Rather than being a moral wowser the Church should be a place of healing.
We should give love to all those we encounter.
This love will heal the wounds of hatred and fear.
It will be a healing balm to the broken-hearted.
And we can turn to God without fear or anxiety.
Knowing that He is the source of Love.
And the Father of us all.
Michael, you mention moral "wowser"?
ReplyDeleteHey, I even found it is in my World Book Dictionary--meaning a petty, bigoted and puritanical person. Wow! And I certainly agree with your comment, especially the need for the church to be a hospital for sick spirits, not just a museum for self-righteous "saints".
It was with this in mind that I began my ministry when I was 23--ordained at www.mta.ca in 1953--and I established the Family Life Foundation in 1973-- www.flfcanada.com . On the way to ordination, besides the regular Biblical and theological studies, I focused on the philosophy of religion, social psychology etc., especially psychology of religion. For more bio info, go to www.linsayking.ca
BTW, I am sure you are aware of the book, Psychology, Religion and Healing (1950), by the late great minister, psychologist--the Rev. Leslie D. Weatherhead, City Temple, London, England. He was a strong advocate of the need for all churches to have what he first called CHURCH PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINICS. Today, I like to think of as them as HOLISTIC HEALTH CENTRES (HHCs) which help us bring together and help integrate body, mind & spirit--the essential components of which make us fully human. Of course, wisdom dictates that HHCs must include qualified therapists from all the great socially recognized and accepted healing arts. This includes:
1. SOMATOLOGISTS--qualified physicians, specialists, nurses and other complementary healers, including naturopaths, chiropractors and all who sincerely want to be part of a holistic team.
2. PSYCHOLOGISTS--psychotherapists, psychiatrists and students of the very complex mind and the brain system that all animal and human beings have.
3. PNEUMATOLOGISTS--all clergy and laity who humbly believe that we can be truly human and humane beings--in other words, we are spiritual beings who happen to have psyches and somas--minds and bodies. Pneumatology. In 1964--without knowing then that the word was already in the larger dictionaries, I concocted it and I used it as the general name of a series of lectures I started and gave--for the rest of my ministry.
It was later, I found that the word was first coined by the Hebrew and Greek scholar, Phillip Melancthon, at the time of the Reformation. He assisted Martin Luther translate the Bible into German. This helped create a common national form of the language.
Let me know if you find any research that proves otherwise, but--using my knowledge of NT Greek, in 1964-65 I think I was the first to to coin and to use the terms pneumatherapist and pneumatherapy (the Ericksonian kind of self-hypnosis--the kind that is without the magic and mambo-jumbo.) I use them when I speak about the need for all who would like to be healers. To heal self and others, the first thing we need to do is to willingly allow the Holy Spirit to first fill us, heal us and thus give us the gift of wisdom and power to truly help self and others.
SCIENCE SAYS: WILLPOWER IS FOR REAL
One final thought: Check out the NY Times review of the book, WILLPOWER--Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/books/review/willpower-by-roy-f-baumeister-and-john-tierney-book-review.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Thank you Lindsay for your comment.
DeleteThe HHCs sound excellent.
And would undoubtedly help our broken world.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMORE ON HHHCs--Holistic Health Healing Centre's
Delete(Note that I have added another 'H')
NEW THINGS THAT ARE NOW HAPPENING IN THE GREATER TORONTO AREA (THE GTA)
Michael:
FROM 1961 TO 1993--that is, for 32 years--I served two churches, in sequence, of the United Church of Canada (UCC). One was in Scarborough (1961-1966) and the other was in Willowdale (1966-1993), which were then part of the GTA. For some time now, both areas have been within Toronto. Since 1988, the Kings have lived on Kings Inn Trail, a short street in Markham (Thornhill), just north of Toronto and part of the GTA.
BTW, Jean and I--both 23 at the time, started our ministry in the summer of 1953 (near the time our present Queen Elizabeth was crowned). Our first assignment?
The assignment letter (which I summarize here) was sent to me from the United Church Conference HQ, St. John's, NL--Newfoundland. It was hand-delivered to me while I was waitin to ordained at the Maritime Conference, then in session at Mount Allison University, affiliated with the UCC www.mta.ca Sackville, NB. The letter was delivered by the Rt. Rev, Clarence M. Nicholson--then the new moderator of the UCC, who had just returned to his Conference--back from a visit to the NL, Conference. At the same time he was also the principal of the seminary from which I had just graduated.
With his permission--"I am as curious as you are", he interjected--in his presence, I opened the letter he gave me.
The letter read, "You are hereby assigned to be the first resident minister of Happy Valley--a squatters' town not far from the Goose-bay Military Airbase, Goosebay, Labrador (On Lake Mellville). We don't know how best to get there from where you are. We leave it to you to find out. Let us know how things go ... "
"Happy Valley--six miles from the base--I later found out, was a squatters' town of about 115 families....Get the details about how you get to Goosebay. On July 18, 1953--after an excellent flight from Moncton, NB., we landed at 10:00 AM at the base. It was a warm, sunny and a beautiful summer day.
As we had be told, "There, you will be met by the current padre, the Rev and Flt. Phil Ross ... He is also a UCC minister.
The padre told me, "BTW, the Rev. Lester Burry, the missionary-in-charge of the Labrador mission, actually lives at North West River. He will be away on vacation for the next month and will call on you, later.
Meanwhile, over an interesting wild-goose lunch at his house, the padre informed Jean and me:
"Okay, after lunch it will be my pleasure to take both of you on a six-mile journey through the dark green and tall spindly-spruce to your new pastoral charge... " He smiled broadly and added, Let's get in the car ... On the way, the padre filled us in on what to expect and the details about sad state of affairs that had developed.
The church was just a tar-papered shack. So was the "house" already occupied by an American Pentecostal minister who had lost the confidence of the vast majority of families and had no official status as a minister if the UCC or. Only 15 (Pentecostal families) out of the 115 were now involved supporting his "ministry".
My wife and I agreed: The first thing we need to do is to visit every family in the community, get to know them, and then invite them to attend a public meeting in "church" and make plans for the future ....
[ To be continued ...]
I forgot to press notify.
ReplyDeleteThank you Lindsay for the history.
ReplyDeleteI am keen to hear more.