Study peace

Several weeks ago I wrote briefly about being commissioned to serve in my parish as a healing minister.


I have not shared how or why I came to the place where I would be open to accepting such a title, but think it would be helpful for others to "hear" the story of my journey.

The story starts with a clergy convocation in Pendleton, OR while I was serving as Pastor.

The purpose of the convocation was focused upon training for Healthy Boundaries in ministry. More pointedly, the training addressed a case within the Conference Order of Elders which had brought great pain to many. Clergy as well as lay members experienced profound injury. 

The continuing Education was conducted by Faith and Trust Institute. The remainder of the day included a listening session and a closing worship service which included anointing and prayer as well as the consecration of Holy Communion.

The day of listening touched a place deep within me. While I personally had not been a "victim" of the perpetrator which triggered the need for our gathering, I did realize a wounded place within myself that was in need of similar balm. I left the place knowing in a new way, through my own experience, that pastoral ministry must be about bringing healing and comfort just as much as it offers a challenge and charge to transform the world. Healing is the source of transformation, the salvation which all the world so desperately needs.

In the period since that one powerfully charged experience I began a quest for information about healing ministries. At first the quest was very spotty. But as time passed I became more intrigued and insistent to make a connection with an existing organization outside the church. In spite of the strong urging from the Holy Spirit to learn about and develop my own healing ministry, I also found more obstacles, or perhaps I should just call them resting places between each exploration.

As I searched for information I was reminded of a long before whispered response from the Holy Spirit; Study peace.
                                                                 SHALOM 

                                                                                RECONCILIATION
                                                PEACE
 
                                                               WHOLENESS 

HOLINESS AND WELL-BEING 

                  TRANSFORMATION 

                                                                          REJUVENATION

When our interim priest arrived, he and I formed an immediate affinity and mutual concern to explore the topic of the healing ministry of the Church with one eye  focused upon the opportunity to develop a lay pastoral team of healing ministers.


Serving as a healing  minister allows me the profound opportunity to be a source of peace, very much in the tradition of St. Francis.

Each week, as I take my place at the Lady Altar, ready with the blessed oil, I say a prayer of thanks for the congregation which Christ has drawn me to become attached to in ministry. I am blessed through their acceptance of many of my gifts. But none quite so much as when I am able to be in prayer with a brother or sister in Christ.

Study peace.... be at peace...bring peace

True Source

I’ve been in a conversation with someone through Facebook about dreams and revelations recently. Her question, why don’t we just credit the good message, to a good deceased ancestor? Why do we say it is God that gave the good message?

That’s a fair question, and one that deserves a good story.

There is a woman who has a son.

As a child each year he would give her a gift, some expression of love and appreciation for her, because she was his mother. As time passed the son matured, and moved out on his own. He lives far away from his mother, so it is harder for him to deliver the gift to his mother in person, but his love remains and the tradition continues.

Now the son goes to his computer and orders flowers, and gives instructions to have them delivered to his mother.

The florist receives the instructions from the son and prepares the bouquet. Now the florist also needs to prepare many bouquets for many other mothers to be delivered on time. The florist employs the services of a delivery company.

When the delivery is made to the mother, she is surprised and delighted by the beauty of the bouquet and the thoughtfulness of someone. She tells the delivery person “thank you.” Has she thanked the person who gave her the gift? No, she has only thanked a servant, a hired hand.

She brings the bouquet into her home and looks for a card that will tell her who has sent the bouquet.

The name of the florist is listed on the envelope,

but the card inside contains a message from her son.

If she calls the florist to say thanks, just as she did to the delivery person, the true gift giver still has not been properly acknowledged.

To properly acknowledge the gift she must call or write her son, to express her thanks, and appreciation for the gift.  When she tells others about what she has received, she will tell her friends that her son sent the gift, not that the florist gave her the flowers.

For her to thank only the florist and the deliverer is to fail to acknowledge the initial giver of the gift.

This principle applies to spiritual matters as well as material things.

Speaking only for myself, I can explain why I would acknowledge a dream or revelation as something as coming from God, rather than my good aunt Barb, or some other deceased relative.

It boils down to what I profess to believe.

The Nicene Creed is the summation of the Faith within the Anglican Communion. The first Statement is

“WE believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.” 

The question is to whom shall we properly attribute the source of revelations, and dreams. Scripture tells us that dreams and revelations are one of the ways in which God has spoken through the ages to humanity.

For a Christian, it boils down to acknowledging the true source of all good things. Some refer to this as “giving glory to God”, or “glorifying God”

Consider perhaps how many have understood a very famous “revelation” in the United States spoke of by Martin Luther King, just before his assassination. “I have been to the mountaintop….Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” In his speech he also referred to his more famous speech delivered several years later, “I Have a Dream.”

Martin Luther King spoke of his conviction of God’s desire for all humanity and repeated a single phrase, “I have a dream,” with many amplifications. Now, as I see it, within the Christian tradition of the U.S. I believe we hear his message, as a form of revelation that reaffirms a scriptural tradition which is found in the book of Acts, even more than just a dream rooted in “the American Dream”.  

So the question remains for you to answer.

When you have significant dreams, who you think deserves the praise?

The challenge of everyday faithful living in the Christian community is to keep our focus on our purpose, our calling in God.  Do we remember to thank the true source?

This hymn sums it up pretty well for me.

To God with gladness sing, your Rock and Savior bless;

into his temple bring your songs of thankfulness!

O God of might, to you we sing,

enthroned as King on heaven’s height!

He cradles in his hand the heights and depths of earth;

he made the sea and land, he brought the world to birth!

O God Most High, we are your sheep;

on us you keep your shepherds eye!

Your heavenly Father praise, acclaim his only Son,

your voice in homage raise to him who makes all one!

O Dove of Peace, on us descend

that strife may end and joy increase!

James Quinn (Hymnal 1982 #399)