Western Theological Seminary’s Graduate Certificate in Disability and Ministry is the first program of its kind.
Certificate students take six core curriculum courses and 4-5 elective courses, a total of 24 credit hours, in order to deepen their awareness of issues particular to disabilities and to increase their competency in ministering to and with the entire body of Christ.
Topics explored in disability courses include:
- Conceptions, definitions, and expressions of disability
- The history of disability in the U.S.
- Innovative practitioners who paved the way in re-imagining disability
- Service systems and advocacy groups
- How Jesus redefined the margin and the center with a Kingdom perspective
- Theological understanding of disability
- Pastoral issues related to the experience of disability
- Biblical interpretation from disability perspectives
- Aging and dementia
- Worship
- Deaf theology and ministry
- Strategies for becoming an inclusive church
The Ralph & Cheryl Schregardus Friendship House at WTS
In 2007, the Ralph and Cheryl Schregardus Friendship House at Western Theological Seminary became the first seminary housing of its kind. Friendship House is a pod-style apartment complex where 18 students live alongside six young adults with cognitive disabilities, and the partnership is astounding.
Friendship House gives the six Friends an opportunity to live independently and work in the community, while the seminarians get the opportunity to learn what it means to live alongside someone with a disability. We at Western Theological Seminary would be diminished without the presence of our Friendship House Friends. They have enriched the lives of seminarians and given us a deeper appreciation of all people and a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.
Today, the Friendship House is inspiring other seminaries to create similar communities. Duke Divinity School started their own Friendship House in 2013, Vanderbilt Divinity School started theirs in 2015, and representatives from Calvin Theological Seminary recently toured the facility with interest in starting one at their school.
