St Mary's Church
Banbury
Healing Ministry
What is healing?
A Dictionary definition would have you believe that, 'To restore or to be restored to health', is the complete picture regarding healing. Healing ministry is more than the simple curing of disease: there are four stages to consider in any complete definition: Relieving symptoms, curing disease, restoring the functions of the body and the achievement of full purpose of the whole person.
Dr R. A. Lambourne once offered this definition of healing, "Healing is a satisfactory response to a crisis, made by a group of people, both individually and corporately."1
Another way to consider the issue is to reflect on what Health is, so that when we are not 'in' health we are in need of healing.
'Health is often thought of in terms of the eradication of defects', but is more to do with a sense of wholeness, being at peace with who we are, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually, than 'a cure'.
As such we are all need healing at some point in out lives, once we are ready to accept this we are moving well on the way to receiving healing ourselves and offering it to others.
In fact the root of the words for health, healing, and wholeness and holiness in Greek is the same and as such for true health there is also a spiritual, dimension . For Christians our relationship with Jesus is the core element in that healing process.
Healing and the Gospel
The gospel of Jesus is not primarily about sin, but forgiveness- about the grace of God which is sufficient for all our needs. Christian healing is about love, a love that transforms and renews all relationships. So much of Jesus work of healing was love, a love that worked in life and overcame alienation and oppression, from the physical, emotional and spiritual. This remedy of love for the unhealed will bring healing to the overcommitted, the oppressed, the aged, those physically and mentally challenged and the sin-full.
Other areas of healing include bereavement and our relationships, our grief is often a debilitating emotion which is often lessened in time but can often linger. Within our relationships also we encounter the limitations of our humanness and can be the cause of a lot of brokenness and hurt.
The gospel of Christ is about offering each of us Gods wholeness, and Jesus wants us to encounter and enjoy that from today and not just at some point in the future.
At present our pattern of healing services is at the end of the 9.30am and 11am services on the first Sunday of the month.
We have a small team involved in this ministry, laying on of hands and prayers will be offered during the service and afterwards, always by a two of the team in a confidential environment. One member of the team of the same Gender.
Please contact the Church Office for information
on forthcoming services.
Healing Ministry can be offered outside this setting by special Arrangement only.
Prayers are also said at Noon each Friday for prayer requests left on our prayer board
1 Maddocks, M. The Christian healing ministry London: SPCK 1981 p9.
(The 3rd edition (1995) can be bought through our Amazon Affliate link)
See also the review of Jesus Healing Works and Ours (Spring 2008)
the book can be bought through our Amazon Affliate link
|
