Healing Services

For more information contact Paul or Doreen

HEALING SERVICES AT ST FRANCIS’ CHURCH ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ (John 10:10) There is a wonderful line in St Mark’s Gospel which speaks volumes about the early Church’s attitude to healing: ‘and he could work no miracles there, though he healed a few sick people by laying hands them’ (Mark6:5). In Jesus’ time, healing was not considered to be miraculous and the practice of praying for healing accompanied by the laying on of hands was quite common – as were the healings that accompanied it, but over the years and centuries this has ceased to be an everyday part of the life of Christians and has become far less used. This is a great shame because it is clear from the Gospels that Jesus wanted His followers to take the same uncompromising stand against sickness, be it of body, mind or spirit, that He did. When He commissioned the twelve to preach (Luke 9:1-2) and when He sent out the seventy-two (Luke 10:1-9) He also instructed them to heal the sick and to drive out evil spirits. A healing service is simply a focus through which God’s love can break into a person’s life and transform it, a means by which we can experience the peace of body, mind and spirit which only His love can bring. It is Christianity in action – the church ministering to the church, ordinary people ministering God’s love to each other through prayer. At a healing service we can bring all our physical emotional or spiritual needs (or those of someone we love) to Jesus in the certainty that He will hear us and help us. We held our first Healing Service here at St Francis’ in February 1989 and initially held them monthly.  More recently we have held them quarterly, on the First Friday of February, May, August and November. They last one hour and are always followed by refreshments for those who can stay. During the service we will sing hymns, listen to scripture readings and a teaching and pray together for our needs. As part of the service people are invited, if they wish, to go to one of the praying teams for prayer for themselves or for someone they love. Anything that is shared is held in confidence and the teams will not offer advice or counselling – they will simply bring the needs of that person to God in prayer. The response to these services has been such that we are convinced that they are meeting a desire, often unrecognised, for a place where people are free to come and allow the Lord to touch them and heal them at the deepest point of their need. Our Healing Services are held on the First Friday of each February, May, August and November at 7.30pm.

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