“How come you know Jesus and you heal nobody?”
“The Sioux Indian Christian received no answer from his audience of American priests. We may smile tolerantly at what we regard his simplistic reading of biblical narratives. Yet his question leaves an uneasy feeling that we might be missing something. It cannot easily be brushed aside. Should we be doing more to fulfil Jesus Christ’s commission to his disciples, “Go preach---- go heal?””
The above paragraph is taken from a report for the House of Bishops, “A Time to Heal,” published in 2000. In the introduction to the report Bishop Morris Maddocks wrote, “Christian Healing is first and foremost about Christ. It follows the pattern he set in his own ministry and the commission he gave to his own disciples. Christian healing is the whole work of Christ in a person’s body, mind and spirit, designed to bring that person to that wholeness which is God’s will for us all”.[1] The report recommends that Parishes develop healing ministries.
My background as a Ward Sister, Macmillan Nurse and now as Hospital Chaplain means that well-being, healing and wholeness have always been high on my agenda of concern for others. I believe in and I have had first and second hand experience, of Jesus healing today just as he healed during his earthly ministry.
Some of you will have had experience of powerful healing ministries, most of you will have prayed for healing. You can perhaps tell of improvements in response to those prayers. Others will have experience of apparently unanswered prayer because even when we are open to God’s healing touch there seems to be an enormous gap between the healing ministry of Jesus and what we experience today.
A few of you will be openly hostile, perhaps you saw someone healed whilst you could not see healing in yourself or your loved one. I know that great damage can be done by churches raising people’s hopes.
In this 21st century there is a yearning for justice, healing and peace between nations, traditions and faiths. This yearning intertwines with the Christian hope for the healing of individuals; the healing of memories and of broken relationships; a hope stretching into God’s eternity. I suspect that within the churches that make up our Parish there is a wide experience of healing ministry. What ever those experiences are I would like to hear about them and help us to build on the good experiences.
Thirty percent of the people who responded to the Spirituality Questionaire in 2009 indicated that they would like to have services for healing as part of our shared ministry.
There will be a Parish Service of Healing, led by Pat and Mary, at St James Church on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 4pm, please come, taste and see. All very welcome.
[1] Report for the House of Bishops, “A Time to Heal”2000, p1
Added: 7th February 2010 || Submitted by: Revd Mary Wadsworth.
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