On July 26, 2026, the UCC Facebook page featured this story on Rev. Harold Wilke. “A United Church of Christ minister whose life and witness helped break barriers for people with disabilities. On July 26, 1990, Rev. Wilke accepted a pen from President George H. W. Bush at the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, grasping it with his toes. Born without arms, Rev. Wilke offered the Invocation at the White House, calling the ADA ‘the breaking of the chains which have held back millions of Americans with disabilities.’”

What makes this a St. John’s story? In the comments under the July 26 Facebook post was this note from St. John’s friend Rev. Martha Bean Kriebel. “Met him when a child and he and his family were members at St. John’s in Lansdale. Fascinated to watch him open doors on the train.” My interest piqued, I searched our archives for more about Rev. Harold Wilke.

As World War II ended in 1945, Rev. Wilke served as a chaplain representing the Evangelical & Reformed denomination in rehabilitation work with war veterans in hospitals in the East. His wife Margaret was a social worker serving service families through the Red Cross. During that time, they lived at 101 E. 6^th St. in Lansdale and were active at St. John’s. In addition to being a guest preacher here and other area churches, he spoke at a gathering for our 1945 confirmands, Sunday school, and at a pre-Christmas family program, he told the story of “The True Tale of the Innkeeper.” He also spoke at the Lansdale PTA and Junior Women’s Club. Rev. Wilke talked of his personal work and experiences with wounded veterans and how to help them return to a normal civilian life without giving them undue attention. “Greet the man, not the wound,” he said. “Think of them in terms of their personalities, rather than their disabilities.” He published his first book “Greet the Man” in 1945.

In June of 1946, he left Lansdale to become chaplain of a VA hospital in Topeka, Kansas. In 1949, he became pastor of St. Paul’s E&R in Crystal Lake, Illinois, as one of the first disabled pastors of a church. In 1955, he was elected executive head of the Commission on Church and Ministry of the E&R/UCC church. In 1975, he moved to White Plains, NY to found and head “The Healing Community,” an international program for disabled persons. Upon his death in 2003, Rev. Wilke was remembered worldwide as a pioneering crusader for the disabled, who wrote, lobbied, lectured and marched in support of the movement to gain equal access and rights for the disabled. Although his work here was brief, it was very important and continued to develop and grow in leading the UCC in disability leadership!