Every church has disabled and neurodivergent members. Many of them feel invisible. That is the quiet reality that Through the Roof — the UK Christian disability charity named after the friends who lowered a paralysed man through a roof to reach Jesus — has been working to change for decades. This month, they announced the theme for Disability Awareness Sunday 2026: 'One Body, Many Parts', drawn from 1 Corinthians 12, and the message is both simple and challenging. Every part of the body is needed. No part can say to another, "I don't need you."

The announcement comes alongside the publication of a new book, Belonging without Barriers, due out on 20 March 2026. Co-authored by Triona Brading — a young autistic Christian writer — the book frames disability inclusion not as a pastoral nicety but as a gospel issue. Tim Wood, CEO of Through the Roof, puts it plainly in the book's foreword: "At its core, accessibility is a theological issue." He draws directly on 1 Corinthians 12 to argue that an interdependent church — one where disabled and non-disabled people genuinely need each other — is not an ideal to aspire to but a scriptural reality to live into.

Triona Brading, who discovered she was autistic at 21, brings a personal and disarming voice to the conversation. She describes the Church as a place where being different — in how your body or brain works — should never be a barrier to belonging or to using your gifts. Her children's book, In His Image, explores what it means to be neurodivergent in language accessible to young readers.

For churches wanting to engage, Through the Roof is releasing a free resource pack in April to accompany Disability Awareness Sunday on 27 September 2026. The pack includes a video from Triona, worship materials, and practical guidance for involving disabled people more fully in congregational life. Resources are available in both English and Welsh.

This is a timely call. With an estimated one in five people in the UK living with a disability, and neurodivergent conditions increasingly recognised and diagnosed, many churches are asking how to be genuinely welcoming rather than simply accessible in a physical sense. Through the Roof's answer is rooted in theology rather than policy: the church is not complete without its disabled members. They are not recipients of ministry — they are part of the body through whom Christ ministers to all of us.