Friendship Ministries in Grand Rapids, Mich., helps congregations work with people with cognitive impairments. Tom VanWingerden is the executive director.

The CEC- Faith Based Schools and Organizations is a network of those interested in advancing the field as to how children with disabilities are served in faith based schools and organizations. The chair is Dr. Julie M. Lane.

Bethesda Lutheran Communities, affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and based in Watertown, Wis., serves people with developmental disabilities. Its support services include religious education. The media contact is Julie Timm.

Rabbi Judith Abrams of Houston co-edited Jewish Perspectives on Theology and the Human Experience of Disability.

Erik Carter is the author of Including People With Disabilities in Faith Communities: A Guide for Service Providers, Families & Congregations and an associate professor of special education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

Jeff McNair is professor of education at California Baptist University in Riverside. He directs the Center for the Study of Religion and Disability and maintains the blog Disabled Christianity.

Bill Gaventa is associate professor of pediatrics at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and director of community and congregational supports at the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities in New Brunswick, N.J. Gaventa served 14 years as editor of the Journal of Religion, Disability & Health […]

Ginny Thornburgh is director of the Interfaith Initiative at the American Association of People with Disabilities, where she works to help the disabled and their families gain access to spiritual and religious resources. She previously served for many years as director of the National Organization on Disability’s Religion and Disability Program. Thornburgh is co-author and editor […]

Read an April 3, 2005, Washington Post article about a variety of efforts and programs to include people with disabilities in congregational life.