Deaf Ministry
One Sunday morning in 1963 the Reverend Gordon Price stepped into the pulpit and began his sermon. After five minutes he suddenly stopped the sound of his voice but continued the movement of his lips. The congregation was puzzled, then uncomfortable and finally alarmed until they realized they had briefly experienced the world theDeaf inhabit all the time.
For more than 100 years priests and laymen of the Episcopal Church have been communicating with the Deaf. In 1820 the Reverend Thomas Gallaudet organized St. Ann's Mission to the Deaf in New York City, the first Christian church for Deaf people. The church also provided the first school for the Deaf and it was the first church to hold an ordination of a Deaf clergyman.
Ministry to the Deaf in Christ Church in Dayton received its primary motivation when Mr. Price was summoned to Miami Valley Hospital to minister to a woman who was to have surgery the next day. When he arrived he learned that the patient was apprehensive, worried and Deaf. The woman's daughter then came and signed the Rector's ministry, prayers and preparation. Suppose the daughter had not come? How many Deaf are deprived of ministry? How can the Church overcome the ostracism the Deaf endure? How can the Deaf enter the mainstream of life? These questions the Rector asked himself that day in the hospital room led to further questions.
In an interview with a Seabury Press magazine writer, Mr. Price said, "In our diocese the Deaf congregations were little adjuncts of the city churches, more or less tolerated, but really quite outside the mainstream of life in our parishes. The Deaf congregations were held together by a dedicated Deaf priest, the Reverend George Almo, who made his rounds all over the state of Ohio. In the larger churches he celebrated the Sacraments and provided a brief ministry for the Deaf one night each month.
"At Christ Church I began to wonder about the day-to-day sustained ministry. What was being done? Not much was being done along this line. With the approval of Bishop Blanchard and the encouragement of Mr. Almo we at Christ Church decided to experiment, and we began that Sunday in '63 when the congregation suddenly could not hear my voice," said the Rev. Price.
Christ Church then made a list of the Deaf in Dayton, regardless of Church affiliation or lack of it, and invited them to its Sunday services. "Our interpreter was present, and the whole liturgy, the hymns, the anthem, the sermon and announcements were 'signed'.
The interpreter in March, 1963, was Doris Miller. The only child of Deaf parents—who had secured the ministry of Mr. Almo—Doris Miller described how she learned to communicate with her hands. She hid behind a newspaper while practicing signs for words and when she perfected them, she showed off her accomplishment. Her mother and father, both adept at sign language, were puzzled by a sign she made repeatedly. One day Mr. Miller took his daughter shopping. When she saw a window display, she ran to it and made the familiar signs. Her father told his wife that the word was candy!
When Doris Miller began signing or interpreting in 1963, Miss Ada Spidel interpreted the music. Although totally Deaf herself, Ada Spidel, according to Doris Miller, "had an inner sense of music. She sang the Lord's Prayer on her hands in the most beautiful and interpretive way. The Deaf," continued Doris, "have an inborn sense of rhythm and understand the feel of the tempo and the words from the signers."