March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, a time to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with disabilities in all areas of life. Five years ago, I wrote a blog post encouraging readers to join the campaign to stop the dehumanizing “R-word” and to practice person-first language whenever possible. Disability advocates are working hard to get society to embrace another word: inclusion.

Inclusion is not something unfamiliar to most of us. It has been used for decades, encouraging institutions to ensure that everyone has a seat at the table. Diversity-Equity-Inclusion have become staples for any organization seeking to build a more just society. What worries me is that in some cases, the meaning and impact of the word inclusion can get lost even among the most compassionate people.

Far too often we think of inclusion as an attitude (“I am a welcoming person”), a program (“My parish has an elevator”), or a metric (“We have a special needs parent on our board.”) None of these ideas are bad, but they can restrict our vision and limit the radical nature of inclusion. The work of inclusion is never finished.

Inclusion should be thought of as a skill. Something that needs to be learned, practiced, and used. Like any skill, it should continue to grow and be a part of who we are.

So how can we develop the skill of inclusion? Here are some ideas:

Educate Yourself: Learning about developmental disabilities and the challenges that people with disabilities face can help you better understand and appreciate their experiences. (As the parent of two adults with Autism, I have encountered many people whose knowledge about Autism has been shaped by the movie Rain Man or disreputable internet articles.)

Listen and Communicate: Effective communication is key to building relationships and creating inclusive environments. We should listen to people with disabilities and be open to their perspectives, and also communicate clearly and respectfully with them. (Many people and even care providers talk around my son, rather than talking to him as a person.)

Create Accessible Environments: Inclusive environments are physically and socially accessible to people of all abilities and sensory capacities. This means making sure that buildings, transportation, and technology are designed to be accessible, and that social events and activities are designed to be inclusive. (My daughter had to miss school every year during “spirit week” because it caused sensory overload for her.)

Challenge Your Biases: We all have biases and assumptions that can prevent us from seeing people with disabilities as full and equal members of society. By challenging these biases and recognizing our own privilege and power, we can create more inclusive communities.

Inclusion is not only a skill that is important for creating a more just and equitable society, but it is also a fundamental principle of the Catholic faith. We believe that every person is created in the image and likeness of God, and that each person has inherent dignity and worth, regardless of their abilities or disabilities.

In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis emphasized the need for an inclusive approach to environmental and social issues. He writes, “We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it.”

Inclusion is not a one-time event or a checkbox on a to-do list. It’s an ongoing process that requires continuous learning, reflection, and action – every month of the year!

Happy New Year! We Associates of the Dominican Sisters of Peace have just completed 2022 – a year of beginnings and endings for each of us.

While I spent most of the last year working at my office in Akron, Ohio, I have also had the opportunity to travel across the country, and to meet many Associates in person or via Zoom. One of my goals for 2023 is to connect with even more of our Associates.

One of the experiences that have enjoyed this past year was walking through the Loggia, in the Akron Motherhouse. This space enjoys beautiful views of Akron Motherhouse grounds, and there are chairs to allow you to rest and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. Sr. Mary Jakubiak, OP, helps to bring the outside in by caring for the many lush plants in the Loggia space.

Also in this space is a table with two chairs on each side. This is the puzzle table – where a “community” jigsaw puzzle is being completed by the Sisters, sometimes a staff member, and sometimes myself. These puzzles are continually in process – as one is finished, the next one is begun. And this is where my story begins.

There is a process to starting each puzzle. The picture of the completed puzzle is in plain view so all can see what it will look like when finished. A few dedicated Sisters sort each piece of the puzzle by color and shape and place them into plastic containers shaped like puzzle pieces. During this process, other Sisters stop by to assemble the straight-edged pieces of the puzzle, creating the frame that will hold the puzzle together.

I found myself stopping by each time I walked through this area – sometimes to place a piece of the puzzle into its proper place and sometimes just to watch the process as it was happening. I was not always successful when I tried to place a piece in the puzzle, but I began to think about these jigsaw puzzles and the people whose hands are assembling them.

I began to see my role as the new Director of the Associates as the person who had the box with the pieces of the puzzle. The picture of who we are – or who we want to be – is on the front of the box. This picture is a little vague as we are still exploring who we are – how many, where, and what each group is doing. We are not a finished picture; we are evolving.

The difference with this puzzle is that all of the pieces were not included in the box. The pieces to this puzzle are each one of you, living across the United States, Puerto Rico, and New Zealand.

At the beginning of 2022, our Associate database said there were 750 pieces to this puzzle – and we needed to “touch” each of those pieces – each of you – to put it together.  Our picture would be determined as the pieces were put into place.

I began to pray for guidance as to how we could complete this puzzle… and God began to answer.

The first answer was the realization that the Associate Jigsaw Puzzle would not be completed in the typical “hands-on” way because the hands were not all in one place.

The hands that were going to put this puzzle together would be from many different parts of the United States. Different categories would make up different pieces of the puzzle.

The most eye-opening message was that instead of assembling the straight-edged pieces to create a border, our puzzle would be assembled from the inside out. We would start from the center of the jigsaw puzzle – identifying each Associate’s time, talents, and treasures -and work our way out to the edges. All our gifts would be part of this puzzle.

So how would we accomplish this task?  Last January, the Associate Council and I started to discuss how would we accomplish this task. The first was to confirm the status of those who were in the Associate database.

Because of COVID, many of us were not meeting on a regular basis. Many of us were aging and no longer able to be active associates. We had to determine who among us were active Associates, who wanted to remain an Associate but in a capacity of prayer, and who were no longer wanted to be an Associate.

The Associate Council started work on a survey in cooperation with Congregational Leadership. We all believed that it was to know how many Associates of the Dominican Sisters of Peace there really are. “Who are you? How are you? Where are you?” were some of the questions that we posed. We also asked for thoughts on how our Associates thought the program should move forward in the future,

We worked with Alice Black, OPA, and the Communications Department to write and launch our survey in June of 2022. We sent it to all 750 Associates in the database and gave them 30 days to respond to the Associate office. We received 350 responses to the survey and were able to determine who considered themselves to be active associates, who considered themselves prayer associates or who wanted to be a prayer associate, and who no longer wanted to be part of the program.

But this was just the beginning.

We sent a second survey to the 400 members of the database that had not responded and heard from 140 more people.  By December 2022, we had heard from a total of 490 Associates, and we are still looking for those of you who have not responded.

The Associate Council and I would like to hear from all of the members of our Associate database by March 2023. We’re asking for your help too – if you are an associate, and you know someone who seems to have fallen away, encourage them to respond to the survey. Only by hearing from everyone will we be able to know who is active, who is a prayer associate, and who is inactive. Only then will we know exactly how many puzzle pieces we have, and what the final picture might look like.

Here is what is clear.

We are Christian women and men committed to Dominican Pillars of Prayer, Study, Community, and Ministry, living across the United States and around the world. Our ages vary, our cultures vary, our ethnicities vary, and our commitments vary.

Many of us have been Associates longer than the Congregation of Peace has existed, and the creation of Peace has helped attract new Associates to our ranks.

We are the Associates of The Dominican Congregation of Peace.

We are Sisters and Associates in Mission.

We are committed:

• To foster and create cultures of inclusion
• To treasure and reverence Earth
• To foster lives of prayer and contemplation
• To Prophetic Preaching of the Gospel message
• Toward the future of Dominican Life

I can hardly wait till this puzzle is completed. One by one the pieces are being assembled When all is said and done, we will have all the borders in place – the borders that remind us that we are all ONE.

I am grateful for each of you, and I thank you for helping to complete our puzzle.

Cecelia Amendolia OPA
Director of Associates. Dominican Sisters of Peace