By Régis Dericquebourg
Lecture at the 30th meeting of the SISR, in Saint Jacques de Compostelle, July, 27-31, 2009; workshop / Healing Church / Health Religions. Session 43.
I will mention here an on-going study on healing rooms. They held my attention because they belong to my field of study, religious therapy [i] and also because there was one created in 2007, some miles away from my place (Wattignies, North of France), offering ground for observation.
Even if the healing room movement claims a genealogy of 14 protestant preachers going back to 1870 to which their disciples attribute a particular healing charisma; it is relatively new. It would have been founded in 1999 in Spokane, Washington where John Lake had already established healing centres. The movement had only a relative success in spite of the regular increase in reception centres.
In 2009, the IAHR (International Association of The Healing Room) which groups them, counted 949 as follows: 382 in the US and 567 abroad of which 152 in Europe (with 3 in incoming countries Moldavia (2) Macedonia (1), and 7 in France. We cannot speak of a typically American phenomenon since in November 2010; there are 1159 of which 368 in the US and 791 abroad (we don’t know if the site[ii] is regularly updated).
The International Association for the Ministry of Healing (AIMG) related to the IARH but operating in Europe, depicts healing rooms in the following terms: “A place where trained people pray for the sick”. “We wish to bring forth salvation and healing through Jesus Christ.
We commit ourselves to keep an eye on and to pray for the healing of those who wish it”. Healing rooms privilege the image of Christ the Healer which is one of the images among others in the interpretation of his mission and in the awakening of the gift of healing (the formation). I found this description in the pioneer Bachelor’s dissertation that Laeticia Krummenacher, ethnology student at Neufchatel University dedicated to a healing room in Geneva[iii].
The goal of this student is to explain the place and meaning of healing for those resorting to the Ministry of healing. Laeticia Krumenacher doesn’t include healing rooms among the Healing Churches I have typified.
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