Neurodiversity deepens congregation’s understanding of being the body of Christ

LOUISVILLE — Of the scores of challenging questions Jesus asked his followers, there is one that the Rev. Kristin Hutson can answer without a moment’s hesitation.

“Who is my neighbor?”

For Hutson, pastor of Edgewater Presbyterian Church on Chicago’s historic Bryn Mawr Avenue, the response was easy.

“We’re directly across the street from Bryn Mawr Care, a long-term residential community in the Edgewater neighborhood for adults living with mental illness,” she said. “I can’t tell you how long the church has been in relationship with them.”

Hutson, who practiced law in Chicago prior to graduating from seminary and being ordained to the ministry, was called as Edgewater’s pastor in early 2023.

As she began to familiarize herself with the church’s rich, 129-year history, and its massive facility — which lists on its website only 18 of its 25 nonprofit “space sharers” — she discovered that as early as the 1970s, one of Edgewater’s “neighbors,” a precursor to Bryn Mawr Care, was housed in their building.

“They served people living with mental illness and helped them get the resources that they needed,” said Hutson. “Looking through archival materials, we found a guidebook for church tour leaders that directed them to talk about the organization when they got to a particular room. From that document, I know that there was a program in the building at least 50 years ago.”

More recently, and up until around the time of Covid, the church led a program called “The Lighthouse Ministry.” That ministry involved Edgewater’s pastor and elders going over to the Bryn Mawr Care facility and offering a midweek worship service and Bible study on site. For decades, that was the arrangement.

But when Hutson arrived, the approach changed.

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Her vision — especially as it relates to her understanding of “neighbor” — was something of a departure for the 75-member congregation.

“My philosophy on this from the get-go was not to have us going there, but rather inviting the residents to be full participants here,” she said. “They are members of our community — full participants in our worship life together, our spiritual formation, programming and volunteer opportunities. They are some of the most active and engaged folks in our entire congregation.”

Every Sunday, Hutson said, sometimes as many as 18 Bryn Mawr Care residents attend worship. Some 6-10 residents are also regulars at her Wednesday afternoon Bible study.

“Many of the residents have joined the church officially, even though we know that the hope is for them to transition from the residential care program to independent living,” she said. “Although we know there’s a possibility that they might move away and end up in another area of the city, we want to honor their commitment to their faith and to our congregation by giving them the opportunity to have voice and vote. One former resident who graduated from the program still attends regularly.”

Because of the partnership with Bryn Mawr Care, the multicultural congregation, where 70% of church members are African and African American, is diverse in a new and unique way.

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“To our already great international and economic diversity, we now have neurodiversity, which is a different layer to what it means to be the body of Christ,” said Hutson.

Gerald “Gerry” Farinas, a ruling elder, Edgewater’s clerk of session, and an outspoken advocate for mental health care and education, is working to change the all too widespread perceptions that persons with mental illness are not beloved children of God.

By being completely open with his congregation about his own anxiety and depression, Farinas — who also manages the church’s social media and online presence — is boldly challenging the stigma that many with mental illness face when seeking to unite with a faith community.

Farinas is descended from an ethnic Ilocano family, "where expressing anything about being unable to keep our darker emotions in check is taboo,” said Farinas, a Honolulu native who moved to Chicago at the age of 18.

In publicly sharing his own history of coping with mental anguish, he also acknowledges the profound impact of the generational and cultural trauma suffered by the Ilocano people.

“Filipinos aren't supposed to talk about these things,” he said. “We're supposed to walk it off and think about other happier things. So, I kept quiet. Thinking about happier things didn't work. I resigned myself to thinking, well, that's the way it is then.”

When his anxiety and depression became so debilitating that he couldn't function appropriately, Farinas had a heart-to-heart conversation with his doctor, who advised that he try medication.

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“I shared about the stigma in my extended family, culturally, that this would mean I am weak; that I got this way because I don't have enough faith in God to just snap my mind back into a happy mood,” Farinas said. “It didn't help that being gay adds another dimension — another pall over already thick emotional shrouds." Hutson "educated me that this is not weakness, and that getting help is not about having enough faith. It's biological chemistry," and medication and therapy "are given to us as tools by God to help us.”

Farinas, who said that he is “now living life more fully than before,” recently published a blog on Edgewater’s website, in which he commends the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for long affirming the value of mental health resources. Click here to read his blog, which was republished by the Presbyterian News Service on Oct. 6.

The special connection that the congregation has with mental health brings the community and its leadership not only countless joys but also unexpected revelations — mirroring the themes of reversal so prevalent in scripture.

Hutson explained that because most of the Bryn Mawr Care residents who participate in the life of the church are already well-versed in the Bible and theology, they “say some of the most profound theological things you could imagine.”

“They have a particular lens through which they read Scripture,” she said. “Because they have had to depend on their faith to move through life because of their mental illness diagnoses and management, they understand what it means to depend on God. They have faith that things will get better and that God is directing and guiding them.”

Hutson paused briefly before adding, “They’re teaching me things all the time. It’s a gift to learn from them.”

But for Hutson and the people of Edgewater, it’s the model that’s paramount.

“Although there can be a model in ministry of serving people, we are clear that we do not serve the people who live at Bryn Mawr Care,” she said emphatically. “That is never a way that we talk about this. They are just part of who we are as a congregation. We’re in this thing together.”

Visit the PC(USA) website for information and resources to support mental health ministry. Click here to learn more about the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), Mental Illness Awareness Week, Oct. 5-11, and World Mental Health Day, Oct. 10.