An accessible online faith community where you can truly belong.
(Dis)Embodied Church is a faith community designed to connect and engage those who need a place to truly belong. Churches led by disabled clergy are rare. Churches that center the lived experiences of disabled people are even more rare. Further, fully online churches are rare.
At (Dis)Embodied Church, your disabilities and differences are not hidden or shameful, but recognized as part of the human experience and God’s intimate presence in the whole Body of Christ.
Our faith community includes but is not limited to people who
live with physical, intellectual, developmental, and sensory disabilities;
experience chronic illness, mental illness, neurodivergence, and neurodegenerative conditions;
are Blind, Deaf and hard of hearing;
are immunocompromised, isolated, homebound, and/or caregivers.
No matter who you are, how you experience the world in your body, or whom you love, you are sacred. You belong.
worship with us in 2027:
details coming soon!
please fill out our survey to help with our planning
our mission
To build an accessible online faith community that honors the embodiment of God’s image across the spectrum of disabilities; engages with sacred stories about disability; and is a church of belonging for people with disabilities and differences and their caregivers.
(Dis)Embodied Church envisions a Church where
disability is at the forefront of spiritual conversations.
accessibility is a given, not an afterthought.
Christians honor the full diversity of human experience.
the whole Body of Christ acts interdependently through mutual caregiving.
our vision
Our Team
Reverend Manda adams
Lead Pastor
Rev. Manda is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ with 15 years experience serving 4 congregations, both as a settled and an interim/transitional pastor. A graduate of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, Manda focused her studies in pastoral care and liberation theologies, including Queer Theology and Black Church Studies. In 2020, Manda developed Long Covid and had to withdraw from full-time ministry. During that time, Manda began dreaming about a new kind of church community that centers the lived experiences of people with disabilities . Manda shares her home with her spouse, who is Muslim, their daughter, an asylum seeker from Honduras, their dogs Sunshine and Piper, and their cat Sofi.
reverend chantel nelson
Congregational Care Pastor
Rev. Chantel is a graduate of Brite Divinity School with 17 years experience in UCC congregations and hospice chaplaincy. She has extensive experience with diverse cultural groups providing emotional and faith based supports. This work has included assessments of the individual and family systems across the life span. Chantel has numerous years of providing education to individuals, professionals, and community groups related to children and families in crisis, medical/ procedural supports, coping with grief, sibling support, coping with grief and loss during the holidays and the like. Chantel shares her home with a menagerie of pets and is a lover of all human and non-human animals.
Our partners
The UCCDM envisions a world in which all are included in the fullness of life because they are created in the image of God.
The UCCDM encourages all settings of the wider church to be physically, socially, and virtually accessible to people with disabilities. They participate in denominational and ecumenical conversations with the UCC national setting and community partners to promote disability justice through an intersectional framework.
The goal is to redefine traditional ministry by bridging the gap between physical and digital fellowship. By evaluating four online church services every week, this work analyzes what it actually takes to cultivate an inclusive, hospitable virtual environment. The focus is to move past viewing online church as a secondary option, and instead embrace its practical potential for genuine connection.
Part field guide and part conversation, this space explores how hybrid worship can dismantle traditional barriers between physical and digital spaces.
The Church Lab emerged in 2013 in response to a growing need for spaces where spiritual questions could be explored. While many people are leaving institutional religion, the longing for meaning, connection, and spiritual growth remains deeply human.
Through biweekly interfaith dialogues, TCL brings together people of diverse traditions and perspectives to listen, learn, and grow together. Dialogue becomes a path toward spiritual grounding, peacebuilding in polarized times, and innovative forms of ministry that meet people where they are—whether they have left religion behind, hold a traditional faith, or are still figuring out how to name their beliefs.
our denomination and commitments
United Church of Christ (UCC)
New churches go through a discernment process with our local Association as we work towards a covenant relationship. We are at the beginning of this process and look forward to becoming a fully recognized UCC church.
UCC Mission: We welcome all, love all, and seek justice for all.
The United Church of Christ is an inclusive and diverse community of Christians connected by faith that calls us to build a just world for all.
becoming accessible to all
Accessible to All (A2A) is the terminology used within the United Church of Christ to refer to congregations that have completed the A2A process and thereby made the commitment to be physically and attitudinally welcoming of people with disabilities.
Accessibility is at the forefront of (Dis)Embodied Church. When we have the capacity, we will work to have official A2A designation.
becoming Open and Affirming
“Open and Affirming” (ONA) is a movement of more than 1,900 churches and other ministries in the United Church of Christ that welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) members. More than 350,000 members of the UCC belong to ONA churches—and our movement is growing rapidly.
(Dis)Embodied Church is led by and includes 2SLGBTQIA+ people. Inclusivity is key to our identity as a church, and when we have the capacity, we will work to have official ONA designation.
10 principles of disability justice
from Sins Invalid
INTERSECTIONALITY “We do not live single issue lives” –Audre Lorde. Ableism, coupled with white supremacy, supported by capitalism, underscored by heteropatriarchy, has rendered the vast majority of the world “invalid.”
LEADERSHIP OF THOSE MOST IMPACTED “We are led by those who most know these systems.” –Aurora Levins Morales
ANTI-CAPITALIST POLITIC In an economy that sees land and humans as components of profit, we are anti-capitalist by the nature of having non-conforming body/minds.
COMMITMENT TO CROSS-MOVEMENT ORGANIZING Shifting how social justice movements understand disability and contextualize ableism, disability justice lends itself to politics of alliance.
RECOGNIZING WHOLENESS People have inherent worth outside of commodity relations and capitalist notions of productivity. Each person is full of history and life experience.
SUSTAINABILITY We pace ourselves, individually and collectively, to be sustained long term. Our embodied experiences guide us toward ongoing justice and liberation.
COMMITMENT TO CROSS-DISABILITY SOLIDARITY We honor the insights and participation of all of our community members, knowing that isolation undermines collective liberation.
INTERDEPENDENCE We meet each others’ needs as we build toward liberation, knowing that state solutions inevitably extend into further control over lives.
COLLECTIVE ACCESS As brown, black and queer-bodied disabled people we bring flexibility and creative nuance that go beyond able-bodied/minded normativity, to be in community with each other.
COLLECTIVE LIBERATION No body or mind can be left behind – only moving together can we accomplish the revolution we require.
support our ministry
Opportunities to support us financially coming soon.
Your prayers are invaluable!
Get in Touch
Whether you have a question, an idea, or just want to say hello, feel free to reach out—we’re here to help.