CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS EDUCATION FOR PEOPLE WITH HEARING DISABILITIES IN BULGARIA AS CHURCH SOCIAL PASTORAL CARE
CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS EDUCATION FOR PEOPLE WITH HEARING DISABILITIES IN BULGARIA AS CHURCH SOCIAL PASTORAL CARE

Author(s): Sylvana Pavlova
Subject(s): Education, Theology and Religion, Inclusive Education / Inclusion
Published by: Editura Eikon
Keywords: Religious Education for People with Special Needs; Religious Surdopedagogy; Evangelisation of People with Hearing Impairments; Bulgarian Orthodox Church; Church Mission; Church Social Care;
Summary/Abstract: When people with disabilities join a social group, their presence is supposed to naturally raise the awareness of human rights. To be in touch with impaired people is usually an experience that helps others develop civic and religious virtues and skills. Uneven physical, psychical or social status provokes compassion, readiness to help, willingness to care, and motivates community to understand special needs better. Empathy is sometimes questioned by competition among people equal in some perspectives. Believers often contemplate on situations and interrelations among people of same denomination, who gather in order to pray or celebrate together, to support each other and walk side by side on the way of salvation. Like in civil society, in religious circles, there are rules and discipline that is supposed to assist families to raise their children appropriately so that minors can become independent persons, living in peace and equity with others. In the cases of hearing disability, clergy trained to deliver liturgical texts and communicate with their spiritual children by pictures, signs and gestures, or written texts rely on special pedagogues and sign language interpreters who actively support that mission. This paper represents my doctoral research on catechisation of children from special schools in a parish centre, compared to same care for youth, adults and elderly in Bulgaria and abroad.

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