Neurodiversity, Worship, and Belonging: Reimagining Autism Inclusion in African Churches

Abstract

Autism remains insufficiently explored within African Practical Theology, where theological engagement with disability has historically focused more on visible impairments and healing narratives than on neurodevelopmental differences. Consequently, limited attention has been given to how ecclesial interpretations and worship practices shape the participation and belonging of autistic children and their families. This qualitative ethnographic study examines the experiences of families raising autistic children within the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia in Malawi. Data were generated through interviews with parents and a specialist therapist, participant observation at a rehabilitation center, and liturgical observation in selected congregations. The findings reveal three interconnected challenges. First, families navigate competing medical, cultural, and spiritual explanations of autism, creating uncertainty in pastoral responses and congregational understanding. Second, sensory-intensive worship practices and social expectations may produce forms of exclusion in which autistic children are physically present but unable to participate meaningfully in ecclesial life. Third, families articulate belonging not as mere acceptance but as relational participation grounded in Ubuntu, mutual recognition, and shared responsibility. Drawing on the neurodiversity paradigm, liturgical theology, and Ubuntu, this article argues that the primary barriers to autistic children’s participation arise not from autism itself but from theological, liturgical, and social structures that privilege neurotypical patterns of worship. By developing the concepts of the hermeneutical void and quiet exclusion, the study contributes to African Practical Theology and Disability Theology by offering a framework for reimagining worship as a space where neurological diversity is recognized as part of God’s creative design and where all members of the Body of Christ can experience genuine belonging.