Creating Access and Inclusion in Worship

Inclusion Awareness Day Activities

Listed below are ideas for your Inclusion Awareness Day event in the three areas of inclusion: AFFIRMATION, COMMUNICATION and ACCESSIBILITY. Use this checklist and the materials in this workbook to plan your parish?s Inclusion Awareness Day celebration. It is our hope that Inclusion Awareness Day brings lasting change to your parish community.

AFFIRMATION

• With the approval of your pastor, designate the weekend of October 10 as Inclusion Awareness Day or select an alternate date this fall.
• Meet with your inclusion committee and draw up a plan for your Inclusion Awareness Day celebration. Use the ideas in this workbook to get started. Present your ideas to your pastor for approval.
• Plan liturgies that focus on the gifts received when all can participate. Invite parishioners to give Communion reflections at each liturgy about what inclusion at your parish means to them. Invite parishioners with disabilities to inaugurate their liturgical ministries on Inclusion Awareness Day. Provide appropriate training and/or mentors between now and Inclusion Awareness Day.
• With the pastor's blessing, ask your parish council about starting an inclusion committee under one of the commissions. Use Inclusion Awareness Day to recruit members for the parish inclusion committee. (For tips on starting an inclusion committee, see page 12.)
• Nominate your parish for a Pathways Awareness Open Hearts Award or involve children in the parish in preparing a Junior Open Hearts Award nomination. Deadline is August 1. (Nomination forms are on pp. 23 to 26 and on our website at www.InclusionInWorship.org.)

• Teach parish staff about using People First Language. Invite celebrants to preach about inclusion on Inclusion Awareness Day and use the story of Mary Virginia Merrick to illustrate the positive outcomes when everyone can share their gifts in our faith communities. (See pages 13 to 16.)
• Find out the deadline for bulletin submissions at your parish. Submit items for bulletins leading up to and on Inclusion Awareness Day. (See pages 7 to 10 for articles.) Visit www.InclusionInWorship.org for Inclusion Awareness Day letters from religious leaders and other downloads.
• Order the book Miss Mary or read the story of Mary Virginia Merrick on page 19 and do the activities with your religious education or day school students. (See pages 19 to 21.) Run the Inclusion Awareness Day children's activity page in your bulletin. (See page 22.)
• Print and distribute the Inclusion Awareness Day prayer card available at www.InclusionInWorship.org. Train teens to greet and distribute the cards at all liturgies on Inclusion Awareness Day.
• If you are the parish Inclusion Representative, ask you pastor if you could speak at all Masses on Inclusion Awareness Day. (You may also want to run the bulletin article on page 10.)


ACCESSIBILITY
• Do a walk-through of your facilities before Inclusion Awareness Day using the Facilities Survey at www.InclusionInWorship.org. Note inaccessible areas, and with your parish leaders, make plans to remove those barriers. Announce your plans at your congregation's Inclusion Awareness Day celebration. (See page 11 for information on universal design and ramps.)
• Work with the teens from the youth group in your parish to complete the activity on page 18.


INCLUSION AWARENESS DAY POSTER AND BULLETIN COVER
• A PDF of the Inclusion Awareness Day poster is available at www.InclusionInWorship.org. Download, print the poster and display in your church. Use the smaller version of the poster as a bulletin cover on Inclusion Awareness Day.
• Looking for more ideas' Visit www.InclusionInWorship.org to check out past issues of the Inclusion Awareness Day Workbook.