Newsletter January 2004

To the members of the IAMS-Interest Group Healing.

To all who are interested in joining the Mission Study Group 2. Healing and Reconciliation at the IAMS 2004 Conference in Malaysia.

Amsterdam, January 2, 2004.

Dear Friends,

Dagmar Plum and myself were reflecting on how to proceed with the Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation at the IAMS 2004 Conference, when we got news from Rev.Jacques Matthey on their progress in CWME, Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. In preparation for the coming world mission conference, CWME had two consultations of dialogue with Pentecostals and Charismatics on faith, health and healing questions, one in Ghana, one in Chili.

The IAMS Executive Committee opted for a somewhat similar approach (Mission Studies Vol. XIX – 1,37,2002, p.5 ): the Conference “will address the theme by asking women and men from various regions (Asia, Latin America, Africa and the secularized West) to address the theme out of their particular contexts.” They would ask “two persons from each region, one who represents a more Evangelical/Pentecostal perspective  and one who represents a more Conciliar/Roman Catholic perspective.”

This approach had already struck us as particularly significant for the Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation; we saw this confirmed through Jacques Matthey’s unpublished paper. All those exploring the commitment and practice of healing and reconciliation within the Christian Churches today, have become very conscious of essential differences due to the local context as well as to the Church perspective. These differences are challenging, but can at the same time be experienced - by some more, by others less - as confusing, or provocative, if not shocking or incomprehensible.

We will therefore build the Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation on the concrete contexts and perspectives of the participants lives and research in mission, taking also into consideration that we have participated in two days of an exposure programme with an explicit Islamic focus. In introducing ourselves and our personal involvement/exploration into healing and reconciliation, we will give explicit attention to
    -         the region and local context in which we live and work, 
    -         our Church affiliation(s)/religious background(s).

Given the variety of these personal contexts it will be pertinent to also hear from one another how we were affected by the Malaysian exposure experience of the preceding days.

With this general information we will then begin our exploration of the theme of the conference: “The integrity of mission in the light of the Gospel”. The first integrity mentioned by Andrew Kirk and Stephen Bevans in their reflection paper seems to be the most crucial for our study group. What exactly has the Christian mission of healing to offer confronted as we are with the human yearning for health, healing and wholeness as a universal phenomenon, encountered in every culture. What is the difference? What is the “more”?  What belongs essentially to a mission of healing in the light of the Gospel?

 Dagmar Plum made some  tentative beginnings of what such an exploration might consider:

“The founder of the Medical Mission Sisters, Dr.Anna Dengel, wrote in 1945 (Mission For Samaritans, Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee) that the damage and injustice done to people in the so-called Third World by the colonial powers were for her one important reason for founding the Society of MMS. Starting her mission among women in a Muslim country she strongly opposed the idea of using medical work for making converts and restricted herself to giving witness of Christ’s healing charism. The latter she considered the core issue of her mission, leaving all other concerns to God who in due time will perfect the work of human efforts.

HEALING may become the most needed dimension of MISSION in the 21st  century. Within its first four years this century has left no doubt about the ever increasing vulnerability and instability of our world torn by war and violence in so many places, and of so many kinds, that we hardly are able to keep track.

People flocked to Jesus because of his healing powers. Healing belongs to the most tangible signs of the presence and transcendence of God in our world: it opens a way out of the circle of terror and destruction, sin and evil. Suffering and death belonged to the life of Jesus and we draw strength from this reality, also from his faithfulness to the call to unconditionally love God and humankind. Death was not the end of his story, and we believe it will not be the end of our own story.

Usually healing is a process that must be initiated. It may take (a long) time. But we also come across testimonies of a sudden unexpected event that radiates beyond a person’s individual experience. If healing pertains to greater needs than those of an individual, namely to families, nations, continents, the relationship with the environment, the cosmos, etc. we have to be prepared for patient and at times painful processes of transformation.”

The CWME dialogues point to similar concerns, to points of some convergence, and also to  questions that remained unanswered. From Jacques Matthey’s unpublished introductory paper for the Chili dialogue:

“While most participants in the recent consultations would agree that “all healing comes from God” , some understand healing experience in other religions as coming from God, while others consider such experiences as resulting from the influence of evil spirits or human manipulations.

There is an urgent need to take clear distance from any manipulative practices, medical or spiritual. A criterion to judge a healing action is not its extraordinary or “supernatural’ character, but the question whether the particular practice is liberating or not.

No consensus has been reached on the question of the role of spirits and spiritual forces on human lives, sickness, illness, cure and healing.

There is no compulsory correlation between faith and healing, sickness and sin; or prayer and healing.”

Important as the healing of every human being might be, Christian mission in the light of the Gospel is calling us beyond the individual and the Christian communities, to the wider inter-religious and global community of all people. We will have to face a second question of integrity: What are the appropriate forms to express this mission of healing in this wider context?  Quoting again Jacques Matthey:

     “We all believe the healing ministry of the Church encompasses both prayer for individuals for healing as well as the prophetic ministry in confronting unjust social and political structures which are often causes of individual suffering.” (from one group report  Ghana)

And Dagmar Plum offers some more beginnings for the exploration of the same and similar issues:

“The growing contempt for and violence against the poor, the greed of those who try to monopolize the resources of the earth and to manipulate life systems have become a context as important as religious heritage and culture.

Would the world around us look different if we had the courage to live up to our call as people who long to be embedded in the story of Jesus? What are our alternatives to the resurgence of God as warlord, especially in the monotheistic religions? By which initiatives could we promote healing of the relationships between God and humankind, among the peoples which inhabit the planet, and of their ways of treating the environment?

In the majority of churches all over the world mission is carried out by local people who  in many places (in cities in particular) live in multicultural/multireligious  settings. The extent and speed of movements and migrations have led to a constant change of life-contexts. This development challenges the churches to think and act creatively. Many  churches have already become a kind of refuge on people’s global wanderings. In a “globalized” world there may be much greater demands on the churches in the future.

Increasing ecumenical co-operation may be a reassuring sign of the integrity of mission people have been waiting for and  a ”must” regarding the struggle of people for a dignified life.

Increasing inter-religious co-operation could be a stronger sign still of the integrity of mission and moreover deepen our own understanding/exploration of the mystery of God.”

We cannot foresee which specific themes will capture the participants’ interests at the Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation. It is however encouraging to know for sure that Prof.Dr.Chr.H.Grundmann intends to come forth with a paper on “Inviting the Spirit to fight the spirits?”, that within CWME a paper is being prepared on “Pastoral Guidelines on healing ministries in local congregations and health services – key points for orientation” and on “the necessity of criteria” to discern  whether healing services/ministries can pretend to be acting in the name of God’s Spirit [Zimmerling, Peter: Die charismatischen Bewegungen. Theologie, Spiritualitaet, Anstoesse zum Gespraech. Goettingen, Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 2001, (435 S.) pp 54-156]. We are sure that more papers will follow.

 With regard to all papers for the Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation, similar proceedings as for the conference in general will apply:

Getting the abstracts in time will allow proper planning for the flow of the Mission Study Group, and possible adjustment of the basic outline as conceived and shared in this communication. The oral presentations will be short, and strictly monitored in order to guarantee full use of the unique opportunity for interaction and debate. During the last session, some time will be spent on evaluation, and more importantly on the desirability/feasibility of the continued existence of the IAMS-Interest Group Healing. 

The Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation wants to offer a forum for further exploration into Healing, at a moment in history where the global need for healing and reconciliation is acutely felt, and the Christian Churches, in all their diversity, are called to respond, to live and make tangible Christ’s promise of Life. We want to continue the quest begun in Pretoria (Mission Studies XVII, No.1/2, 33/34,2000 p.120-124). We also want our work to become a significant step in the world-wide process leading to the 2005 World Mission Conference organised by CWME.

Any remarks or suggestions to make the Mission Study Group Healing and Reconciliation more significant will be welcome and can be addressed to me as mentioned above. Yours sincerely,

Godelieve Prové, convenor
IAMS-Interest Group Healing