Service of Thanksgiving for the 60th Anniversary of Leonard Cheshire Disability

Sixty years ago in 1948, Leonard Cheshire took in Arthur Dykes, to care for him when he was dying of cancer. This became a life changing and transformative experience. Through this act of compassionate service, Leonard Cheshire found a personal faith which would sustain him in what became his vocation – to develop a world wide network of caring which would set free thousands of people with disabilities, enabling them to receive proper support and respect, as well as fulfilling their dreams. After all, Jesus, in John's Gospel, revealed to us that our final destination is love and he calls us to a wonderful shared feast.

I'm sure that Leonard Cheshire would have been thrilled to hear the story of Uwiragiye Francoise, a 10-year-old service user from Cheshire Rwanda, who won two gold medals at the Special Olympics in China. Coming first in the Long Jump and 50 metre events, Uwiragiye has no hearing or speech and lives with her grandmother in difficult circumstances. She has participated in the sports programme of the Murumba Cheshire Service in Rwanda for the past year. Go for it Uwiragiye!

I think Leonard would also have smiled at the recent case of the double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who runs on two carbon-fibre blades, was told he was ineligible to qualify for the Olympics, because his prosthetic limbs conferred an advantage over other runners. To be discriminated against because of disability is one thing but to be discriminated against because of your over ability and for just being too good is quite another !

Jesus did not belittle or patronise those for whom he cared. He treated them as worthy of respect. In our reading we heard how one day he demonstrated his love for his disciples.

When they came in from the road, he cared for their tired, road-worn, weary feet. He washed them, taking on the role of a servant. It is Jesus' pattern of care and self-giving which many of you met in Leonard Cheshire the man, and which we see and celebrate in the work of his organisation all over the world today.

Confronted with his disciples' tired, dusty, aching, dirty feet, Jesus took the practical alternative.

He did not first set up a committee.

He did not call for an inquiry into how the feet were dirty in the first place.

He didn't even delegate.

He took a bowl and a towel and he washed his disciples' feet. He did it himself. Personally.

Then he said – 'I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.'

The difference that Leonard Cheshire Ability is making in my own country of Uganda is immense.

People with disabilities have not always been treated well in Africa – just as in this country. But there are some wonderful examples of practical service going on. St Francis School for the Blind caters for 128 visually impaired and 163 blind children, providing them with a formal education from pre-school to advanced secondary level. The children do music, crafts, drama, and gardening. They recently participated in the Leonard Cheshire International project – 'Young Voices on the UN Convention.' In Katalemwa the Cheshire home offers short term medical rehab for over 300 physically disabled children. In Buloba the Home caters for 33 adults with leprosy who have been rejected by their families. They receive medical and social care, and are provided with occupational therapy. But they are also producers- they have the honour and dignity of working, running a banana plantation project.

So, when Jesus bends low to wash his disciples feet, he honours them. And he models what true service, true love should be. 'If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.' And as an African proverb says, "When a tiny toe is hurting, the whole body stoops down to attend to it."

Americans spent a whopping $668 million on self-help books in 2005. Similar trends were seen in Britain in the same year when five of the top-selling books were about self-help, with hypnotist Paul McKenna's 'I Can Make You Thin' the most popular at number four.

But Jesus demonstrates a different model of service. Whilst the world becomes obsessed with self-help and with an inward looking focus, Jesus calls us to service, to unselfish-help, to focusing outwards and on the needs of others. As Leonard Cheshire discovered such service can be transformative and inspirational. If you truly want to help yourself, put others needs first. The needs of others call us out of our self-absorption and self-pity and give us the way of becoming truly human. Like Jesus on the Cross: he cared for the needs of his mother and his beloved disciple; the contrite thief hanging next to him; those who crucified him. For them, he prays, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing."

There is much discussion of disability and its place within the providence of God. People disagree about whether disability is a problem to be solved or actually a special kind of giftedness. The wisdom, wit, and fellowship experienced by people with hearing or seeing impairments, or indeed with other disabilities, is to be treasured and celebrated. Many want to emphasise that people with disabilities should not be regarded as being ill, in need of healing – as if the things they could not do defined their identity. At the same time it is important to acknowledge the need for genuine support for people in the difficulties that are their daily routine– and to emphasise the rights of disabled people to access the opportunities others have.

The fact is though, we are all variously able and unable. In community with people with learning difficulties, or with the partially sighted, or with the physically disabled, there is a depth of humanity, of brotherhood, sisterhood, and belonging which all of us should benefit from.

The contribution made by the 'service users' of Leonard Cheshire Disability is one the world cannot afford to be without. In the words of the prophet Zephaniah, in our first reading, 'I will save the lame and gather the outcast, I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you home.'

As with Jean Vanier's L'Arche communities, Leonard Cheshire Disability does not just set up 'Cheshire Homes', that is: places of sanctuary or asylum, away from everyone else – not at all! On the contrary in the process of working together, people with disabilities, volunteers, staff, and so many others have been helped to find their true 'home' – their identity as human beings, the contours of their humanity and their belonging.

I was moved to tears by a small boy of ten carrying his elder physically disabled brother on his back. A bystander said, "It must be a real burden to carry that disabled person who is older than you, on your back" The ten year old replied, "It is no burden at all. He is my elder brother".

That is why I take exception to that term, so often used, 'service users'. It does not seem to fit in a process that is at its best a two way thing. We are all called to serve, and to follow the example set by Christ – one way or another we are to care for each other, to build each other up, to make up for each other's deficiencies – to wash one another's feet.

It is only when we realise just how much we are loved that we are set free to love unreservedly in return. That is what Peter and the other disciples experienced the first Easter. Suddenly, despite of all their inabilities, their frailties, and their follies – Christ came and stood among them and said, "Do not be afraid. Peace be with you." Because of this they could say with St Paul – who in all probability had a speech impediment - 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me'.

Brothers and sisters, I rejoice with you in giving thanks for the first 60 years of the service offered by Leonard Cheshire Disability. And it is good to be able to celebrate with Leonard Cheshire's children, and other members of the family here today, the wonderful legacy of his life. Let us all give all we can of our selves and of our money to support this work. With you I commit myself today afresh to the service of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sends us out to love, as he has first loved us.

For people with disabilities are our greatest teachers of love, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and hope. Lord help us to learn from them as together we care for each other.

Amen.