Order of St. Luke the Physician Healing Mission

On March 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Knoxville Chapter of the Order of St. Luke the Physician will conduct a Healing Mission at Church of the Ascension, Knoxville.

The mission will be led by the Rev. John Rice, the rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Throughout his childhood, Rice lived on a family farm and attended a Methodist Church near Columbus, Ohio. He received a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Education degree from the University of Vermont. He worked for the university for six years as a dairy extension agent and as state director for the Vermont Farm Financial Management Program. He married his wife Debra, also an Episcopal priest, in 1971. They have a 17 year old son, Josh, who is a senior in high school.

After graduating from seminary in 1988, Rice began working in parish ministry as the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Newport, Vermont. While serving this parish, Rice’s mother became seriously ill with leukemia. Her illness confronted him with how little he knew and understood about Jesus’ ministry of healing. He began the adventure that continues to this day of learning, healing, and equipping others for healing ministry. Rice now describes his call to healing ministry as twofold: “to help individuals experience Jesus’ healing power in their lives through prayer and to help restore Jesus’ healing ministry in His church.”

In the spring of 2000, Rice’s vision for a Christian ecumenical healing center, the Centurion House in North Carolina, became a reality. The center seeks to offer healing prayers (by appointment) for people throughout the region and to equip God’s people for healing ministry through workshops and training missions. He is chaplain of the very active Mountain Chapter of the Order of St. Luke which he helped to form in the fall of 1998. He and three other Black Mountain pastors have just developed a model for a community healing service, that rotates from church to church each week.

In addition to Rice, there will be two more presenters at the Healing Mission. Lou Henniger of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, who has been in the midst of the healing ministry for many years will present a workshop entitled “Ministering, Jesus’ Way to Wholeness.” Her workshops and prayer ministries are numerous with special emphasis on inner healing.
Margaret Leslie of Dandridge, Tennessee will present a workshop on Healing Touch. This type of alternative healing uses hand-on and energy-based techniques to balance and align the human energy field. Body, mind and spirit are touched through this process.

A boxed lunch will be served at the Healing Mission. Please contact Louise Whitehead at 865-573-9145 to register for this special event.
The OSL (International Order of Saint Luke) is the outgrowth of the Fellowship of Saint Luke which was begun in 1932 by the late John Gayner Banks, S.T.D., priest of the Episcopal Church. It is composed of professional people in all phases of medical work, clergy in the ministry of Roman, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Churches and lay people from all walks of life. A common denominator is the conviction that the healing ministry of Christ belongs in the Church today.

The Order exists to:

• Promote the restoration of the Apostolic practice of healing as taught and demonstrated by Jesus Christ
  
• Promote the practice of holding Healing Services in every church
  
• Promote a sound pastoral and counseling ministry.
  
• Develop Chapters locally to promote Healing Missions, workshops and prayer groups in their areas
  
• Teach Christians how to pray for healing and conduct Healing Missions.
  
• Place healing literature in churches and hospitals

The emblem of the Order is a cross within a circle which together makes an acrostic. The motto is in Latin: JESU ESTO MIHI JESUS DUX LUX REX LEX. Roughly translated, this means, “O Jesus, be to me my Savior (Healer), my Leader, my Light, my King and my Law!”
There are three active chapters of the Order of St. Luke in the Diocese of East Tennessee.

The Chattanooga chapter meets on the first Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. at Grace Church. Contact: Grace Church at (423) 698-2433.

The Knoxville chapter meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Church of the Ascension, 800 Northshore Dr., Knoxville. Contact Louise Whitehead at 865-573-9145.

The Holston chapter meets every third Wednesday at St. Timothy’s, 2152 Hawthorne Street, Kingsport. A healing service is held at 7 p.m., the meeting at 7:45 p.m. Phone: (423) 247-3992.