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Who we are and what we believe
as members of the Order of St. Luke Physician
From time to time we receive e-mails and calls asking us what we
believe as the Order of St. Luke. In order to answer that question
we need to begin by stating that the Order of St. Luke is an ecumenical
Order of people from many different Christian denominations and backgrounds
who come together because of our common concern that the healing ministry
of the Gospel finds its rightful place alongside the proclamation
of the Gospel in all churches. Although it is our goal to work with
and within the different churches we are not governed by the views
or the proclamations that are made by those churches and/or denominations.
We neither support the views of, nor do we adhere to the doctrine
of, nor are we affiliated with any particular denomination although
we owe much to all of the denominations that are represented in our
Order. We are a ministry that reaches out with Christ's healing love
and presence to all who seek him and come to him to be made whole
in body, mind, and spirit.
As an ecumenical ministry although we hold to the basic doctrines
of the Christian faith as defined in the creedal statements of the
universal church, due to our different traditions and backgrounds
we understand and interpret those doctrines as defined by the traditions
to which we belong. Our theological perspective with regards to our
interpretation of the Scriptures will also be influenced by our denominational
understanding of the Scriptures but be that as it may we are one in
our belief that Jesus heals today just as he did when he walked upon
this earth and that it is still his desire that we respond in obedience
to heal sick and be ministers of Christian healing. Therefore it is
the healing ministry of Jesus that is our common bond within the Order
of St. Luke and not so much that we hold to a common understanding
of the Faith.
As an independent ministry made up of many different Christian traditions
with the goal to help the church embrace the healing ministry we do
expect those who minister in the name of the Order to hold to these
basic doctrines of the Faith as they understand those doctrines. We
expect those who minister in our name to:
Believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God and have the final
authority when
it comes to the matters of Faith
Believe that God is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Believe our knowledge of the Father comes through our personal relationship
with Jesus, the Son, and that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the
Life and that we accept Jesus as our Lord, Savior, King, Light, Leader
and Law
Believe that as Christians we live our lives in the power of the Holy
Spirit so
that our lives reflect the truth of the Gospel and show forth the
light of the Lord that we serve.
As a leader in the ministry of healing within the Order of St. Luke
it is essential
That we belong to, and are rooted in a Christian Faith Community
and we are
recognized by our congregation to be a person of faith that practices
the gifts that God has given through the impartation of the Holy Spirit.
That we believe that Jesus heals today and that it is His will that
the healing
ministry be a part of the life and offering of every Christian Community
That we believe that we are called into the healing ministry with
the mandate
and mission to bring Christ's healing to hurting people, to hurting
churches and to a hurting world.
Since we are called to work with and within many different Christian
Faith Traditions it is important that the leadership of the Order
work at being more effective in bringing the Christian healing ministry
to all Faith Communities. In order to accomplish that there are at
least four key standards that any Christian ecumenical organization
needs to work at fostering within the organization.
1. We need to value and learn from the other Christian traditions
with whom we work. This involves honoring the person and their denomination
no matter whether we might agree with them or not, and we need to
come to understand more fully that what binds us together is not that
we all think alike but that we accept the Lordship of Jesus in our
lives and that we are committed to offering the healing ministry of
Jesus to all persons based on their need and their desire to be touched
by Christ's love.
2. We need to work at maintaining and being allowed to maintain our
own integrity in the faith and we need to learn to accept and celebrate
the integrity of others who are working with us. That is to allow
people the freedom to be who they are and to believe the truths of
the Gospel in the way that they have come to see and understand those
truths. We are all in a process of growth in Christ which means that
each of our Faith journeys are different and one is not better than
another nor is one farther along than another they are just different.
3. We need to recognize that God has given the Order of St. Luke
through the many Christian traditions that make up the membership
of the Order all the resources needed to do the ministry that he has
called us to do and those resources reside in the people that God
has drawn into the organization. We have to learn to recognize and
accept those resources and to be faithful stewards of what God has
given to us.
4. We need to work at understanding what it means to be an ecumenical
ministry. What it means to live and work with diversity and to be
open to accept and learn from that diversity. None of us or do any
of our churches have the whole answer. We have to work at understanding
the ecumenical diversity of our organization at all levels and learn
to serve and work within that diversity to forward the mandate that
our Lord has entrusted to us. Above all we need to focus ourselves
on our objective as an Order.
"It is the objective of the Order of St. Luke the Physician to
bring about, among the Christian denominations, clergy, doctors, and
other medical personnel, and lay people, an increased understanding
of spiritual healing and wholeness as an essential part of the teaching
and practice of Jesus Christ as set forth in the New Testament, and
to encourage believing Christians to understand that all believers
may have an active part in Jesus healing ministry."
The objective of the Order has much to say about helping people within
different churches to understand that they are called to be a part
of the healing ministry of Jesus and that their church is to become
a place of healing and wholeness. As an Order that embraces diversity
let us be unified in focusing our attention on helping to further
those objectives. We have a valuable gift for the church and the Church
needs what we have to offer therefore we need to do everything within
our power as a Christian ministry to share that gift with all who
need it.
April '08 Sharing Magazine:
"Easter, Our Assurance of God's Promise to Heal"
By the time that you will be reading this issue of Sharing, Christians
will have celebrated the festival of Easter which is the holiest day
in the Christian year and should be at the centre of the Christian
life. I would go so far as to say that Easter is the commemoration
of the event that proves to us that God not only has the power to
raise the dead, but also the power to heal the sick. I say this because
if Easter is our assurance that God has given us the victory over
all things, including death, then it follows that God has most definitely
given us the victory over sickness and disease. Easter is the evidence
of God's promise that there is no battle, no spiritual war, no force
of evil and no sickness that can defeat us. It is the solid foundation
of the Resurrection faith firmly planted at the center of our lives
that gives us the spiritual resources we need to face the problems
that come to all of us through sickness, death, and all difficult
circumstances. God's answer to all of life's hurts and disappointments
is: "Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again."
It is Easter that makes us what we are, it is Easter that motivates
what we do, and it is Easter that determines what we believe and how
we should live out that belief and this is especially true when it
comes to the healing ministry.
The disciples saw Jesus nailed to the cross, but after the Easter
event they also saw him alive raising the dead and healing the sick
all in the name of the resurrected Jesus. Their knowledge of who Jesus
was and what God had done in and through the cross wasn't second hand;
it was something they knew was true from their own experience. Accepting
and believing in the truth of Easter is essential to accepting and
believing in the truth that God heals and that it is God's will to
heal. Christians sometimes have difficulty in talking about their
faith or in believing that it is God's will to heal because they have
not allowed the reality of the resurrection to mold and shape their
lives, faith and beliefs. They do not approach the sicknesses and
difficulties of their lives and of the lives of others with the expectation
that our God who raised Jesus from the dead is a God who can and wants
to heal us. As a Christian I can boldly affirm that the Resurrection
of Jesus is true and because of that everything in life finds its'
meaning in the light of that truth. It is in the light of the truth
of the resurrection that we have the assurance that because God wills
health and wholeness for all of humanity, healing, asked for with
the expectation that God will heal, will always be the result of our
prayers for healing. Easter is truly our assurance of God's promise
to heal.
There will be times that we will find ourselves walking a difficult
path as did Jesus and his disciples. But when our faith is rooted
in the truth of Easter we know that Christ will always walk with us
especially when we pass along the pathways of suffering, pain, sickness,
uncertainty, confusion and fear. During these times the message from
the Lord is always, "I am with you and I will walk with you through
these difficult times, I am the Lord that heals you, do not be afraid."
It is true therefore that all of us, at one time or another, will
walk the path that leads to a Good Friday experience. Then faced with
a cross there will follow the numbness, and the coldness of the tomb
as we struggle to make sense out of what has happened to us. For a
time all of life will seem to stop as we try to find a way out and
find new hope to carry us on. But with a faith built on the truth
that God has raised Jesus from the dead we can know without a doubt
that God will raise us up from whatever it is that is holding us down
so that we too will experience the victory of Easter in and through
that situation. It is from this foundation that we can, with all boldness,
witness to the truth of Easter and know without a doubt that because
of that truth healing and wholeness is always God's will for our lives.
It is the way with life that there will always be crosses along our
paths, but it is also the way with God that those crosses will not
have the last say over us. It is this truth that assures us that God
is with us and that God will always touch us with His healing love.
The resurrection of Jesus assures us that no matter what battle is
being fought, what cross is being borne, what force is trying to defeat
us, or what sickness has attacked us, as long as we remain in union
with Christ who died to set us free, victory will be ours. We must
not think, however that as Easter people there will be no more Lents,
or no more battles, or no more sicknesses because life is not like
that. But what we can be certain about is that because of Easter the
end result will always be a victory that will bring us wholeness and
healing in the name of Jesus. In the confidence of this Easter faith
I invite you to stand firm and walk in the light of that truth and
as you walk in the light of that truth expect God to heal you and
expect God to use you to bring His healing and wholeness to others.
"Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again."
In His healing love:
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