Abstract
This chapter looks at the wide range of healing services within the Episcopal Church, from services of healing that occur once per year to charismatic healing teams that offer healing prayer several times each week. These healing services offer participants beauty and a sensorial experience of readings, music, touch, and the scent of holy oil or incense. Healing services often include special hymns, chants, or songs. Perhaps most important, healing services offer physical touch to participants, through the laying on of hands. This touch varies from a light touch to a close embrace during healing prayer. This prayer and anointing may follow a brief formula or may be a long, spontaneous prayer that lasts several minutes. Episcopalians distinguish between healing and curing. They see “curing” as end of disease or illness and “healing” as an experience of transformation, peace, or improved relationships with other people or God. In Episcopalian theology, the goal of healing is a return to “wholeness”.
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