SPIRITUAL HEALING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2682, 12 January 1924, Page 3

SPIRITUAL HEALING.

CONSIDERED BY CHURCH.

London, January 9.

The committee appointed by the Lambeth Conference to consider spiritual healing' has issued its report. The Archbishop of Canterbury,- in his introduction, says that the report only carries the authority of the members of the committee but that they are thought well qualified to handle a difficult subject. The. report lays down the following genera 1 principles:— (!) The chief work of the Church in regard to disease is to develop in all its members the right attitude of confidence, love, and understanding to-wards God, to bring those who care for the soul bi co-opera-tion with those who care for the body, and to insist on hygiene and plain living as part of the ordinance of God. (2) The churches must sanction methods of religious treatment of bodily disease, always giving full weight to the scientific discoveries of those who are investigating the inter-relation of spirit, mind and body. (3) It is not the function of the Church to apply its means of restoration, if no higher end is sought than the recovery of bodily health. The suck must- not look to the clergy men to do what, the physician and surgeon should do. FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. Whatever means the Church employs emphasis should be laid upon the primary purpose of deepening the fellowship with God, secured in Christ Jesus. For the purposes of healbig, prayer and sacrament should be used in conjunction. Before any sacramental rites are employed earnest united prayer should be offered on behalf of the sick person in church as well as by the patient and his friends at home. •Religious methods are specially appropriate where moral and intellectual difficulties and perplexities have contributed to the disorder. This preliminary treatment requires a real knowledge of moral theology and psychology; as it is desirable that clergymen should be adequately trained. Opportunity should also be given the patient to make a special confession of sins, and the priest shall absolve him, if he should humbly and heartily be desirous. FORMS OF TREATMENT.

Tlieu might follow treatment immediately directed to a complete restoration of the patient. This may take the form of unction, that is, the annointing with oil by the priest or the laying on* of hands either by the priest or by a lay person, or by both. These rites have Seriptual authority and are sacramental in the sense that they are a blessing .sought and received through the performance of outward visible actions. The motive with which they are used in the dedication of the bodily life of the patient to God’s will. The blessing’received will be either a restoration to health or grace to bear sickness patiently. The whole treatment may appropriately end with the patient’s reception into Holy Communion. Other methods of procedure are prayer at private gatherings of patients and friends, and sometimes the special gift of healing seems to be bestowed" on a particular person where there is little corporate action of the Church.

It is unnecessary and impracticable to license individual healers or officially to recognise healing societies.

Professor Clifford Allbutt and Six R. Jones state that they desire not to associate themselves with the recommendation for the use of unction.