On-Line Ties Computer Networks Help Disabled People Share In Spiritual Undertakings

Dick Summerford is a quadriplegic, but from a computer on his bedside table in El Paso, Texas, he can join thousands of other people throughout the world in praying for people in need.

Nancy Jennings is epileptic and cannot drive herself to church in Albuquerque, N.M. On Sundays when her husband is away on business, she turns on her computer and calls up Sermonshop, where she can read homilies and discuss the week’s Bible readings.

In the rapidly growing field of religious computer bulletin boards, individuals with physical or mental disabilities are finding new spiritual homes.

Often shut out of local houses of worship by physical barriers or the discomfort and prejudice that disabled people encounter even within church and synagogue walls, people with disabilities are discovering in computer networks opportunities for spiritual growth - from Bible study to prayer groups.

“It enables me to take an active part in the workings of the church, which is very important to me,” Summerford said. “It’s a window to the world for me.”

The number of users of religious computer networks is still relatively small, but religious groups are rapidly embracing the new technology.

Usage of EcuNet, a computer network of 20 mainline Protestant and Catholic groups, has more than doubled in the past two years, with an average of more than 3,300 participants daily. Other religious computer networks include SBCNet, for Southern Baptists, and Christianity OnLine, a new service for evangelicals from Christianity Today Inc.

Services on a network such as EcuNet range from Eculaugh, where religious humor can be exchanged, to the popular Prayer Chapel, where prayers are offered for people in need.

While the idea of building community by computer modem may seem a little cold, one just has to read the personal nature of the prayers offered over the computer to understand the depth of caring involved.

On a day earlier this month, prayers were offered for a young girl with cancer and a dying man whose life was described by his friends as “an example to others of the loving, compassionate living of a disciple of Jesus Christ.” One minister reported that when she told a hospitalized man that people all over the United States and Canada were praying for him, “He opened his eyes widely and said, ‘Really?’ and then smiled and went back under for a bit.”

When Summerford found out a relative’s child was born with a heart defect, his first reaction was to put her on Prayer Chapel. Later, he gave the family printed messages of prayers from people all over the world asking God to help the girl.

“It’s an amazingly strengthening thing,” Summerford said.

“One of the things that people find most valuable is the fellowship, the relationships with other Christians,” said the Rev. Merrill Cook, an administrator of EcuNet. “We’ve developed a caring on-line community.”

The sense of community is particularly important to people with disabilities, many of whom are limited in their ability to participate in local churches.

On a computer screen, disabilities are irrelevant.

“Telecommunications becomes a great leveling field,” said the Rev. Jack Sharp of Govans Presbyterian Church in Baltimore and the moderator of Sermonshop. “Everybody meets each other as a peer. You don’t have the stigma.”

Leaders of computer networks said churches should not view them as a substitute for the important work of making their buildings and local communities more accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities.

But they said churches should make a stronger effort to make their disabled members aware of and help them obtain access to the computer networks.

The Rev. Neil Topliffe, EcuNet president, said of computers and the disabled: “In some ways, it’s a bit of the candle under the bushel basket” in terms of potential.

“What it does is it allows people who otherwise have some difficulty being part of the larger community to be a full partner,” Topliffe said.

MEMO: Readers interested in obtaining information about EcuNet may call 1-800-733-2863. People may best obtain more specific information about computer bulletin boards offered by their own religious group by contacting national or regional agencies within their denomination.