Although Jesus commanded his followers to go out and preach the kingdom and heal the sick (Luke 9:2), the Rev. Nigel Mumford wonders if the Episcopal Church has only gotten it half-right.
“The church has done a great job preaching the kingdom, but not a very good job of healing the sick. That’s 50 percent of what the Lord told us to do,” said Mumford, 57, director of healing ministries at Christ the King Spiritual Life Center in Greenwich, New York. “Why is it that we’re not doing it?”
Umm, under what rock has Nigel been living? TEC does a LOUSY job at “preaching the kingdom” but has been involved with healing ministry (Order of St. Luke the Physician?) for several decades.
Nikolaus (#1),
I get your point, but please don’t knock Nigel Mumford+, who may have simply been using diplomatic language. I can vouch for the amazing depth and power of his healing ministry in the Diocese of Albany; lots of people have been miraculously healed and he’s thoroughly orthodox.
OTOH, I guess ENS had to show its even-handedness by also featuring a decidedly unorthodox healing ministry in Stillwater, MN that focuses on “redirecting” the body’s own energies, and other New Age nonsense.
As for OSL, I’m very glad for this historic ministry, and its 26-session training program. Here in Richmond, the local OSL chapter, long led by the legendary Fr. Rufus Womble, has dwindled significantly since he died a few years ago.
Personally, I find Fr. Mumford’s question a haunting and challenging one, Why aren’t we majoring in healing ministry, as Jesus did? Could it be that we’ve stop believing that God is still in the healing business?
Cordially,
David Handy+
I don’t think anybody needs to defend OSL, even with the various strange teachings that appear now and then and then disappear.
And Nigel is quite right, the six words are “How may I pray for you?”
That’s what we’ve been doing at St.John’s, Tulare, too.
To speak to Niklaus’ concern, though, the mainlines tend to absorb the obviousnesses of the renewal movements, and then suck out the on-the-edge ministry they first tout. That is exactly exhibited in the rest of this article.
I believe Nigel is only saying what we have been saying, “Wake up, church, to the real power of God.”
Compounding the problem of what should be the clarity of Nigel’s quotes is the melding together in this article of everything else that simply should not be in the teaching of healing.
It is not about touching people and minimally expecting some peace.
It is not about avoiding the expectation of immediate healing (strangely translated as “cure” by one expert in the story). It is in fact looking for the gifts of healing, and the detailed revelation of what is wrong, and the gifts of knowledge and wisdom for what needs to be done — all part of the expectation of Jesus himself, that in the touch is exactly the healing. If it doesn’t happen, deal with it. But don’t demean the promise of God with “well, I’m sure something good happened.”
It is extremely unfortunate this whole article wasn’t about Nigel Mumford and the ministry of healing and intercession which is so
prevalent in the Diocese of Albany.
If anyone wants help in setting up that kind of healing ministry in their congregation, call Nigel, or if you are on the other side of the USA, call me.