Lafayette Ave. Presbyterian Church

Ordinarily, on the third Sunday of the month, we have a moment in our celebration called, “Prayer for wholeness,” which is a special time of prayer that focus on healing.

During this time people do one or more of the following:

• Pray silently for their own healing and the healing of others, as they remain in their pew.
• Come forward for anointing with oil.
• Ask for the pastor and/or elders of the church to lay hands on them and pray for specific needs.
• Come forward for special prayer, without engaging the pastor or elders.

Of course, we would never talk about what we have prayed about with anybody else, unless you shared plans to hurt yourself or somebody else.

There is nothing “magical” about this time, but we DO believe that God is the source of healing.  While we do acknowledge that sometimes God gives healing in a physical sense, we also do not guarantee that this will happen.   Nonetheless, many of the people who have participated in this service have left feeling liberated, whole, and/or forgiven.  We can’t promise that God will act in any particular way, but we do know that God is good.

We read about these practices a number of places in the Bible, James 5:13-15James 5:13-15
English: World English Bible - WEB
13 Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. ¹⁴ Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, ¹⁵ and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.