When we wish people a happy New Year, it often comes with the hope that it will be a healthy one. With the dawn of this new year comes a new opportunity to engage with the Church’s ministry of healing. For much of the Church’s history, prayer for healing accompanied by the laying on of hands and anointing has been reserved for those with serious illnesses or who are close to death. In the last forty years or so, this has changed, with a recognition that all of us are, in different ways, in need of God’s healing and, at certain times, particularly so.
From the Gospels, it’s clear that healing was an important part of Jesus’ ministry. He commissioned his disciples to lay hands on the sick, and in the Letter of James, the church is encouraged to anoint the sick with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5.14). The Church has therefore exercised a ministry of healing from its earliest days…
