By Matters India Reporter
Chiang Mai, Oct 10, 2022: An international consultation began on October 10 in Thailand’s Chiang Mai city to seek a Christian response to health and healing ministry in Asia.
Around 60 people, including medical professionals, pastoral care providers, and leaders of Churches, ecumenical councils, and health-related organizations as well as institutions from across Asia, are attending the October 10-12 consultation organized by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA).
The consultation on the campus of Payap University in Chiang Mai is addressing the theme “Faith, Health and Healing: Christian Response in Contemporary Asia.” At the end, it is expected to formulate and adopt an ecumenical declaration on health, healing, and the right to life.
Opening the consultation, CCA general secretary Reverend Mathews George Chunakara said, “The right to health extends beyond certain assumptions or notions that include a wide range of factors that can help to lead a healthy life.”
The role of Churches and the ecumenical movement in Asia, he added, is to be creative agents of the health and healing ministry, “which is much more significant in today’s Asian situations. Vast populations in developing as well as developed countries in Asia require substantial care for their bodies and minds today.”
The CCA general secretary bemoaned “a marked decline” in the ministry of health and healing services provided by Asian churches.
“The growing commercialization in health care sectors distorts the original purpose of providing the health care services to the poor and needy. This trend has affected the sustainability of mission of the Churches in health and healing ministry in several Asian countries. What we need to think about is how to initiate innovative programs for motivating the churches in Asia to equip their hospitals to take the health and healing mission much more seriously,” he said.
Dr Chunakara also mentioned the theology of health, healing, and wholeness of life, which “reminds us of the value of spirituality that sustains our option for the poor, opens us to participate in alleviating the sufferings of all those who are around us, and calls for carrying out the task of accompanying the process.”
Reverend Chunakara also stressed the need for Churches and Church-related health care institutions to develop new and innovative approaches that will make a concerted effort to accompany churches in Asia that are actively engaged in support of Christian health ministries.
He reminded the participants of Jesus’ compassionate response, which healed broken bodies and minds and broken community ties, and that Jesus calls on churches to attend to the bodies, minds, and community ties of all God’s children.
The fact that Church in Asia is a minority community should be an excuse for it to be inactive or inefficient in carrying out its health ministry. “The healing ministry is about proclamation—the good news of health, wholeness, and salvation. It affirms Jesus Christ as the great healer and acknowledges a mandate given to all churches and every Christian to preach, teach, and heal,” Reverend Chunakara said.
Reverend T. Arul Dhas, head of the chaplaincy team at the Christian Medical College Vellore, India, in his theological reflection, said, “One way of transcending sufferings is accepting sufferings. The process of sharing and listening promotes healing, allowing us to move from suffering to healed and healthy relationships.”
Reverend also mentioned that pain could be a part of the healing process. With many years of experience in pastoral care and counseling in healthcare institutions and communities, he mentioned the Holy Eucharist and hospital services as channels that the Church has used as an instrument of healing, even for those who are not Christian. He pointed out that Jesus’ pain at the Last Supper could be visualized as “Jesus transforming the pain into a healed experience” as he broke bread and shared wine with the apostles.
Doctor Alexander K. Ginting of the Persekutuan Gereja-gereja Indonesia (PGI) Health Foundation in Indonesia, explained how Church-related institutions collaborated with the Indonesian government to provide services to people. In advance of the possibility of emerging pandemics, he urged churches to prepare for biological and natural disasters.
Doctor Sunita Abraham of the Christian Medical Association of India discussed the benefits and drawbacks of commercializing the Christian health ministry. She cited a study conducted in India that highlighted one of the consequences of the commercialization of health care institutions in India as compromising mission goals by Christian mission hospitals, through the prioritization of financial liabilities over social responsibility.
Healing Ministry is a beautiful service to life. Health Ministers are yet to do justice to their enormous potential.