Dr Michael Gormley and Rev. David Brown           

About 15 people participated, including three priests, one vicar's wife, three doctors and the rest professional healers.  The first part of the workshop considered the question: "What differentiates the laying-on of hands in a Christian setting from Therapeutic Touch or Spiritual Healing with a non-denominational healer?"
  Most participants in this workshop felt that healing comes from God - in whatever context he may be understood - via the healer who has a special gift of charism.
  Healing is not the same thing as curing.  This understanding may be a very important contribution to conventional medical care.
  More than one Christian healer spoke of difficulties they had had with the authorities in the Church of England in getting backing for their healing ministry, whereas another had been very supported by her bishop.  One healer in a hospice was barred by a priest from seeing a Catholic patient because he was thought to be doing the work of the devil. One Jewish healer had started a healing ministry from her Synagogue.
  Many Christians are put off by the term 'Spiritual Healing' as they often interpret it as spiritualistic.    The language used by healers may cause apparent contradictions.  These were resolved by a Buddhist view of wholeness and oneness.
  The second part of the workshop was spent discussing the differences between distant healing and prayer and seemed less animated than the first part in which women had been more active participants.  Participants agreed that prayer had many aspects to it but in short petitionary prayer was different from distant healing.
 

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1992 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099 www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com
 
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