16:1-16, Philippians 2:25-30, Philemon, NIV).

So, folks like the team at Friendship Ministries Canada want to form friendships between and among believers of diverse abilities, and the Bible backs that up in specific ways. We might still wonder what that belonging means. In terms of the meaning of Friendship as a Christian ministry, Carl writes, “Friendship Ministries is more than a program, it is a beacon of belonging - creating community where everyone is valued and loved for who they are.” Similarly, Laura adds, “We most fully embody the Kingdom of God when all people find a place to belong and contribute in the Body of Christ. Friendship Ministries is one step towards experiencing the beauty of God's Kingdom."

I heartily endorse Carl and Laura’s wonderful vision. Through my work on theology, ritual, and belonging in communities across Toronto, Chicago, Whitby, and Ottawa, I’ve gravitated toward what Carl calls “beacons of belonging”—places where people can be fully themselves and experience Christlike community. Plus, in those instances of authentic engagement with others, I’ve experienced the beauty to which Laura gestures. As Irenaeus of Lyon clarifies, the “human being fully alive” testifies to God’s glory.

Overall, Scripture makes clear that God desires transformative relationships with people of all abilities. Moreover, in their work with Friendship, Carl and Laura want to create authentic communities that emulate that same covenantal and compassionate orientation. I am thrilled to be able to collaborate with the folks at Friendship! I hope that their example inspires you to befriend others as God does.