The story of WAVE Little Ilford starts with a 24 year old young man with complex autism who also happens to my son. Since he was 5 years old I have wanted him to experience a worship service where, rather than being ‘managed’ and ‘handled’ and very much on the fringes, he could really participate and engage because what was going on made sense to him. Throughout his life, at various times, my husband and I have tried many different ideas to try and make services more inclusive but they never quite worked.

Fast forward to December 2020 - our small congregation at Little Ilford Baptist Church has just started to meet in person. I am sitting taking in the joy of this event when very clearly I hear God say, "start a service for people with learning disabilities and autism". Well, if I’m honest, my heart sank - my thoughts very much along the lines of "but we’ve tried this before and where would I start?"

However, God made a way. First I was fortunate in that 8 years ago I co-founded a Christian Community Interest Company called Hopeful Futures CIC based in Newham specifically to work with people with learning disabilities and autism, and it was Alice, the very enterprising Manager Director, who discovered WAVE UK . WAVE stands for We’re All Valued Equally and it is a national Christian charity who believe in doing things with, and not for people with learning disabilities. Alice met with WAVE UK and I talked to the Church leaders and members at Little Ilford Baptist Church. As result of these conversations WAVE Little Ilford was born.

By July 2021 we were ready to launch, and in the middle of a dramatic thunderstorm WAVE Little Ilford began. It was very much a team effort - Little Ilford Baptist hosted and provided some of our key volunteers and also gave us vital prayer support. Hopeful Futures CIC ran and managed the service itself including a fantastic team of volunteers who now come from four other Churches. WAVE UK very generously gave us all their resources, including the structure of the service modelled on WAVE church that had been running for 12 years in Muswell Hill, and of course the benefit of their wonderful wisdom.  

Our services have been running for 3 years and we now have between 35 and 40 regular members. The services are monthly and include prayer, worship, bible teaching and fellowship (with a lot of cake!) - personally, it is the most fun I’ve ever had at Church! From the start, WAVE Little Ilford was met very positively by the community. One parent said "We have needed this for such a long time!" One of our members always describes WAVE Little Ilford as "a big family", with our services providing a space for our members to make deep, meaningful relationships with their peers. Through the atmosphere and environment we have created our members feel they have a real sense of belonging. I’m particularly proud of the fact that 70% of our team members at WAVE Little Ilford identify as having a learning disability, autism or neurological condition.

 Perhaps the final thought should go to Jono. When we were planning our first WAVE our whole team were anxious about him. How would he cope? Would it work? We shouldn’t have worried. He loves it and takes part in everything including the hoovering afterwards!

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Alison Orphan is training for Recognised Local Ministry and is minister in training at Little Ilford Baptist Church. You can find out more about WAVE here.

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