Healing Minister

Jehovah Rapha... God who heals

Two and a half years ago I attended a weekend Healing Mission conducted by the Order of St. Luke the Physician.
 
That weekend I committed to engage in a study of the stories of Jesus' healing ministry in the Gospels. The scriptures are full of stories of God's reconciling and restoring work during Jesus' life. What about today?

That weekend in January was one of many places along a five year journey to understand the healing ministry in the Church. It has been a fitful journey, with starts and abrupt stops many times along the way. I signed up as an associate member of the Order of St. Luke but could not make a viable connection.
The obstacles seemed as much directed by the Spirit as anything could. I continued my studies independently, attending many different events named as healing services and classes.

I've always felt a part of my call was to peacemaking, one that included facilitating reconciliation and peace, but struggled relentlessly to find a genuine expression of that call, especially a sacramental expression, something that could be experienced within the context of worship. 

How could I integrate healing into my ministry? Intention to offer oneself as an intercessor for healing ministry is an awesome and scary step. Would I have to be a wild eyed crazy person, like the movie character played by Chevy Chase or those television evangelists? If that's what it would require, there's no way I would submit myself to that type of calling or ministry..no wild eyed evangelist for me!

During Lent in 2011 I had the privilege of framing the question  within a five week course which I taught collaboratively with our Interim Priest, Fr. Paul Price. This course opened up to me the rich tradition the Episcopal Church maintains as a leader in integrating healing ritual into the liturgy.

What I discovered is that Anglicans have been offering a dignified ministry of anointing and healing prayer within worship, at special services, and in pastoral care settings following in the tradition of the early church.

And since collaborating on that course we have offered a weekly healing service with Holy Eucharist. participating in the service offering intercessory prayer and joining in the laying on of hands has been one of the most precious places of ministry during the past year.

This month I asked God, how was I supposed to be faithful to the call that was placed on my heart, and one of the answers was "deepen your healing ministry."

But Lord, do I have enough faith?

The Spirit whispered..."I have given you sufficient faith. Go, be true to the call...you are a minister of healing in my name."

Ancestors

Last night was the season premiere of "Who do you think you are?"

Do you ever wonder what it is that drew you into your vocation? What was it that first captured your interest in the work that you do? Was it something in your DNA or just the exposure to something as you were growing up that captured your interest in the work that brings you fulfillment as well as provides your livelihood?

Honestly, I know, it may seem odd to imagine but I do think there is something that we pick up from our ancestors, whether we know their history or not, that has a positive effect on our own lives.

I first was struck with this thought when I learned about my great grandmother Bulachier. She came to North America through the port of Galveston from her homeland of Alsace Lorraine.

But before I learned about her, I had some internal attraction to the French Language. It didn’t matter that living in Texas and growing up in California, I would have been able to put Spanish to use immediately. Something within me insisted that I should learn French.

I did well in the language and for a time thought that I would become an interpreter and travel guide.

But then I fell in love…and got married….and decided that wasn’t a realistic career goal for me.

I worked many jobs, from theatres to retail stores to banking. Then we decided we were ready to start a family, and I became a mother.

And time went on, and I found God working in my life in mysterious ways.

Along the way, I had fallen so deeply in love with Jesus that everything I did began to be viewed through my understanding of my faith and God’s call on my life.

When I finally returned to college to finish my degree I thought I was being called to the profession of law, and so I studied political science as preparation.

But by the time I finished my degree we had also added to the family. And that was a good thing. But I also felt something stir inside me that said law school was not the path I should take. Instead the spirit seemed to press upon me to work in the community and Church at least for the time being.

And as time went along that was very satisfying, until a time when it was not. What I felt stirring in me was the call to return to school, to seminary and the call to ordained ministry.

When I finally trusted that this was a movement of the Holy Spirit and trusted God the way opened for me. And I did well enough to complete the studies and then was called to serve in Idaho. But regardless of how well I did, I somehow didn’t quite fit the denominational mold for where I had followed the call. The resistance that we felt toward each other, the United Methodist Church and I, became so strong that I felt that I had come to the end of the relationship. Not my relationship with Christ. Not my commitment to the Church. It was just my relationship with a particular polity that had reached a conclusion.

In the previous two years I had been introduced to the Church of England and reaffirmed my roots within the Episcopal Church.

During all this time, I knew that back in my mother’s family, following back into my grandfather’s ancestors, there was a three times great grandfather who was listed as Rev. Wright. There weren’t any stories passed down. Just a note on the genealogical charts that said Rev. Thomas Wright was ordained by the Rt. Rev. Ravenscroft. And I didn’t really think a lot about that. It was an interesting fact. Period. I didn’t even know what denomination he was, until I came across a reference to Bishop Ravenscroft in a History book on the Episcopal Church, a couple of years ago.

Now, in all my childhood the only thing I knew about my biological father, was that he had grown up in New York, he was a printer, and died young. I never met his family.

That sort of explains my fascination with words and writing, and computer generated
publicity activities. My mother was a journalist, and my father a printer.

Recently though, my brother and I began doing some more ancestry work.

I didn’t expect to learn much. Did it really matter at this late stage in my life? I didn’t expect to recover a lost fortune, and by now every one of the relatives would probably be dead. But it was an interesting question to pursue. At least I could tell my children and grandchildren something more concrete than what I already knew.

Well, I learned that my paternal grandfather was an undertaker.

Hmm… working with people at the end of life, and officiating memorials and graveside services have been among the most sacred acts of ministry I performed while serving as pastor.

But, then, when I was finally able to trace my father’s family back further I was to discover yet another ancestral depository of church leadership.

The lineage led all the way back to Colonial America and England. It led straight back into the history of the controversies of the dissenting church. I learned that my father’s ancestors descended from the “Mather Dynasty” which started with the Rev Richard Mather.

Who would have imagined?

When I began looking into my family history, finally identifying the ancestors of my father, I never in my wildest imagination could have come up with the thought that I would uncover such rich religious roots.

It was amazing enough to learn about my three times Great Grandfather, a respected Episcopal Missionary Priest. And then we learned that his Uncle was Rt. Rev. William Mercer Green, the first Bishop to Mississippi.

But then to trace back to one of the key dissenting church leaders was simply a bit too much for me to just think it up.

No wonder my theological positions confuse ecclesiastical examiners. Catholic, and Congregationalist, Episcopal and Unitarian; lay and ordained all saints above are part of my spiritual DNA.

If what Richard Piper wrote about his 90 minutes in heaven, I have so many saints watching and guiding, waiting to welcome me when I finally do enter into the glory of heaven.

Until then, I carry forward the message of the faith which has been handed down generation to generation, although sometimes imperfectly, but nevertheless to the glory of God.

SO, with a tip of the hat to Ancestry.com, “Who do you think you are?”


I am a child of God. Called to be a priest.

Oh blogger me

A couple of weeks ago my internet service in the office went south on me. It took me several days of patiently, well not too patiently, waiting. On the first day, turning off all things and reconnecting them several times didn’t work. Checking all the connections reaped no reward. So I just went to plan B. I went home to use my own connection to complete the important correspondence of the day. And I did this repeatedly for several days until the problem resolved itself. Later, talking to an older member of the church about this frustration, more in passing than serious lament, she commented that I was spoiled by the internet.

“O contraire!” was my reply. She just didn’t understand that the internet is now our primary means of communication on so many levels. Internet has become the primary means of delivery and connection in the Oregon Idaho Conference. United Methodist organizations at all levels communicate to pastors, and laity with increasing reliance upon the Internet as the medium.

Within the same week a short article came across my desk, (yes, it actually was printed on paper and mailed) which raised the issue of the church and Digital Natives.
I am not a digital native. I’m far too old. My first introduction to computers was after I began working in the banking industry somewhere around 1975 or ‘76. ATM’s were just coming out at that time. Banks sorted and cleared checks using row upon row of computers and keystroke operators. A whole fleet of people and machines worked to sort out the daily work of every branch office in San Diego County for San Diego Trust and Savings Bank. The building was kept at a very cool temperature of about 66.7 degrees in order to keep the machines from overheating.

About a year after that I took my first class in computer programming. If you are a digital native this probably means very little to you unless you are also a digital geek. Those of us who took any programming classes in the 70’s had to use punch cards to write our programs, one card for each line of a program. I wrote the simplest program, prayed not to drop the stack of 70 lines of command in a some foreign language cobal or fortran I think, and shouted for joy when I completed the class with less than an A but better than a d plus.

Since those early days of learning to embrace the technology of computers I’ve taken other classes, and determined that minimally I’m just a user. GUI -Graphic User Interface- made it so much easier than those early days. And now, like 10,400 others who list themselves as pastors in their profile, I’ve taken to using a blog as a means of reflecting – hopefully also inspiring, those who may never once step their foot within the door of any church that I preach in.

My husband kicked and complained about the use of the internet for business purposes until about 6 years ago. Now within just the last 24 hours he too is seeing the value of the blog for connecting. For him and the rest of our family we are setting up a private space, thanks again to blogspot, a place where we can connect with our family which resides in Iraq, California, Missouri, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, and who knows where else.

My son and daughter in law were sharing about their experience selecting a church for their family. Their search started with the internet. She studied the mission statements and vision statements of every church around their community. Not being present on the internet with a complete website automatically eliminated a lot of prospective congregations.

Now I know that what I blog is supposed to be "fresh" and "in the moment". So let me confess, I started writing this about two weeks ago. I saved it, and put it aside. But again today, my internet in the office "NO tabaja!" Once again I've had to pack it up and head to the parsonage, and that just to check email and download documents that my denomination dutifully requires me to file annually. And that, my friends led me to pulling out this piece of bloggerity.

Back to the younger set looking for church on the web. Out here, on the edge of the timber, I wonder who is searching for a connection with the Divine, Methodist version or otherwise, through the World Wide Web? And after they've found it, what do they think of us once the walk through the doors to discover that they quite likely, on that particular week are the youngest in the room?

Will they want to worship when I'm also reduced to using DIGITALLY recorded music for our worship through the winter because our accompanist has gone south for the winter?

So tell me, if you're out there, what are you looking for from a church? What will keep you coming back, well, at least once or twice every quarter? How can the church be the church for you?