The Impact of disability on the worship experience and general participation by visually challenged Seventh-Day Adventist Church members in the West Zimbabwe Union Conference

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to influence the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s decision-making bodies to promote the inclusion of visually challenged members at the church’s different institution levels. Twenty visually challenged participants from the West Zimbabwe Union Conferences were interviewed on challenges they individually experienced in worship and participation in the Church services. A mixed methods research design was used because of the qualitative data which would be elicited from the respondents and the quantitative membership data from respective District Church clerks. Sixty percent of the participants whose membership length was twenty years and above showed that most of the visually challenged members were ready to participate in the Church’s activities and equally have the same worship experience as their sighted counterparts. On the contrary, however, the findings revealed a lack of participation of 65%, which was an unhealthy spiritual condition of any Church member. The findings also showed that the membership for sighted Church members was on the increase, while membership of the visually challenged remained constant. Overall, these findings seemed to be influenced by the sighted Church members’ negative attitude, over emphasized sympathy, and ignorance. Further to their narrated Church experiences, the participants recommended that (a) a Special Needs educational programme on visual challenges be designed, implemented and evaluated; (b) representation of people with visual challenges be made in all of the organisation’s structures from the General Conference to local districts; (c) rehabilitation training programmes be designed, implemented and evaluated for assisting Church workers, members and non-Adventist citizens who lose sight at a later stage of life; (d) sanctuaries be made hospitable and user-friendly assembly points for visually challenged Church members; and (e) the Church Manual provisions be reviewed or relevant policies be created to include a well-defined budget that will sustain the development and implementation of the above-cited recommendations.