The Healing Prayer Conference weekend attracted nearly 200 participants who came to learn about different kinds of healing prayer, healing of memories, generational healing and more. Participants heard from Judith MacNutt and the Rev. Canon Dr. Sandra Kerner who are leaders at Christian Healing Ministry based in Florida.

MacNutt talked about healing prayers and gave examples of how those prayers worked in her own life, and also called for participants to break into small groups led by diocesan-wide prayer leaders to pray for healing. She talked about how praying for the healing of others doesn’t have to be a formal or perfect prayer, because she said it will never be you that heals, it is Jesus that heals. “Too many of us think ‘who are we to pray for someone,’ but I do believe God is looking for people just like you who he can entrust his power to.”

Kerner talked about the essentials of prayer ministries and outlined the profile of a healing prayer minister: Christian-filled with the Holy Spirit, lives a life consistent with Christian witness, humble and teachable, demonstrates a servant heart, exhibits growth in the fruits of the Spirit, and keeps confidentiality. She also encouraged praying in teams of two or three for safety, mutual encouragement and support.

MacNutt also talked about generational healing prayer focusing on prayers for the blessing of gifts in family systems, for brokenness in family systems, for healing of secrets, to end the effects of cultural trauma and violence.  Handouts from Christian Healing Ministry explained generational healing  like this: “Scripture teaches that we often suffer for the sins and iniquities of our forebears (Jeremiah 16:10-13; Jeremiah 32:18; Nehemiah 9:34-36.) The Ten Commandments reveal that families can suffer for their sins ‘to the third and fourth generation, Exodus 20:5. Sadly, the iniquities are usually repeated in one of those generations and the pattern renews itself. Thus, few families are exempt from generational wounding.    

The presentation on generational healing also included giving time and instruction for folks to fill out a family tree where trauma patterns existed such as divorce, suicide, murder, depression, bitterness, gambling, massacres, slavery, oppression and prejudice among others. And also patterns of blessing such as music, art, writing, humor, cooking etc. The family tree exercise led up to a generational healing Eucharist “to ask Jesus to send His light into all the sinful and hurting places of our family lines so that we may know the truth and be set free. It gives us time to recognize and confess many sins of our ancestors to acknowledge any ways that we have repeated these sins in our own lives and to ask Him to restore us to new life and health. Hurts from the past leave their marks on our lives, but Jesus’ triumph at the cross supersedes time and place.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The Rt. Rev. Michael Smith and the Canon Carrie Headington brought the conference to the diocese as a way to revive healing prayer ministry in diocesan churches in hopes that clergy and laity will consider offering healing services at their parish, join chapters of the Order of St. Luke’s and enroll in healing prayer courses at Stanton Institute.  For those interested you may check out the organization’s website: https://osltoday.org/ or email them at:  . To get information about the Christian Healing Ministry class offered by the Stanton Institute contact Erica Lasenyik at:  .

Healing services in the diocese:

Saint Michael and All Angels in Dallas offers a healing service at 12:30 p.m., during the first Wednesday of each month

Church of the Incarnation in Dallas offers a healing service at Noon on Wednesdays.