Healing Services out and about…..

Photo L to R

Billy McAlpine, St Donard’s Parish, Belfast; Rev Pat Mollan, Church’s Ministry of Healing; Canon Paul Hoey, Rector St Canice’s Parish Eglinton.

Sunday 17 October 2021

At the invitation of Canon Paul Hoey, I travelled to Eglinton, Co Londonderry,  to take part in a Healing Service on Sunday 17 October, 2021, at St Canice’s Parish Church, Eglinton, accompanied by Billy McAlpine from St Donard’s Parish Belfast.  It was raining as I left Downpatrick to collect Billy in Belfast, but as we travelled the weather improved.  The Glenshane Pass welcomed us with splashes of sunshine illuminating the hills, encouraging us past extensive roadworks, but that was nothing to the warm welcome we received at St Canice’s.  It was so lovely to be back ‘on the road’ again travelling throughout the province to tell of the work of CMH and join in healing prayer with a congregation.  Billy had come with me to tell some of his journey through bereavement accompanied by the Christian Family.  After praying for the Bishop and the Rector, but remaining socially distanced, the congregation came forward to form a large circle round the chancel.  As we approached each person  they said their name and were prayed for individually by name and received a blessing.  So many people wanted to come forward that we had to repeat the process!

What a wonderful way to mark St Luke’s-tide!

Visit of the Primate and Archbishop of Armagh

Visit of Bishop Andrew Foster, Derry and Raphoe 17th February 2022

Thursday Prayer  

Each Thursday the CMH Board prays between 7.00 and 8.00 am for the Ministry of Healing, and we invite you to join us…….

Church’s Ministry of Healing The Mount

Hour of Prayer for Our Ministry – Thursday 19 May 2022

                                                                                         Moving

 The church in Jerusalem was disrupted by a crisis.  The religious authorities were no more comfortable with the apostles than they had been with Jesus himself and they tried to do away with them as they had the Lord himself.  Amidst disruption on the ground the Holy Spirit was moving in his people.  He set them on the move in turn.

Over the past six months our weekly prayers have centred around the themes: “Pilgrimage”, “Wilderness”, and “Call and Response”; we find each in Acts 8:26-40.  The passage has by tradition earned the title “Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch”.  The encounter on the desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza is full of interest.  I can recall many sermons on the subject which ranged across the themes of: “International Evangelical Mission”, “Baptism”, and “The Importance of Scriptural Study”.  All those issues are present and each deserves attention but I am suggesting that they are subsidiary.

The Ethiopian enters the scene only some way into the action, and he departs without further trace before its end. The principal thrust of the text concerns the work and unction of the Holy Spirit.  The mission of the church is the supreme issue; encounters along the way, (however significant in their place), serve to inform our understanding of God’s plan.

An angel told Philip to move in the opposite direction to his current path.  He had been successful at Samaria which lies north of Jerusalem, but now he was to turn south towards Gaza.  This diversion took him into a desert place, “And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot”” (v.29).  The details are well known, Philip witnesses about Jesus as he had been called to do and the man responds in the way that disciple making was meant to happen.  Each did as Jesus had said they should and joy was the result.

Philip was called to make a journey; he responded with just enough information to direct him into an otherwise uninviting place.  The kingdom of God was advanced and worship was offered to God.  The new convert carried fresh faith abroad to his African homeland; “But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.” (v.40).

We might reflect upon Philip’s readiness to hear and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit as he left the site of recent success to go on an uncomfortable journey.  Only when he was in the desert did Philip discover why he had been sent there.  Wherever he found himself he continued the work of gospel witness which is the basis of the church’s commission at large.

As part of that witnessing body The Church’s Ministry of Healing The Mount is to hold its Annual General Meeting today  We pray for God’s blessing on this opportunity and for his guidance over that which should flow from it.

David (M)