To all participants in the Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation
To the members of the IAMS-Interest Group Healing.

Facilitator: Godelieve Prové, Holland
godelieve.prove@mmzbijlmer.fol.nl

LINKS
Healing Study Group Home Page
Preparatory paper to CWME Conference - by Jacques Matthey
Christoffer Grundmann: Inviting the Spirit to fight the spirits? - Pneumatological challenges for missions in healing and exorcism - PDF-format

Amsterdam, June16, 2004.

Dear Friends,
A sincere welcome to all of you - twenty one in number - who signed up for the Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation. It is encouraging to welcome such a high number of participants: it shows the interest in the topic, its importance for mission today.  It is also a challenge, for me and for all of us: we will have to come extremely well prepared, and be ready to get right away into the crux of the debate, or into the heart of the matter, in order to tap on all the experiences, scholarship, and wisdom available in the group.

To allow participation of twenty one people in a session of  90 minutes will not always be easy...

Most of you will have read the newsletter of January 2, 2004 as a first reflection in preparation for this Mission Study Group at the IAMS 2004 conference. For those who did not read it, for others who would like to go back to it,  I have asked the secretariat to keep it on the website as outdated yet useful information.

I can add now that Rev. Jacques Matthey’s Preparatory Paper No 4 Statement on mission as  reconciliation for the WCC Conference on World Mission and Evangelism in Athens, Greece, 9-16 May 2005, will be made available to us and soon be tabled on the web-site. As intended Prof.Dr.Chr.H.Grundmann wrote the paper “Inviting or fighting the Spirits? Pneumatological aspects of healing, exorcism and reconciliation. The abstract is tabled on the conference web-site, and the full text will follow soon.  Both these papers offer important background for our study group. You are invited to read them thoroughly before the conference,  so that you come with pertinent comments or questions, preferably written out on paper.

However our exploration will not be restricted to these two contributions. You are invited to come with your own discoveries, insights or burning issues, and to submit your suggestions to me via e-mail.  It can not be stressed enough that the mission study groups are opportunities for interaction. I hope to receive at least two/three short texts (not more than a couple of paragraphs - 100 words) that could further stimulate our  reflection and discussions.

 Confronted with the human yearning for health, healing and wholeness as a universal phenomenon encountered in every culture, the mission study group wants to see more clearly what the Christian mission of healing and reconciliation has to offer:  What belongs essentially to a mission of healing and reconciliation in the light of the Gospel? This seemingly simple question needs careful discernment and the courage to not shy away from the difficulties we will encounter

-         when we aim to do justice to the suffering individual as well as to the wider community;
-         when we become caught in categories, such as victims and perpetrators, good and evil...
-         when we tend to either proclaim the Word, or rather live it witnessing by our lives.

The integrity of mission in the light of the Gospel urges us to face these questions. I am looking forward to the conference, trusting in the renewing fire of the Spirit. I am also looking forward to hearing from you soon, and to meeting you in Malaysia. With kind regards,

Godelieve Prové
facilitator Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation
convenor IAMS-Interest group Healing