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A sign from above

By Jacob Calvin Meyer 4 min read
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As is the goal with any place of worship, Trinity United Methodist Church wants to break down as many barriers for people to come to church.

One way the Rev. Jeff Vanderhoff is doing so is by having a sign language interpreter at its 9:30 a.m. Sunday services.

“The deaf need to have the gospel communicated to them in a way that they understand that God loves them and that they have a place in God’s kingdom,” Vanderhoff says.

According to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, 15 percent of American adults suffer from hearing problems. Vanderhoff says the church is committed to the initiative, which started in mid-September, through the end of the year.

“That’s the big step of faith for us here. It’s kind of an ‘if you build it, they will come,’ idea,” Vanderhoff says. “We don’t have connections (with the deaf community), so we’re looking to build them.”

Most places of worship in the South Hills do not have sign language interpreters at services.

“We’re not aware of many churches that offer interpreted services for the deaf and hard of hearing, so we wanted to be a place they could come and worship,” says Vanderhoff, who is in his second year as the pastor at Trinity UMC.

The Bible Chapel in McMurray, which welcomes more than 2,500 people every Sunday, does not have a sign language interpreter. Neither do Westminster Presbyterian in Upper St. Clair, St. Louise de Marillac Church on McMurray Road or Temple Emanuel of South Hills in Mt. Lebanon. While most churches in the area don’t have a sign language interpreter, that doesn’t mean they’re not cognizant of the hard of hearing community or that they haven’t thought of having one in the future.

St. Louise de Marillac Church in Upper St. Clair used to have a sign language interpreter, according to secretary Gerre Lorincy, but she’s since moved away and the church hasn’t had one in several years.

Lorincy says a new disability awareness group has been formed at the church. “They’ve reached out to everyone asking people who go to the church,” Lorincy says. “If this is something that there is a response for, we would look into that definitely.”

While Temple Emanuel of South Hills in Mt. Lebanon doesn’t have a sign language interpreter, they do have braille books and hearing amplifiers for the hard of hearing.

“We do have one member who is deaf, and she’s able to read lips,” says a congregation official. “She doesn’t use sign language, but she does sit up front so she can read lips.”

At Trinity UMC, the interpreter, Caleb Wysocki, works for the Center for Hearing and Deaf Services and is a member of the church, which hosts about 200 people every Sunday.

This past spring, Wysocki signed during a church service, and Vanderhoff says several members of the congregation came to him and “felt a pull from God to explore this further.”

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So the church’s Disabilities Awareness Committee pursued ways to include people who are deaf or hearing impaired.

Apart from having a sign language interpreter at its 9:30 a.m. services, Trinity UMC will also provide assisted listening devices for people with a hearing impairment to use. The church has also had classes for the congregation to learn basic sign language.

“We’re doing this with the idea that people will come,” Vanderhoff says. “We want to be able to welcome them, so we’re learning basic gestures … just some things if and when they come that they feel like we want to communicate with them beyond having an interpreter up there. Our congregation wants to embrace them as well.”

Vanderhoff says Trinity UMC always seeks the needs of the community, and welcoming the deaf and hearing impaired through this initiative is an example of that.

“This is not a ministry for the deaf; it’s a ministry with the deaf,” he says. “We want to involve them in our church and in our faith community.”

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