I'd love to say the last six months have flown by because I've been having such a simply fabulous time. There have certainly been some beautiful, “I wish I could bottle this up” moments. But there has also been plenty of stress, worry, exhaustion and anxiety. And I've realised that all of those things can make time behave strangely too. Sometimes it flies. Sometimes it seems completely stuck.

As someone with ADHD, this is very familiar. When I first came across “time wizard” as a playful description of time blindness, I felt as though someone had been documenting my life. I have, more often than I'd like to admit, set a timer for a quick five-minute task, only to be utterly astonished when it goes off. Apparently my five minutes and everyone else's five minutes are not always the same thing!

Which may explain why it feels like years since I last wrote a newsletter, when in fact I've only missed one month.

It has been a very full season: General Synod, AGM, Greenbelt, the national Inclusive Synod campaign, We Are Here, recruiting an administrator, and all the ordinary work of Inclusive Church, alongside recovering from some significant health complications. Greenbelt was a huge amount of work and went really well, although exhaustion sometimes made it difficult to be as present as I would have liked.

And perhaps that is part of what I've been learning, or re-learning, as we prepare for our much-anticipated conference on neurodiversity: different doesn't mean lesser. Neither does needing to stop mean failing. Sometimes delays even allow the Holy Spirit in.

I don't naturally do nothing. Rest doesn't come easily, and there has been a particular wrestling between recovering and the pull of everything that needs doing. But now school is back and a little more rhythm and routine is returning, I'm finding myself grateful that God is faithful. Not just faithful to give us strength to do the thing, but faithful to meet us when we can't.

We can be exhausted and joyful. Struggling and grateful. Needing support and still having much to offer. Perhaps faith isn't about making everything balance neatly, but discovering that God is present in all of it: the flying, the stuckness, the joy, the muck, the rest and the doing.

Timey-wimey though living life may be, God remains faithful all the time, providing both strength for the journey and those utterly gold-dust sparkle moments of joy, affirmation and contentment right there in the mud and muck.

Both/and. Messy grace. And, somehow, it is well.

One way or another, we'll get where we're going.

There's currently a lot of research, work and developing of resources going on in the Neurodiversity field. We'll be updating our website soon to more clearly reflect and signpost to this, but in the meantime if you'd like to learn more I'd commend both:

Autism & Theology Podcast

My Favourite Jo on Youtube & Insta, she does some great pieces flipping the script on what is typical and what is not.

Paul Coleman, an inclusive Methodist musician based in Leeds, caught up with Fiona MacMillan to talk about the conference and also the motion put to General Synod in July 2026, on neurodiversity. Excerpts of their conversation are below, but you can read more on the link...

In July, the Church of England’s (CofE) General Synod held its first-ever debate on neurodiversity, unanimously passing All Kinds of Minds: affirming neurodiversity in the life of the Church. The motion recognised neurodivergent people, lay and ordained, as “lovingly and purposefully made” and as a blessing to the Church and wider society. It called for the national Church to identify changes to structures and processes which offer barriers preventing neurodivergent people from flourishing, for neurodivergent-led training, for a national network of diocesan (regional)  Neurodiversity Champions and for local churches to listen to the experience of neurodivergent people in their own communities

I spoke to Fiona MacMillan, a former Inclusive Church trustee who chairs the CofE’s Neurodiversity Working Group and who presented the motion.  Much of our conversation came back to the language at the beginning of the motion. Fiona described neurodiversity as a “positive paradigm” and a “strength-based approach” – one which moves away from a focus on what minds cannot do. For Fiona, it’s important that the CofE has endorsed neurodiversity, working for a Church in which “all kinds of minds can flourish”.

As Fiona put it, “It’s about thinking differently about God and about church and about worship and about community.”

The conversation then moved towards the upcoming conference where Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people can come together and resource one another, then go back and resource their own churches and communities. Fiona hopes people will leave “having learned to love our own minds a bit more”.

These are just some of the things happening - do follow our Facebook page for others.

Reviewed by Rev Dr Catherine Shelley, Member of General Synod, Leeds Diocese. Vicar of Inclusive Church St Mary's Todmorden, St Peter's Walsden and St Michael's Cornholme. Adviser for Women's Ministry Huddersfield Episcopal Area and NADAWM Secretary

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