By Elga Rodriguez
Fostering disability-inclusive congregations: celebrating IDPwD 2025
On December 3, communities around the world celebrate the International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD).
This year, the United Nations theme is ‘Fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress’.
It’s a powerful reminder that inclusion is not just a social goal, it’s a spiritual one.
For Uniting Church congregations and faith communities across Victoria and Tasmania, this theme invites us to reflect on how we welcome, include, and celebrate people with disability in our church communities.
It’s a chance to ask: are we truly a place where everyone belongs?
What does disability inclusion look like?
Disability inclusion means more than just access, it means belonging.
It’s about creating spaces where people with disability can participate fully in worship, leadership, service, and community life.
This can be achieved by:
- Ensuring church buildings and facilities are accessible for people with physical challenges.
- Making information and communication easy to access and understand for everyone.
- Creating welcoming environments that support the sensory needs, communication, thinking, and diverse processing styles of all individuals.
- Actively listening to people with disability, valuing their insights, and including them in planning, leadership and decision-making.
- Ensuring worship and activities are planned with flexibility to accommodate the diverse needs of people with disability.
But most importantly, it’s about recognising the gifts and contributions of people with disability, not as extra work or a set of adjustments, but as an essential part of who we are as a Church.
Inclusion isn’t a side project, it’s central to our calling to be a community where everyone belongs and participates fully.
Why it matters
The Uniting Church has always stood for social justice, compassion, and inclusion.
Our Basis of Union calls us to be a fellowship of reconciliation, where diversity is embraced, yet many people with disability still face barriers to full participation in Church life.
This year’s IDPwD theme reminds us that social progress starts in our own communities.
When we foster equal participation and access, we reflect the love of Christ and help build a more just and compassionate society.
Jesus welcomed those who were excluded. He saw the dignity and worth in every person. As his followers, we are called to do the same.
How your congregation can celebrate disability inclusion
Here are a few simple ways to mark IDPwD on December 3:
- Use the new Synod resource for IDPwD 2025.
- Host a special worship service that celebrates the gifts of people with disability.
- Review your church’s accessibility and identify areas for improvement, including physical, digital, sensory, cognitive, and communication needs.
- Invite someone with lived experience to share their story.
- Have a disability champion on the church council or create a disability advisory group with community members.
You don’t need to have all the answers. What matters is the willingness to listen, learn, and take the next step.
Let’s make IDPwD 2025 a celebration of inclusive congregations where everyone is seen, heard, and valued, renewing our commitment to accessibility, gospel-centred belonging, and social progress in church communities now and beyond December.
Elga Rodriguez is the Synod’s Disability Inclusion Advocate
