GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Instead of resigning himself to a life of hopelessness because of the limited ability of his body, Dr Pieter van Niekerk, a person with Parkinson's Disease, enrolled for further study in 2014 and has been capped with his second doctorate last month.

Van Niekerk, a resident of Bothastrand (between George and Great Brak River) was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD) in 2004 at age 45. His health has since deteriorated to a great extent. He endures chronic pain because of broken vertebrae that do not heal, and he struggles with the most basic of activities, such as brushing his teeth. 

For a man who had been an active field worker for the SA Council of Churches after his theological training in the late eighties, this was a tragedy. 

He worked as minister in Alexandra township, was a research coordinator for a national poverty survey, and manager of a rural community development organisation in the Karoo. He served the Friemersheim congregation for 17 years before his condition forced him to retire.

"PD is not only an illness of tremors, but also a solitary condition. I am an extrovert, but because of my poor speech and emotionless face, I avoid people."

He moves around with great difficulty. His wife assists him after hours. "It's a struggle to get dressed and take a bath. It is especially my back that bullies me. I miss deep sea angling and don't have other hobbies."

Focus on the marginalised
The focus of his efforts has always been marginalised communities and his first PhD in 1997 focused on the relation between faith and social empowerment of the members of a poverty-stricken, rural congregation. Now, as a PD sufferer, he is experiencing life first-hand as a person on the fringe.

He wanted to become a post doctoral research associate, which would bring in a small income after his retirement. "To qualify for it, your PhD had to have been earned no longer than five years prior, so I needed another degree. Lately, the university authorities have changed the qualifications. I am now too old to apply," he says.

He did not back down from the challenge of studying again after receiving a small bursary from the University of Pretoria. He wrote his thesis, titled "Missional spirituality and the embodiment of imperfection", from a strong realisation of his own vulnerability and imperfection. There exists, according to him, an indisputable affinity between God and vulnerability. 

"Imperfection is part of being human, and strengthens spirituality."

Van Niekerk comes to the conclusion that, "in a post-Christendom era, Christian communities should focus on mission from the margins and not on self-preservation, power and perfection. The church is 'incomplete' without persons with disabilities. We need one another as we share human vulnerability with one another. 

"Persons with disabilities help able-bodied persons to face their own vulnerabilities and to embrace their interdependence."

'Faith healer achieved nothing'
He says that after the prayer of a faith healer achieved nothing, he realised that illness and disability are not necessarily things that can or should be healed by faith or the health sciences. 

"Suffering is not always to be explained or to be understood; sometimes you just need to accept it as part and parcel of life. A spirituality of imperfection can emerge when a body is broken and faith is vulnerable. It is a spirituality that embraces one's limits and values interdependence. Many persons with disabilities' God-given dignity is denied. They are treated with no respect and self-worth."

Van Niekerk is currently a research fellow of the Department of Practical Theology and Missiology at the University of Stellenbosch. After his diagnosis he presented a paper in 2011 at an international conference hosted by Stellenbosch University. This was followed by two publications focusing on the relation between spirituality and his body's imperfection. 

He and a colleague, Dr Chris Jones, co-published Saam in Suid-Afrika, a book on race relations and reconciliation.

A summary of his latest thesis, which received high praises from his three examiners, is available in Afrikaans, English, Sepedi, Braille, and in Mp3 format.

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