November 2000 - Healing Ministry

Many would hope for a miracle but be surprised beyond measure if they were on the receiving end of one. Perhaps this explains why so many are rather hesitant over the healing ministry. I first encountered it in The Hague, Holland, through getting to know the then chaplain when preparing for theological college and working for the Missions to Seamen in the Europort. He impressed upon me that the call to the ministry is twofold: to teach and preach, and to heal. Having had some experience of the healing ministry at his hands, along with the ups and downs within it (and not without some farcical moments, believe it or not!), I am not frightened to follow this aspect of any vocation.
Would that we could make time and space to do more! The annual recurrence of St Luke's Day is a poignant reminder of an occasion to have a Service offering the sacrament, for such it is, of the laying on of hands. It is a privilege to do it, yet Lent and Whitsun and Confirmation seem to squeeze out holding such a service more frequently.
We could view confirmation as a healing process anyway, when people finding their spiritual feet experience a greater peace and wholeness as a result. They have begun to cultivate their own spiritual dimension through which God channels his grace. The laying on of hands offers a distinct sacrament from holy communion at the same service. At the very least it offers some re-assurance; it is a separate physical channel of the power of the Holy Spirit specifically aimed at offering something tangible after a general confession, or more personal and private confession, at the sanctuary step. Holy Communion afterwards is to reinforce the experience with iron rations, so to speak.
However, it is also possible to receive the laying on of hands for someone else. At one level it focuses, involves and deepens a prayer for someone held in our thoughts. At another level it offers the recipient as a special channel of grace for the person for whom you are praying. Where possible or practicable you can follow it up by laying hands on the person for whom you pray using much the same words as used in the service and tailored to the need as presented and perceived. Again, do not expect miracles - to do so is rather to put God to the test by demanding of Him what He may not give, see the Commandments - but be content that the opportunity taken and the effort made around the situation should enable you, or the ultimate recipient, to cope better with whatever it is ...........

Whether that "it" be healthy relationships, generally coping with life or making decisions, it can clear the mind to offer it deeply in prayer. We cannot get deeper in prayer when it involves us physically as well as mentally and spiritually. Also this is a way of sharing ministry to others; this is one aspect from the book, which the PCCs' have studied, that has been raised.
So if less people were daunted by such a service we could make more effort to hold one more regularly, say quarterly ...... or even within a month that has no other set festivals or feasts. Perhaps our confidence would grow enough to even move mountains (Mark 11v.28).
Don't be shy!

TH

"Vestry Hour" If you want to contact me, or to sign something, Monday mornings is best, but please ring first. Between 7.30 a.m. and 8.45 a.m. is a good time! Please let the 'phone ring a while too! Toddy (537277).

STOP PRESS - the auction at Leeds (Prelates, Priests and People, Oct.11th) raised £1300 for Hillside Parish Funds.

The United Nations has proclaimed this millenium year as The Year of the Culture of Peace. Thirsk Meeting of the Society of Friends wholeheartedly supports this campaign and, with the backing of Churches Together in Thirsk, is holding three public discussion group meetings, from 7.30 - 9.00 p.m. at The Friends Meeting House in Kirkgate. There is a concluding meeting in St Mary’s Church.

It must be stressed that these four meetings are not primarily religious. We welcome members of all faiths and denominations, and also of NONE, for we recognise that the churches have no monopoly of virtue, wisdom or enlightenment. We would like to include in our speakers two or three senior pupils of Thirsk School in the hope that their generation will make a better job of peacekeeping than ours has.

John Simpson, Assistant Clerk to Thirsk Quakers (01845 597465)

HISTORY
No sooner had the October magazine gone to press than I picked up a book* from our bookshelf. Reading up on "Leake", I found that "in 1318 the Scots again invaded Yorkshire under the leadership of Sir James Douglas 'The Black Douglas'. The township of Leake was utterly destroyed and has never revived; it is possible that the many human bones which were found heaped together in a pit at Leake in 1852 were those of the victims of this raid."
A later reference, in this same book, says the raid took place in 1322 and Leake then had 1500 inhabitants. 
Questions: What is population of Borrowby today (Year 2000)
What happened to the bones?
Is there any modern method of really identifying the age of old bones? Ed.
* The Early History of the North Riding by William Edwards M.A. (A.Brown & Sons Ltd., London, 1924)

Abridged from The Jungle is Neutral by F.S.Chapman (Chatto & Windus, 1949), a book on life in the Malayan jungle, 1942-5.

"I also had a Bible, but it is a strange thing that for some reason not one of us was able to read it. Here were four men - a Civil Servant, a Police-man, an Engineer and a Schoolmaster - none of whom could be called re-ligious. Yet we had all agreed that at one time or another we had said to ourselves that if ever we had time we should like to make a real study of the Bible, especially the New Testament. Also, if we had been asked the old question: What six books would you choose if you had to spend a year alone on a desert island? - we should have all included the Bible. Yet now, in such circumstances, we simply could not read it. Whether this was a sign of the times, a legacy of school Scripture lessons, the result of chronic malaria, or just the demoralising effect of the jungle I do not know."