Truth and Error of Spiritual Healing

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 740, 13 August 1929, Page 7

Truth and Error of Spiritual Healing

} CANON JAMES’S VIEWS . n l ‘ ECCLESIASTICAL MAGIC I ”—..-.7. (from Our Own. L'orrrvpoltdcnl) . ¥ “‘ELLINGTON. Today. . "In view of the fact that an at- - tempt is being made under the auspices of the missioner who con~ ducted spiritual healing services in the Dominion in 1923 to revive healing missions I feel constrained. to utter a warning against repe—tition of some of the melancholy features which marked the mission of that year." i This was the statement of (Jun w IPercival James. vicar of St. Paul's--Il‘ro-Cathedral, formerly of Auckland. in the course of a sermon on Suudu. ‘evcuiug on “The Truth and Error vi‘ . Spiritual Healing." I Since the 1923 miSsion the Chmtlt {had received some valuable guidaxn-v. Esaid Canon James. On the representations ot' the last Lambeth Cour-ir-ence the late Archbishop of Canterbury had appointed a committee to guide the Church to a right undo:standing ot‘ the difficult and supremely important question of spiritual mini:3 trations to the sick. For three )‘eur< ‘ithe committee which consisted :t!‘ lbishops and clergy of various shunt \- : of opinion, and of medical expciw’. lwas engaged in collecting and sitting .ievidence of alleged spiritual healing». :l It was ultimately announced tluu :‘the committee had so far found no ' evidence of any cases of henlin: '.which could not be paralleled by sinu- ' lar cases wrought by psycho-therapy 1] without religion. and by instances of [spontaneous healing which often my ‘lcurred even in the gravest cases in 'lmedical practice. The report dcplurv :l .l the fact that the term “spiritual ho xi.lingf' was ot'ten inaccurately coutiiv‘ll l: to one narrow significance. \\'het‘ea>‘ it. ‘ishould properly include all healin: ;; factors, not only devotional and sat r In ,1 mental. but also material and pltysiwl. lr.'hich were used in conscious dependI once upon God. “'ith solemn earth t.{ness the com'mittee warned the {Church that the “unintelligent and. ;indiscriminate appeal to faith m.i\' .bring some immediate relief. but Is likely in the end to do more harm ‘ than good.“ 1 The members of the committee 1 declare themselves averse from the if licensing of “spirltual healers." and they refused countenance to “services of healing to which crowds of sick folk-are invited to i come and receive spiritual heal- , ing.” No sick person should be - t led to look to the clergyman to dc. l the ’duty of the physician and so:- _ geon, they said. 1 “SAME AND WEIGHTY REPORT" E W'elcorne relief had been brought i by this “sane and weighty report" to many thoughtful men in the Church ; who had listened with consternation , to an extravagant language concerning , spiritual healing, which savourml - strongly of ecclesiastical magic. said ' the preacher, who added that super—- : stition was often an aftermath ofi i wars.

“Some considerable time before In“. mission began in Auckland 1 intgrvened to beg that the credit of our Church should not be so gravely dam. aged as it had been in Australia. South Africa and elsewhere by the public announcements of hundreds ht cases of alleged spiritual healing." said Canon James. “I suggested a. committee which might include min};ters of religion, but which should certainly include competent medical ropresentatives, to be charged with the duty of examining the circumstances and ascertaining the facts in pal'lii"‘~ lar cases, so that any cure might '.u properly certified before it was 'i!|< nounced to the public. I regret that this suggestion was not adopted." Canon James appealed for a right understanding of the difierence hptween faith healing or spiritual heal—ing and mental or psychical healinr. The latter was a. legitimate and wellrecognised method increasingly :m----ployed by the skilled physician. The other kind was connected by thosu who practised it. not with science but with religion. It could not be runflned to the Christian religion for tim same features had been observed at the healing centres and shrines r-i' other religions both ancient and modern.

“First demonstrate your facts," was the reply of the preacher and those of his concurrence to advocates of the. spiritual method. Until they hull done this it was idle to discuss their theories.

“We believe that Christ, the Guml Physician], the healer of body and soul. works as truly through the [flux sician, surgeon and nurse in their spheres as through the minister (if religion in his,” said Canon James. “W'e believe that the Holy Spirir'a gifts of healing are not to be found '.u the magical endowments of one or hm selected individuals. but rather in Hm patience, the self-sacrificing devotion and the skill of those who bring Um resources of science to the relief at human suffering."