December 2023 / January 2024
The Revd Neil Robinson is the Salisbury Diocese’s Chaplain to the Deaf Community. He was ordained deacon in 2016 and priest the following year. His job is to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of Deaf* and Deafblind people, and this includes conducting baptisms, weddings and funerals in British Sign Language (BSL) with an interpreter providing a spoken translation.
Neil also offers an awareness course to anyone who wants to learn the basics of BSL and other ways to communicate. He visits Deaf clubs across the diocese and runs a monthly coffee gathering in Warminster with the help of a hearing friend to encourage Deaf people to socialise and develop friendships.
We met Neil recently after the parish harvest service, which he attended, to find out more about his life and his valuable work in the diocese…
The Bridge: Neil, you were born profoundly deaf into a hearing family and you’ve said that your parents took your deafness hard. When did you first realise that other members of your family experienced the world differently?
Neil Robinson: Culture can be a bit complex but I will do my best to explain. When I was a little boy, I heard nothing at all, but I struggled to follow what my family were saying. Mum could fingerspell [signing individual letters to spell words, rather than signing the words themselves] to communicate with me then. Dad couldn’t sign well because of his war wound, which had damaged his left arm – it had only limited movement. They could hear everything but I couldn’t. I recall Mum chatting away on a telephone in front of me. She said, “Say hello to your aunt.” When I spoke on the phone, I realised that I couldn’t hear anyone’s voice at all. So yeah, I realised that I was totally different from my family because I lived in a silent world.
TB: When and how did you learn BSL?
NR: I was seven years old when I started to learn sign language at the Royal School for Deaf Children in Margate. Before this, I never knew sign language as I was brought up in a hearing family.
TB: How much demand is there for your valuable services in the diocese? We can imagine you’re very busy!
NR: It depends on what I am doing each week. Some weeks can be hectic with different things, and some other weeks can be quiet depending on whether I
am needed.
TB: What feedback do you get from Deaf people about your work?
NR: Some Deaf people feel that my role as Chaplain does not benefit them in some ways, but I imagine it would take me a long time to gain their trust in order to build a good relationship. I have received some good comments from them in terms of leading the funeral services and I got some lovely feedback from a wedding service that I presided over during the Covid lockdown. They said that it was important for them to have a Deaf priest around them.
TB: What can hearing people do to make Deaf people feel less isolated, both within church congregations and in the wider community?
NR: That is a good question. It is important that they should learn basic sign language or basic communication tactics so they can communicate directly with Deaf people. Relationships between hearing and Deaf people can sometimes be straining, but I would advise hearing not to give up on trying to make Deaf people feel welcome.
TB: BSL is a fascinating resource and clearly a life-changing tool for Deaf people. How nuanced would you say it is? Do users add layers of meaning through facial expressions, etc? Does the syntactical pattern follow written and spoken English closely, or is it more general, expressing ideas?
NR: BSL is very much part of a culturally Deaf person’s life. It is a natural language for them to develop freely. It depends on whether they are born to hearing parents or Deaf parents. I grew up in a hearing family so I experienced a slight delay in language development because I didn’t understand what they were verbally saying. Lipreading is hard work for me, but I didn’t mind that.
BSL has its own grammatical structure and syntax and it is a very visual language rather than a spoken language.
TB: You and your wife, Helen, had cochlear implants fitted in 2017 when you were both in your 50s. How would you describe the experience of hearing for the first time? Do you think it has changed your relationship with Helen?
NR: Yes, that is correct. Prior to having a cochlear implant (CI) fitted on me, I had this disliking attitude to CIs for a long time. I had never worn my hearing aids since I left school because I could identify myself as a Deaf person. Helen told me a long time ago that she was thinking of having a CI fitted on herself and I was shocked at this. But I knew that I had to support her as my wife. A few years before my ordination in 2016, in a strange way I sensed that God wanted me to have a CI fitted, too. I thought about it for a long time because I was a bit uncomfortable at the time, but gradually I said to God, “Okay, I will do that.”
We were probably the first couple to have our CI surgery done and have our CI activated on the same day. Wow! We were on BBC news being interviewed about our experience. I think that having CI has changed me a lot as a person, especially as Helen’s husband.
If you would like to arrange a baptism, wedding or funeral service in BSL, you can email Neil at deafpriest@icloud.com or send him a text on 07717 055219.
The Visual Word Ministry is a place to hang out with each other and with God and is conducted in pure BSL with an English voiceover translation for hearing non-signers. Hearing BSL users are also welcome. Every Sunday afternoon at 2.30pm on Zoom: contact Neil for joining instructions.
* You might wonder why we’ve used a capital letter for ‘Deaf’ in some places and not in others. The ‘uppercase D’ Deaf indicates a cultural identity: it’s used to describe people who identify as culturally Deaf and are actively engaged with the Deaf community. These people share a common culture and usually have a shared sign language. The ‘lowercase d’ deaf simply refers to the physical condition of having hearing loss.