Healing and Deliverance - Ad Clerum 2.1
Ministry to the sick and troubled is an essential part of the Church's ministry, and a particular privilege of those who are ordained, but to be shared, with due sensitivity, with lay people who have received some appropriate training and preparation. This ministry is one of prayer and sacrament, word and care.
The Bishop, by his consecration, is called to be principal shepherd in a diocese, which includes a call to 'hold up the weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken' (Prayer Book Consecration Service). This is a ministry he shares with his priests. It is symbolised in the blessing of oil for anointing the sick during Holy Week. The sacramental anointing of the sick is administered by a priest, using the oil blessed by the bishop, or if necessary, by the priest. Under certain circumstances, the priest may delegate the ministry of anointing to other ordained or authorized ministers. (Canon B 37)
Attention is drawn to the forms of prayer and guidlines found in the Common Worship Pastoral Services, in the section called Wholeness and Healing. These, (together with the form in Common Worship itself, called Thanksgiving for the Healing Ministry of the Church), suggest that laity may be invited to share in prayer ministry and laying on of hands. The Diocesan Group for the Ministry of Healing runs a basic training course for such prayer ministry, and is also a general advisory resource. It also strongly recommends and endorses the code of conduct found in A Time to Heal Handbook (House of Bishops 2000), and in its own Forward in Healing (Grove Booklet).
Ministries of deliverance should also be seen as part of the wider healing and pastoral ministry, and to help discern what sort of ministry of needed, and to avoid the problems of misdiagnosis and inappropriate ministry the advice of a bishop's adviser should be sought. In particular, no major exorcism should be attempted without such consultation. The name of the adviser should be obtained by the minister from the bishop's office. The approach to the bishop's adviser should be made by the local minister who is in pastoral contact, not by the person seeking help.
[Reissued January 2009]
