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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Ann Memmott. Ann is a national and international adviser on autism, and main author of autism guidelines for the Church of England.

Good morning

Today, in many countries, it鈥檚 April Fools鈥� Day. A day on which many take delight in telling cheeky lies to others, to see if they are fooled for a short while. I鈥檓 sure we all have favourites from past years. I must admit that, as an autistic child, I was delighted to see a 鲍鱼tv broadcast of a 1957 example about spaghetti trees, and then of course disappointed to learn that there were in fact no such things. But I could also appreciate the humour. In the autistic communities, our sense of humour is often brilliant, to the astonishment of some who believed in the old myths about us being nothing but factual. It鈥檚 certainly true that autistic people like things to make sense. In autism acceptance week, I鈥檓 celebrating autistic literalness, that desire for words, and people, to mean what they say, that honesty and straightforwardness. What of those expressions used by so many people, like, 鈥淚鈥檒l be back in five minutes鈥�. Five minutes passes, and they haven鈥檛 returned. Ten minutes, still not back. Our language is littered with such extraordinary statements. Surprising indeed, and not just on April 1st.

The history of the Christian faith is one where people have been challenged to think again about those they consider less wise and powerful. We may know the passages in the Bible where Jesus said that people had to be like children to enter heaven, and the passages where we are told that every person is as vital, as much part of this One Body of Christ as the other. All are loved, and needed.

Creator God, teach us anew the value of each person around us. Appreciating the surprise of all they bring, in friendship and prayer, in fellowship and shared journeying.

Amen.