The following is the description for the early Saturday morning workshop I and others from St. John’s, Tulare, will be presenting and ministering at the Episcopal San Joaquin annual convention this weekend (Oct 24-26).
9. Unction, Making Use of the Gifts of the Spirit, as a Team Ministry: Father Rob Eaton and Prayer Team Members from St. John’s, Tulare, CA
We will demonstrate, with workshop participants, how a 2 to 3 member team can provide a healing and prayer ministry, especially within a liturgical setting, such as a Holy Communion service. Unction, normally understood (see the Catechism in the BCP), is the anointing with oil, and/or the laying on of hands with prayer for the ministration to the sick. Providing a brief biblical and theological background on healing, laying on of hands, and which Gifts of the Spirit are most useful, and making use of authorized liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of Occasional Services, the curious, beginners, and advanced intercessors alike will gain first-hand insight on starting such a ministry or developing one already in existence in their congregations.
Especially because there will be personal ministry offered to workshop attendees (there will be time for maybe 7-9 individuals), I invite your prayers during this workshop. It begins at 8:15am Pacific time. For you Eastern time zone people, it means you don’t have to start praying (11:15) until you’ve had a couple of cups of coffee. For those of you praying in Hawaii, God bless you. The workshop will last 90 minutes.
Each time of personal ministry will last only 3 to 5 minutes (that’s one of the keys of liturgical setting prayer ministries). The first volunteer person to receive prayer will be right at the beginning. The next set of two volunteer persons will be around 9:15am (Pacific), but will include critique of the prayer ministry as it is going on, so about 8 or 9 minutes each. Then we will put into action two or three or our parish teams for anyone else who would like prayer (including inviting workshop attendees being stand-ins with the teams). This will begin just after 9:30am (Pacific). Each team should be able to pray for a couple of people.
The block of time in between the first person prayed over (which will immediately model the form) and the ministry time at the end is the teaching time.
Thank you for your prayers. We expect to see people healed, and we hope for the establishment of these prayer ministries in the worship services from wherever the attendees come from.
RGE+
I really appreciated the workshop on unction and prayer at convention. I think it is a valuable resource and hope that you will follow up on the idea of bringing the workshop to other churches in the Diocese.
Aghaveagh,
May the Lord accept that hope as your intercession.
I’m delighted you were able to find the workshop helpful.
As I shared with Beryl S. recently, a transcription of the workshop is being worked on. When that is done and edited a bit, it might be helpful for folks who want to get a feel for the content, and then be encouraged to invite us to come to their congregation.
We won’t invite ourselves; your prayers might thus be that we receive the invitation.
Thank you, and you’re welcome.