“FAITH, HEALING AND MISSION”: REFLECTIONS ON A CONSULTATIVE PROCESS

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Participants at this consultation have come across as people who take their faith seriously; they entered the current process with genuine desire to contribute and also to learn from what I feel inclined to label a consultative process on faith, healing and The first indication of this was the palpable sincerity and keen sense of interest with which we prayed and participated in the Bible studies. I did not get any impression that these were seen as mere appendices or aberrations to the enterprise. The consultation has itself been process in mission because of the constant reference to the activity of the Holy Spirit in mission. Indeed, John V. Taylor opens his award-winning The Go-Between God: The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission with the profound observation that: The chief actor in the historic mission of the Christian church is the Holy Spirit. He is the director of the whole enterprise. The mission consists of the things that he is doing in the world. In special way it consists of the light that he is focussing upon Jesus Christ. (1) Part of the uniqueness of our meeting has lain in the fact that it was never lost on this group that God was doing something in the world, and that his Holy Spirit was the chief agent in the enterprise. For the rest of the consultative process, we have to keep on discussing the nature of what God has been about and how to get ourselves and those we represent co-opted into the enterprise. Discussions of faith, health and mission have been approached from various faith perspectives without any undermining of the need for critical reflection. This is something I believe has contributed to the uniqueness of the present process. The net result of reflecting from experience is that the issues get disseminated, and this may help bring the otherwise remote World Council of Churches (WCC) few more steps closer to the ordinary members of the churches they serve. Restoration to normalcy The logical question that arises out of Taylor's description of Christian mission is, What is God doing in the world? God is healing people. In fact, he is healing the nations by restoring broken persons to health and wholeness. From the stories that we have heard from various contexts, God is everywhere restoring people to health so that, as one participant put it, those so restored can lead lives. Again, what life does one describe as being normal? Our response to this question has been very empathetic. There was unanimous realization that many who seek God's intervention in illness remain uncured, even after prayer. It takes faith to realize that people can still have normal lives, that is, they can be healed, even though they may still be living with disabilities after God's intervention. We have heard stories about blind healers in Africa, and barren African prophetesses through whose ministry many continue to receive fruits of the womb. In such situations, the Akan of Ghana would say, Aboa onni dua, Onyame na opra no ha (It is God who drives the flies off the body of the tail-less animal). The Akans also say Onyame na owow basin fufu ma no (It is God who pounds fufu for the person who has lost the use of his or her arms). The principle underlying these two proverbs are the same: people may continue to live with disabilities, whatever they may be, but God has his own way of helping such people to have holistic lifestyles. I understand us to be saying that to have the grace to cope with disabilities itself constitutes miracle that generates belief in the God of mission. God is so powerful that he restores some to complete health, and helps others to do what only those who have the full complement of their human faculties can do. Not only that, God's intervention in lives has been perceived as multidimensional. The laying on of hands and anointing with oil works but these must not be absolutized and divorced from other therapeutic methods, including those that use medicine and psychotherapy. …