The notion that religious congregations are welcoming to people with disabilities seems so obvious, so natural. Surprisingly, a warm reception is not always the case.

Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Gary Partee, 34, right, with pastor Frank Trotta at Covenant Community Presbyterian Church in Scott. The Partee family tried several churches in Pittsburgh before finding a nurturing and accepting congregation. Gary, who has cerebral palsy, now attends Covenant. Click photo for larger image. More information Called to Welcome: A Conference on People with Disabilities in Seminaries and Congregations" will be held April 11, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 616 N. Highland Ave., East Liberty. Keynote speaker is David W. Johnson, director of the Supervised Practice of Ministry at the Austin (Texas) Presbyterian Theological Seminary. To register, call 412-441-3304, ext. 2196. Conference fee is $30.

That's what Charles Partee, professor of church history at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, discovered when he and his family moved to Pittsburgh from Iowa two decades ago. His son Gary, who has cerebral palsy, was treated insensitively at three local churches before the family found a congregation with an open attitude.

"Gary was cursed by the pastor's son at one church," said Partee. "At another, the pastor said the church had no facilities for Gary." The family left a third church because Sunday school teachers wanted to place Gary, then age 8, in the nursery with the babies.

The Partee family survived its awkward introduction to Pittsburgh and eventually found a church in their East End neighborhood that embraced Gary and included him in all church activities. Gary, who is now 33 and lives in the South Hills, is a member of Covenant Community Church in Scott.

Negative experiences like the Partees' are more common than you might expect. To raise awareness of the problem and to equip religious leaders to better serve people with disabilities, the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary will present a daylong seminar April 11 titled "Call to Welcome: A Conference on People with Disabilities in Seminaries and Congregations" (see box at right). The conference, which is open to the public, is co-sponsored by the National Organization on Disability and the FISA Foundation. Ginny Thornburgh, wife of former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh and longtime advocate for the inclusion of people with disabilities in religious congregations, is an adviser to the conference.

The conference will address broad issues of welcome and acceptance as well as practical matters, such as building accessibility, alternate formats for worship materials and other types of accommodations. Another focus of the conference is to identify the barriers that affect seminary enrollment, said Jim Davison, director of Continuing Education at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and organizer of the conference.

What kinds of barriers keep religious congregations from welcoming people with disabilities?

Clearly, many congregations that are housed in older buildings have physical barriers such as monumental entrance stairs that are not easily modified for access. But even more significantly, certain religious beliefs about people with disabilities can be a more resistant barrier.

"A scriptural emphasis on perfection" is evident in some religious denominations, explained Charles Partee, who will speak about theological perspectives on disability at the conference. "A notion that handicapped people are lesser."

The sense that people with disabilities are broken and need to be fixed was communicated to Carolyn Glass of Brighton Heights during an unforgettable church visit a few years back. As an attendant at a group home for men in Columbus, Ohio, she accompanied residents to services at a new church.

Although the congregation welcomed the men, "Their feeling was, 'How wonderful, we can pray for their healing,' " she said. "Their reaction smacked of 'There's something wrong with you.' It was a false sense of welcoming."

Another barrier, noted Partee, is the importance that many religious congregations place on reading and understanding Scripture. "These requirements have to be bent for a person with a cognitive disability," he said.

Perhaps even more fundamentally, said Partee, negative reactions to disabilities are deeply rooted in human nature. "What has to overcome nature is grace," he said. "We have to make room in our hearts for difference."

Glass experienced that grace at churches she has attended with her daughter Elizabeth Glover, who has autism. When Elizabeth, now 15, was younger, "She was not church material," Glass quipped. Nevertheless, the churches they attended during those years kindly accommodated her daughter's unique behaviors, such as wandering around, standing on the pew instead of sitting in it, and making noises. Furthermore, said Glass, the people seemed sincerely interested in Elizabeth's development and celebrated her accomplishments. "Every triumph was their triumph. We felt completely supported and welcome."

Despite the success of these church experiences, Glass has observed that congregations do not seem to know how to provide emotional support for people who are dealing with long-term disabilities -- an observation echoed by others. "There has been little effort on the part of the church to really understand our lives," explained one parent who asked not to be identified.

"They view our daughter as a charming disabled girl, but no one comes to visit us in the hospital when she is actually sick and they don't pull together to help us once she comes home from the hospital. If someone else in the congregation gets sick or injured, there are visits from the pastor and home-cooked meals delivered to the home. None of that comes to us."

When a congregation is uncomfortable with a person's disability or unsure about how to communicate its caring, direct education can often get things going in a better direction, says Sister Michelle Grgurich, associate director of the Department for Persons with Disabilities in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. Her office provides educational programs to Catholic schools, congregations, pastors and lay leaders. "There are varying levels of acceptance," she said. "The work is never done. There are always hearts that need to be changed."

Grgurich and other conference speakers from the Protestant, Jewish and Catholic faiths will provide suggestions for church leaders on how to serve people with disabilities and plenty of strong examples.

"The issue of people with disabilities forces you to reflect on belief and action," said Charles Partee. "Churches need to understand that people with disabilities are gifts to the church, not drags on it."