Proposal Speech   - Church’s Ministry of Healing   Rev. John Scott  ( Dromore )             
                                                 Embargoed Until Delivery.

Your Grace  / Members of Synod;      ---    The Church’s Ministry of Healing is I’m sure members will 

agree ,one of ,if not the most vital support elements of our church. While it sits  autonomous of the church

it obviously has very close working ties with each Diocese.

     The overall strategy is to continue to promote selected national venues and develop and network the 

work  both north and south from these. – thereby  earthing the ministry firmly in each Diocese and through 

that in each parish.. I don’t think anyone would disagree that it is ,or should be , a part of every 

clergypersons  pastoral care of their parishioners to offer a healing ministry – and our organisation is 

there to support that  overall objective.

       The Ministry is very much at a crossroads just now with the appointment of a new warden for a five 

year term . Following advertisement in March the interview of applicants is at an advanced stage but no 

decision  on the appointment has yet been announced.

       The appointment committee  is  firmly of the opinion  that the new appointee must be resident in 

Dublin and as a first priority seek to regenerate a strong witness to the ministry at St. Michan’s which has 

dwindled in more recent times .  In contrast the Belfast centre is buoyant and expanding all the time – 

especially in terms of the professional counselling  ministry  and training of same.   The pressures of 

modern living are evident to us all and so the opportunity to live out our Christian witness in very practical 

terms through this ministry are at a premium.

  I strongly encourage this house to warmly endorse the work that is being carried out, on behalf of our 

church in this field by a small number of grossly underfunded faithful professionals  and volunteers.

It is indeed a most important and practical witness to the power of the gospel and imperative to the ongoing

outliving of faith in our church. I firmly believe that it is high time our church endorse it as a vital element 

of our church life and reinstate it as a seminal element in all diocesan and parish life and give it the 

encouragement and associated funding that it deserves.