Ray Bonker
By Suzanne O'Keeffe, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –All of God’s Children/ Ray Bonker
The program began five years ago. The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark came to a vestry meeting and said their church needed it’s own personality. He had noticed on the sign outside the church that it was “Autism Month” and by the end of the meeting Ray said the Holy Spirit was evident in the room and they knew that was their “personality”- supporting autistic children. From there developed the special needs church service which meets twice a month.
Originally it was developed for the children and parents of autistic children. These children cannot sit still or be quiet so they wanted to design a church service that accommodated them and would come from their perspective. The thought pattern was, “if I were five years old what…” It also creates a relaxed atmosphere for parents. They do not have to be nervous about their child’s behavior or what others think. A bonus has been for grandparents who often don’t understand their autistic grandchildren because they are not dealing with them on a day to day basis. They have most likely raised “typical” children and want to be able to hand down traditions and teachings but they can’t. With autistic children the traditional rules of raising children are out the window. In the special needs service they are able to interact and see their abilities.
This year they presented for the first time a Christmas Pageant and hearts were in throats when these kids were seen doing what is taken for granted with “normal” children.
Ray shared recently a young girl and her family was new attendants and she screamed the entire service. Ray reassured the parents it was all ok and she was welcome there every week. After 5-6 weeks she stopped screaming and actually read a paragraph from the Bible. He said there is a heightened level of the Holy Spirit present and parents as well as fellow congregants are excited to be around the children. These children are being praised for who they are!!! He encourages people to go to the website and down load for free the 25 page manual. It is the nuts and bolts and they can print it, put their own name in it and pass it around, no charge. He just wants the word to get out and more churches integrate this into their services. There is also a ten minute introductory video on the website.