![]() our new musician. We haven't been using this social media space recently but here is an offering as we proceed into spring 2024. A spring theme is new life which is also an apt way of describing what we aspire to as Church. If Jesus Christ is anything, He is the one who came that we may have abundant life. Life that reflects the love and the power of God in meaningful ways. Yesterday our Sunday worship readings from Isaiah 35 and Mark 7 offered "Healing Words" as we thought about the lame walking, blind seeing, lame walking, deaf hearing, dumb speaking and possessed delivered. We reinforced the scripture readings by reminding ourselves that Jesus heals today. Testimony was given about modern day healings: grand mal epilepsy, impacted wisdom teeth, leg deformities, deafness, human and dog blindness, child A.L.L. cancer healed and cancer pain quelled. We even talked of blessed handkerchiefs assisting healing! And then we prayed for one another as we had need. The image below reminds of another way new life expresses in church. We have recently engaged with a number of people from Myanmar (Burma). We have been blessed to have in worship a family of five who have recently arrived from that country. They have little to no English so Mai Lucy has been translating and we have all been blessed to embrace these newcomers who are pictured on the left side of the photo. Yesterday we were further blessed to have Dominick as our musician as he played the keyboard fr the first time at te Whare. He is a year 13, musicially talented Bishop Viard College student. This week his College band is one of the top ten College bands competing in Auckland. Dominick also brings a Philippino flavour to our growing international community: Maori, Pasifika, European, Myanmar, Philippine, Indonesian and Malaysian. I'm reminded of a Sunday reading we had in Church recently, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
St Paul's Letter to the Galatians 3:28. Terry Alve - Priest
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The Christian Church from its inception has encouraged healing prayer with laying on hands and anointing with oil as a way of ministering to people who have sickness. Over the centuries this ministry has ebbed and flowed for various reasons. The Anglican Church worldwide encourages the practice with safeguards designed to protect those being prayed for and to ensure that the ministry is offered safely and professionally. Normally this means that ordained clergy and licensed lay people oversee the ministry. The Church takes as its mandate to offer healing prayer ministry from the Bible, especially the New Testament.
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” I recommend that you read the New Testament Gospel of St. Luke who was a physician/doctor as well as being a follower of Jesus and one who prayed for the sick. THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE Porirua Anglicans are available to pray for anyone who is sick on Sundays |
AuthorMembers of the Porirua Anglican Communities Archives
January 2025
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