Service of Healing

            There have been some people in the congregation who have expressed their desire for prayers
healing and wholeness.  I suggested to them that we might start offering regularly a Service of Healing with the laying on of hands. 

            This service, while it may be new to some at Stewart Avenue, has been a Lutheran tradition for many years.  Each pastoral care book that I have ever seen has contained a brief order for healing and the laying on of hands. 

Here is a brief summary of the Order for Healing as contained in the Pastoral Care book of the Lutheran Church. 

            The Brief Order for Healing may be used in a variety of circumstances in the church’s ministry of care. Those who sense the need for God’s healing in any aspect of their lives may receive the gifts of prayer and of the laying on of hands, which may be accompanied by anointing with oil. These signs, first given in baptism, tell us again that
we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked forever with the cross of Christ, who is health and salvation for the whole world.

            In its ministry of healing, the church does not replace the gifts of God that come through the scientific community, nor does it promise a cure. Rather, the church offers and celebrates gifts such as these: God’s presence with strength and comfort in time of suffering, God’s promise of wholeness and peace, and God’s love embodied in the community of faith.

            At the next church council meeting, I will request that we schedule a Service of Healing on a regular basis.  Until then if you wish to come for the laying on of hands and the anointing of oil for healing and wholeness, please don’t hesitate to call Pastor Pat or drop by the office for a chat. 

Tuesday February 17, 2009
From 7:00 - 7:45 P.M.