When Nick Lang, Vicar of St. John's, Eden Park was asked to baptise the son of profoundly deaf parents, he had no idea where his answer would lead.

"My natural instinct was to agree and to look for a creative way of making the service accessible for the parents, and for their deaf friends" Nick said.

At the time the church fortunate to have a level three interpreter in its membership, who could 'sign' the service. In addition, Liz King - who looks after ministry support at St. John's - said she could load liturgy and hymns onto a power point presentation, and set it up so that each line would change colour as it was said or sung.

"We borrowed a screen and a projector," said Liz and, "I sat behind a pillar and clicked every line of the service through so that the deaf people could join in along with the rest of us".

That first service proved a great success and many of the hearing congregation appreciated the clarity and professionalism of having the words on the screen.

The small group of deaf people was delighted and, as a consequence, St. John's now has a monthly signed service.

"We bought a projector and a back projection screen," Nick said, "and at our monthly signed service we can have anything from two to ten deaf people. They are very much part of our church."

Nowadays, the signed Holy Communion service at 10am on the forth Sunday of each month is part of the worship life of the church and the church now uses the projector at every service to project words of hymns and songs, along with sermon text and illustrations where appropriate.

"Signing is now a part of the life of our church," Nick Lang said. "Several people have been learning and from time to time the whole church has been taught to interpret a song so that we can all sing together in sign language - and just watching the interpreter signing some of the songs enriches worship for all of us."

reprinted from The Rochester Link, June 2005