Anglican Parish of Romsey & Lancefield
"Connecting With God in Our Community."
Order Of St Luke
The International Order of St. Luke the Physician
The International Order of St. Luke the Physician is an ecumenical organization dedicated to the Christian healing ministry. Members meet in local chapters to study Scripture, specifically the biblical stories of the healing miracles, as well as additional books on Christian healing. Members also engage in healing prayer, often with the laying-on of hands.
The Order was founded in 1932 by the late John Gayner Banks and his wife, Ethel Tulloch Banks, and was incorporated in the State of California in 1953. Our purpose has been to restore the ministry of healing to its proper place in the Christian Church. Initially, the focus of OSL was to promote healing services in every church. We continue that commitment to healing within the church by seeking to create more time in our worship for healing services. While it is still an important part of our ministry, it is not our sole mission. Today our focus also includes extending our healing ministry beyond the church and into the greater community.
As part of our deliverance ministry, we call on the healing power of Jesus to cast out those forces that invade the psyche and compel behavior that is not the will of the person or of God. (We recognize this ministry is to be extended in accord with the disciplines and policies of each denomination.) We recognize the need for ministry that will empower those who are not able in their own strength to cope with the disease in their lives. OSL holds that healing begins with our introduction to God as Abba, so that we might grow as His child. It continues when the love, joy, and peace of God is imparted as the Holy Spirit and brings a risen Lord to dwell within us.
It is OSL’s mission to take the healing touch of Jesus beyond the walls of the church building into hospitals, nursing homes, and into the greater community—anywhere people are in need. Through our work, we seek to create time that is not rushed, so that we may act as God’s presence, intentionally pouring out His love as prayer for the sick. We minister to those who are bound in guilt, so that they might confess their sins before God and be set free through the absolution that God has provided for us. We tend to those who will take the time, through counsel and prayer, to begin healing the painful memories of the past.
For more information visit the Order of St Luke website:http://www.orderofstluke.org/content/international-order-st-luke-physician