When asked about how they are regarded in their communities, the biggest cry from disabled people is for their creative gifts to be recognised, so that they can make a contribution. Not all parishes listen YOU cannot miss a severely autistic 16 year-old with limited language as he greets people warmly at the door of a church in Hampshire – shaking their hands with unmistakably genuine appreciation. After Mass, the same young man tidies the sanctuary and leaves it immaculate. At the end of the morning, he goes home with a deep sense of fulfilment at having served his Church in a very practical and loving way – having satisfied both his obsessive-compulsive disorder about tidiness and cleanliness, and the needs of the parish. In a church in Lancashire, a room is being prepared