Community groups

Hi Asparagus, I am glad to find that I am not the only believer with ASD.

To me, belief started as a sort of insurance policy.

If there is no God and I do not believe, I lose nothing. If there is no God and I believe, I lose nothing, but gain a good moral code for life.

If there is a God and I believe, then I gain enormously by following that good moral code, and then I find God. BUT, if there is a God, and I chose not to believe, then I have lost everything.

I have always had faith that there is a God, but find churches quite off-putting in many ways.

The old fashioned churches have vicar and choir in old fashioned clothes and the hymns etc are rather archaic ( though I do like some of them). Modern churches tend to be very social. The one I have been to tends to meet and greet newcomers and ask for your name and address. I like to observe for a while in any new situation in life, and only take part and speak to people when I am ready and comfortable with it. Then it helps to meet one person at a time.

Most people would not recognise autism, and as an undiagnosed person, I find it a difficult subject to broach.

I been going to Church a very long time now and yes there are difficulties. The biggest diffliculty is with the people who are already there as such. I have swapped churches, and certainly sensory overload can be an issue. It isn't for me as such but I can perceive it can be. Loud music, faulty microphones, incense smell and the perception when everyone stands up, you must stand up. That isn't the case or I would hope that isn't the case in a good place but it is perceived to be.  It don't matter if you dont want to shake hands much at the peace, can't do the eye contact thing. The priest does work with me enough and am willing to shake hands but dont always make eye contact. There no real science behind it for me. Just sometimes too much that it. But yes Church where there are a lot of 'fussy so called catholics' with the small c as I don't mean Roman Catholic but for those who like to think themselves catholic but do not understand it enough, bowing and kneeling and standing and the symbols and doing everything just so important to them. They would outwardly claim to make allowances for those who can't cope but in reality they do not actively do so though admittedly am talking from personal experience - hence the swap of church and everything has been made more accessible for me, even right down to the sermon which just been told I can record. I don't take in lots in one go and the other week the Deacon gave me his copy of the sermon and went home and read it and went back to him next day, saying I had no idea how much I had actually missed and yes I struggle to hear in that one place but missed quite a bit too.  So hopefully recording will overcome some of that, as the priest doesn't write his sermons down.  But he willing to be recorded. Initially it was, I have a friend who don't go to church but was asking him about his sermons and he was perhaps joking (the friend is at work when sunday morning sermons happen) i can ring her up and relay the sermon, and in that conversation he found out I wasn't hearing that much anyway with the other two priests and okayed it for me to record it.

But yes in some communities the person on the ASD scale may find some parts of church very overwhelming. The priest is my named contact on the autism card and he told me in his previous church they had to make various changes as someone there with autism. They haven't had to make any service changes for me but he very good at making concepts and life around the church more accessible for me - that feeling more part of it than where I used to go.

Of course there are different services one can go to if one service is not quite right and it too much. Most churches in the Church of England offer weekday services at different times and haven't got the organ playing or the incense and is much quieter. And if everything is too much and the person really wants to then home communion is a possible way forward depending on the priest etc. But yes I agree Church can be quite difficult for us on the ASD spectrum not just on the sensory overload but all different issues and it really is very helpful that the priests at that church understand and are willing to help when I don't understand and is too much.