A Healing Service?
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2024 Blog #18
May 5, 2025
A Healing Service?
I remember when I first began using liturgies for healing during worship services. At that time, I was pastoring a congregation that was out of state. Using this liturgy seemed like a good idea as we had a number of congregants who were ill at the time. A number of people asked me if I had gotten this liturgy “from the Catholics.” These life-long members of the Reformed Church in America had never heard of this liturgy, much less participated in it. I had to explain, and demonstrate, that this liturgy had been a part of the standard liturgy for the Reformed Church since the 1970’s. It was not a new liturgy, but somehow it had remained unknown.
When my daughter was a student at Hope College, she had a heated argument with one of her professors who insisted that churches like the Reformed Church had no service of healing. This lack of a healing liturgy, the professor argued, was one way that the Pentecostal congregations were different from the mainline. Fortunately for my daughter, internet had been invented, and I was able to send her the link to the healing liturgy. She won the argument with her professor.
At the congregation out of state, we began to use the liturgy on a monthly basis and people from all walks of life and various states of well-being, came forward to be blessed by the elders and minister and receive the gift of oil on their foreheads.
We anointed people who were struggling with fear, mental illnesses, anxiety from hiding from domestic violence, and many physical illnesses. It became quite a popular addition to our worship. I continued this tradition in my next church in North Jersey. Again, it became quite popular but here was one woman who protested the service of healing. She claimed that it was boring but dozens of people each service disagreed and came up for a blessing.
Since Labor Day, we have begun this tradition at the Community Church of Glen Rock, NJ. With the exceptions of two people, it has been widely received. We did have a short debate as to whether or not we should hold this service on Resurrection Day, which landed on the third Sunday of the month. Some folks felt we should cancel for the day because it can take a long time. Others felt that we should do it and “show our best stuff” to those who don’t come every Sunday but would be attending worship to celebrate the resurrection. In the end, we agreed to do a healing part of worship but to shorten the liturgy. The number of participants overwhelmed me.
The congregation responded and I had never seen such a large group of people come forward for prayers and blessings. I wondered if the line would ever end. Several people, who were members but attended worship came forward. I wondered why those folks responded so overwhelming.
I spoke with two elders following this service as I wondered why this had been so popular. Their explanation was multi-faceted. They believed that in the post covid world that people are craving physical contact. They also believe that the many political and economic changes in our world are causing people to feel frightened and in need of healing from that uncertainty.
No matter what the reasons were, people responded. I suspect that we supplied a need that many people have but were not getting elsewhere. Our healing service will continue and I invite anyone who is reading this blog or hearing this podcast to come and participate in this service on the third Sunday of each month at the Community Reformed Church in Glen Rock, NJ.
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