Thinkalou d b y John Coutts
Praying for healing
F
OR family reasons, many friends have been praying for me and my wife. I am truly grateful. Their concern certainly helps to reduce my stress. But does it do anything more? Does prayer for the sick provide anything better than a spiritual morale boost? I think it does, even if I don’t know how.
SEEKING HEALING THROUGH SAINTS St Albans Abbey, which stands 20 miles north of London, commemorates and celebrates the first Christian martyr of Britain, put to death for his faith in Roman times. The abbey was my school chapel and on Friday mornings I would sit in the huge nave and wonder at the great pillars with their faded medieval paintings. I would sometimes wander round the abbey and gaze at the battered remains of Alban’s shrine, which attracted pilgrims throughout the Middle Ages. They came in needy faith, often seeking healing, until the shrine was smashed as a monument of superstition at the Reformation in the 16th century. The abbey authorities rebuilt the shrine some years ago and have now also restored the smaller shrine of St Amphibalus, the priest Alban allegedly helped to escape when Roman soldiers came to seize him. The restoration took place during the Covid-19 pandemic and, to mark the occasion, the restorers added an extra detail: one of the carved figures on the reconstructed monument is wearing a face mask. HEALING IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA Sadly, it seems that the cult of St Amphibalus was a fundraising fraud.
His alleged remains were conveniently ‘rediscovered’ in the 12th century and the name Amphibalus is thought to be a misreading of a Latin word meaning ‘cloak’. So pious pilgrims of that time entrusted their prayers and donations to this fictitious ‘St Cloak’. Many then would have attributed their diseases to attacks by evil spirits. Some people today still do. When cholera broke out in Zambia in 2017 the churches’ response was divided. The government minister for religious affairs and national guidance called for nationwide prayer and fasting. Some churches backed the call, while others pointed out that cholera was due to unhealthy living conditions and lack of clean water and not a demonic issue. Pointing to sanitary arrangements prescribed for the ancient Israelites in Deuteronomy 23:9–14, the theologian Jonathan Kangwa discusses some of the implications of these events for Christians worldwide. Zambian Christians, he notes, were called on to ‘pray with wisdom, so that we can eliminate this problem quickly’. PRAYING WITH WISDOM... BUT HOW? Testing the medical effects of prayer can be tricky. Can it be right to pray for patients in Ward A while ignoring those in Ward B? An article in The Indian Journal of Psychiatry summarises numerous studies of prayer and reports uncertainty about the results. The medical profession is divided on this but Dr Pamela Wartian Smith, the founder of the Fellowship in Anti-Ageing, Regenerative and Functional Medicine, has said: ‘Prayer is one of the greatest
stress reduction techniques. Prayer helps you let go and let God – whatever religion you may be.’ LOVING THOUGHTS For me, prayer is loving thought, directed to and through God. And so, in praying for sick people and those who care for them, we link up with a circuit of supernatural love. As we pray in love, we ask that skilled medical care may be provided in love as well. We are not, I believe, asking God to cast out demons, because every advance in the scientific understanding of disease is a new reading in God’s book of nature. PILGRIMS IN PRAYER The souls who sought the help of the dodgy St Amphibalus were really asking for direct action by God. Nowadays most of us – in the West at least – seek God’s help in healing illness through the skill and service of medical professionals. But what are we asking for? Restoration to good health? Strength to face our inevitable ends? ‘Wise prayer’ on behalf of John Coutts the schoolboy would be very different from wise prayer for me today. Do we still hope for miracles in the strict sense of the term – acts of God, transcending ordinary events? Please share your thoughts, because I’m still searching.
JOHN SOLDIERS AT STIRLING Salvationist 2 April 2022
15
