Throughout my life in ministry, the sacrament of unction and prayers for healing has been a very important part of parish ministry. At St. David's and St. Thomas the Apostle in Cambridge, there was a very small mid-week gathering for anointing that grew up early in my ministry. It was very small and often struggled just to keep going. At times, I would begin to feel disheartened, but someone suddenly came to Parish Council, having just heard of this service, and asked why it was not being carried on at the regular Sunday worship. We soon began to include anointing in the Sunday liturgy at least once each month. I was amazed to find that almost all the congregation came forward to be anointed.
Upon arriving at St. George's of Forest Hill, I began to work on a Wednesday morning, which meant that my first responsibility was to celebrate the Eucharist for a very small gathering that come out to Eucharist in the Chapel of the Transfiguration there. That first Wednesday, it was me and two of the faithful. One was a retired executive administrative assistant for the Waterloo Region District School Board, and Directress of the Altar Guild, and the other a Nigerian woman named Bisi who lived in the neighbourhood and called the Wednesday Eucharist her worshipping community. When the service was ended, Bisi came to me. She was a woman who always came to worship dressed in her traditional Nigerian dress, and I came to realize over the years, she had a faith larger than life. We came to call he Bishop Bisi, because like most Nigerians that I have known in life, she was almost always late, and yet we always held up the service until she was there, because "you can't begin without the Bishop."
On that very first day of my incumbency, Bisi said to me, "I have a sense that you have the gift of healing, and this parish really needs healing. Do you suppose that we could change this service into a healing service. The very next Wednesday, the ministry of healing began. Twelve years later we had a regular congregation of 25 on Wednesday morning., and at times that 25 would go up as high as 35. Bisi had long since returned to her Lord, but the ministry of healing that she so wanted to see happening in her congregation continued and thrived.
Again, in that place, when we would offer anointing at a side chapel on a Sunday morning on occasion, it was overwhelming to see how many people would come forward to be anointed, and how very important the sacrament of unction was to the life of that community.A year ago, the congregation that gathered for healing in the chapel of the Transfiguration had a special aumbry for the oils commissioned and installed in the chapel as a gift from that entire community back to the parish in thanksgiving for this ministry
It was interesting just how right Bisi was about the needs of that parish though. The church itself was recovering from a difficult chapter with a former incumbent, and at the same time, several parishioners were moving into health challenges, either for themselves or for parents, and this ministry of healing was incredibly important for them. At each of these weekly gatherings, we would pray for the needs for healing among those who had gathered, we would pray for the healing needs of those whom we loved. We would pray for the healing of our parish, and we would pray for those who worked for healing in the world around us, for Doctors and nurses, care-givers and other professions that supported our healthcare system.
Speaking personally, I vividly remember when my mom suffered the major stroke that took away her ability to speak, how that little congregation on Wednesday morning gathered around me and around my family, and prayed for her. Again, when my dad suffered the stroke that ended up with both mom and dad moving to the Village of Winston Park, not only did we lean on God's healing power, but that small congregation that was committed to the work of healing, supported and upheld my parents and myself. As a community, they ministered healing, even as we gathered to call for God's healing for the situations for which we were concerned.
Now as I transition into the ministry of St. George's Cathedral, I am overjoyed to find that there is a regular Healing Eucharist that forms a part of the regular pattern of weekly worship in this place also. I am happy that I am able to celebrate at that worship whenever I like, but I am far happier to find that Archdeacon Michael Caswell is happy to continue on to lead this worship. It is certainly not an accident that I have set the celebration of the new relationship of ministry that we are entering into here at St. George's for the Feast of St. Luke the Physician and Evangelist. The ministry of anointing and prayers for healing has grown to be an incredibly important part of priestly ministry for me. I cannot imagine not taking time in each week to consider the need for healing, and praying for God to take action in those needs.
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