"Like everyone else I have rights. My disabilities do not take them away. I have a right to life, to care, to a home, to education, to work and to protection. I should be given the opportunity to seek friendship, communion and a spiritual life. Jesus has taught me that. Furthermore, he encourages me to see myself as a person with potential and particular gifts, as well as needs and rights." (Part of the Mission Statement of the St. Thomas a Becket Foundation.)

During thirty years as a Holy Family Sister, I have worked in many different fields. As a Social Worker in the north of England, I saw at first hand the horror of poverty. It was an easy step to move from there to working for a Church organisation dealing with inclusion for all people. At that time this category covered people who were homeless or divorced, or any group which was not in line with Church teaching or society.

Later, I moved on to individual counselling work with the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain and this was followed by work with the Conference of Religious in England and Wales, as Co-ordinator for Social Justice. Now I seem to have come back full circle to those issues of inclusion, but this time in the area of disability.

My work as Pastoral Worker for the St Thomas á Beckett Foundation is firmly rooted in that statement. I was not looking for work with people with disabilities. It just happened I was free, they were looking for a Pastoral Worker and asked me to apply. I was not sure I could do this. After all what did I know about people with disabilities, apart from my own invisible ones? But then I realised that the exclusion of people with disabilities was such a matter of justice that I had no choice but to accept the job when it was offered.

There are over 500 million people with disabilities in the world. There are 8.5 million in the UK. That is one in 7 of the population. People with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed and those who are are usually in low paid and low skilled work. People with disabilities are also a group that anyone of us could join any day.

The St. Thomas á Becket Foundation was born out of frustration, the frustration of young adults with special needs, deprived of choices and the frustration of parents looking to secure a future for their children. The dream was to build a residence that would give the young people independence and support. It would be open to all people but would be motivated by Christian values and ideals. This has been partly achieved, but much more still needs to be done.

In appointing a Pastoral Worker, the Trustees of the St Thomas á Beckett Foundation looked to the on-going work of supporting families with children and indeed, adults too, with special needs. It is also important to raise awareness of disability among non-disabled people. I knew that this was a challenge for me and I to learn that sometimes God works in a very slow way. My frustration was because I like to move quickly when things need to be done. But I am learning patience and humour.

For me it was important to have some theological underpinning for my work. I knew God was not vindictive. All my life I heard and believed that we are all born in the image of God. If this is true then we all have something to show to the world about the face of God. Every one of us is worthy of respect and dignity regardless of our status. If this is true then to the extent that we marginalize people we diminish the face of God in the world.

The Church and society is becoming more aware of people with disabilities. Some of this is good; some bad. For example, now in the quest for the perfect person, children diagnosed in the womb with some kind of disability are aborted, sometimes for the most trivial reasons! On the other hand, due to pressure, mainly from people with disabilities and their families, the law is changing so that we have no choice but to include them in our daily lives. However, the law can only make physical access imperative, the work goes on to change hearts and minds and attitudes.