
Together in the Kingdom: Ideas for Inclusive Worship
Joanne Van Sant
Joanne Van Sant is the pastor of Friends to Friends Community Church in Ridgewood, New Jersey, a member of Presbyterians for Disability Concerns, and the vice president of the Disability Ministry Network.

There are many questions and myths/beliefs about the place for people with disabilities in our faith practice. How we hold the truths of disability and healing leads to our perspective about how our practices can support people with disabilities. How are we acceptable before God, and what do we really believe about the imago Dei, the image of God? While our theology dictates our practice, we may not always live it out in our congregations and ministry.
While PC(USA) ordained, I currently pastor the Friends to Friends Community Church, a congregation of the Reformed Church in America, located in New Jersey. We are a community of believers on the entire spectrum of ability including intellectual, developmental, neurodivergent, and physical. We continue to grow and learn as a congregation what it means to be open, welcoming, inclusive, and supportive of all who join us. Our life together is always taking new shapes and forms as we support the needs of all in our worshiping body.
We know that people of all abilities talk about the many ways that worship is meaningful to them, how worship is broader and deeper beyond the heard and spoken word. How can worship leaders provide worship experiences that address multiple abilities and engage many senses, and how do they? How can we create an environment that is more accessible, inclusive and meaningful, that allows all of us to feel and hear the gospel? How can we live into God’s expansive hospitality, welcome, and inclusion in congregational life? How can we create one congregational experience, together, as the kingdom of God?
Here are some practical questions you can explore:
- How has your worship engaged forms of communication and experience beyond words in the use of visual aids, music and sound, or rituals that involve movement?
- How do these forms of communication and experience enrich your worship practice?
- Have these practices facilitated the participation and leadership of people with multiple levels of ability and learning styles, including people with chronic illness and/or disabilities related
to aging? - What resources would you need (and might we develop) to pursue other creative and experiential practices in worship that help it to be more accessible, inclusive, and engaging?
I invite you, wherever you are, to share your thoughts about various forms of supports you have used in worship or to share any questions you may have. Presbyterians for Disability Concerns and those in the Disability Ministry Network love working collaboratively about what is working in our faith communities. Additional resources can be found through the Presbyterians for Disability Concerns, https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/phewa/pdc/, as well as the Disability Ministry Network, https://disabilityministrynetwork.org/.