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Jill

When we’re thinking about reading the Bible most of us would say we would prefer to read it in our own language.Ìý Of course, we all read it in translation, there are not many of us who would read the original biblical languages.Ìý But deaf people, for years, have been saying there’s no Bible in our own language, we have to read it in English.Ìý And although a huge number of deaf people are bilingual, it’s different having the words of scripture in your own heart language, the language you use and you identify with and that’s why it’s so important.

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Emily Buchanan

Well, obviously, you can’t use the same sort of language, it is a different language, so how is it done?

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Jill

As far as possible, we’re using original languages.Ìý So, for Marks Gospel, obviously, we need to go back to New Testament Greek.Ìý So, we have a lot of friends, we have biblical scholars who do use New Testament Greek very well.Ìý And then, we have to look at things like cultural differences – what did things actually look like.Ìý BSL is a visual language so things like ‘when they threw the nets out over the boat’, what did those nets look like, how do we do that in British Sign Language?Ìý There are lots of issues.Ìý It’s a fascinating, fascinating project.

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So, Hannah, what do you understand by heart language?

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Hannah

Heart language is a fascinating concept because I am actually fully bilingual, I’m unusual in the deaf community because I’m completely bilingual in English and BSL.Ìý I always thought I could read the Bible fine, which I can – I can read it, I can understand it, I can preach on it.Ìý But when I see the Bible in BSL, it just hits me emotionally, spiritually, in a way that reading never will.

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What difference does it make to have the actual translation into BSL, into your heart language, as opposed to having just an interpreter in church.

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Hannah

However good the interpreter you are receiving the Bible at one removed, it is not coming direct from the person who’s speaking it.Ìý That is why I would always much rather have somebody up front who’s standing and reading.Ìý And I know a lot of deaf people feel the same way.Ìý It’s different receiving worship, worshipping in your own language, than being on the edge worshipping via an interpreter.

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Well, we spoke to Mary Jane who’s deaf and goes to church.Ìý Her words are spoken by one of our producers.

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Mary Jane

Being in a church with no BSL access is like no access to a relationship with God.Ìý If there is no signing in church, they create what God looks like towards deaf BSL users.Ìý Also, the Bible is a difficult book to read.Ìý BSL is vital to allow us to comprehend his words.Ìý As a deaf person we have limited choices of churches to go to and it is far to travel, the travel is expensive and time consuming and hearing people go to church that’s practically at their doorsteps.

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So, Hannah, do you recognise those sorts of frustrations?

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Hannah

Yes and no.Ìý I mean I felt the point that Mary Jane made about when you go – a deaf person goes to church how they are treated by the church reflects what they think that God thinks of them.Ìý I think that’s a vital point.Ìý So, if you go to church and there’s no interpreter and there’s no access at all, the rejection is not coming from the church, that rejection is felt as if it’s coming from God.Ìý And I think that is incredibly frustrating.Ìý You’ve got this sense, sometimes, of feeling on the edge of things, one removed and that can also affect your relationship with God.

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So, Hannah, what projects do you have then to increase accessibility and increase the integration of deaf people into services?

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Hannah

One of the things we’ve been working on, we’ve been calling it partnership, this has been a hearing parish church which has a deaf family who worship at it, now deaf families are never just deaf people, they are almost always a mixture of deaf and hearing people.Ìý And the family want to worship together.Ìý And we started by an interpreter, myself, going along.Ìý Now when I go along, I’m not just an interpreter, I am a priest and so we started to look how the parish priest and myself could share the leading of the service so that it was being led in both languages with translation.Ìý Then we started to look at, well, what about the rest of the congregation?Ìý So, people were interested in learning some sign language, so they could join in.Ìý And then we had a joint confirmation service at this church, which was really special and I asked everybody to stay seated because we had deaf people all over the congregation, so everyone could see the sign language.Ìý And then after that they said – why don’t we just stay sitting down when we have – because the sign language services were only once a month – why on those Sundays don’t we follow deaf culture and everybody stay seated for the whole service, which is part of deaf church culture but not part of hearing church culture.Ìý Quite small changes like that changed the whole atmosphere.

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Well, many people listening today will be hearing worshippers, what difference will it make to them to include deaf people in services?

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Hannah

I find that hearing people love watching sign language.Ìý People find that their senses are opened to worship, to God, in a way that they aren’t before.Ìý I mean the Church of England in some parts of it can be very much dependent on listening, people sit there with their eyes shut and just listen, they’re only using one of their senses to worship.Ìý Whereas, when I lead in sign language, I encourage people to keep their eyes open and receive a wider spectrum.Ìý And people find that it benefits their own faith, it benefits their own experience of worship.

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And Jill, so I suppose with a translation of the Bible, you can expand that?

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Jill

Oh yes.Ìý So, I have a dream, I have a dream that one day, when you’re in church and in some churches the preacher will say – Oh, turn with me to Mark chapter three or whatever and people pick up their Bibles and they flick through – and my dream is of a deaf person can pick up their mobile device and find it in BSL and watch it on their mobile phone in their own language and that’s my aim. ÌýI mean the technology is there, that’s very achievable at the moment, we just don’t quite yet have the translation.Ìý So, that’s what we’re working on.