Healing is a way of Life - Practical Steps to Healing:

Talks by Canon Jim Glennon edited by Zillah Williams.

Reviewed by Lesley Hicks.

Over those years many thousands have drawn on the principles of holistic healing - of mind, body and spirit - he taught from the Bible as part of that service week by week. They were able to do so also via the written word. Deaconess Gwyneth Hall (1914-2001) in 1963 began to produce written notes from Canon Glennon’s messages and distribute them. The demand grew and in 1984, in their heyday, 1000 copies of these duplicated sermon notes were distributed weekly at the Wednesday night Healing services and over 4000 sent to the “postal congregation” scattered around Australia and the world. It is these notes which have formed the basis of this book of devotional readings for a year – not quite daily, but five per week – prepared by Canberra author and editor Zillah Williams.

Its purpose is “to preserve Canon Jim Glennon’s practical, biblical teaching on healing and to make is available to as wide an audience as possible.”

For your reviewer a whole book of readings focused on healing is somewhat daunting – facet after facet, page after page, theme and variations. But of course it is not intended to be read in one long gulp, but in small instalments, just as a course of tablets is prescribed to provide healing by gradual doses. Judging by the exploding plethora of self-help books to meet the stresses of the late 20th and now the 21st century, the need for insights like Glennon’s is greater than ever. What he offers is not “do it yourself” healing, but practical steps in appropriating the wholeness God himself intends. And in most cases these steps are no more revolutionary than the Bible itself – which of course is utterly revolutionary if taken seriously and applied consistently. So here are 260 short messages focusing, with many examples and illustrations, on topics like faith in the promises of God, repentance, forgiveness and prayer.

Each page provides a Bible text, a short Bible reading and a passage of reflection and teaching by Canon Glennon, followed by a key thought and a prayer. Glennon himself could be described as “wounded healer”. He tells (in the penultimate talk, P. 259) of his coming to serve at the Cathedral on a supposedly part-time basis while completing a university course in social work, and in the stress of it suffering what is commonly called a breakdown. “No-one knows what a breakdown is like unless they have experienced it – sufficient for me to say, it was horrific.”

He said, “When I had absolutely nowhere else to turn, I had an experience of God which changed my life. The Holy Spirit said to me, ‘You are to learn to depend on me more’ ….  it was not going to be ‘God helping me with my problems’ but ‘my problems helping me with God’. I was to learn to depend on God more. I was to learn to trust, not in myself but in God.”  This need to surrender our fallen self-sufficiency is a recurring theme.  It is then that our lives can become channels for the Holy Spirit. There is much wisdom for living in these meditations, for the well and the sick alike. 

There is the question of when faith for physical healing is no longer appropriate. In the message for Week 1, Day 5 (P. 5), when emphasising the need for prayer to be positive, Canon Glennon mentions that people often came to ask for prayer when, humanly speaking, their condition was terminal. “We need to realise our limitations and know when we can pray in faith and when we can only relinquish the matter to God.” He says that he would rather not have to say this but “I do say it because it is what I act out in my ministry.” He did not want to promise more than he could deliver. That note, hinting at the acceptance of heaven as the ultimate healing, rarely comes through but to read it was a relief. He could still pray positively but not necessarily for physical healing. Moreover, the role of doctors and medication, working parallel to the power of God for healing as a way of life, is taken for granted, not rejected.

What of those who at the beginning have no Christian affiliation? For Glennon, and ideally for all other Christians involved in any kind of healing or chaplaincy ministry, the concern was “to bring Christ into focus for them as well as to minister healing.” It can be a unique method of evangelism. (P.8)  A series of readings on Pp 229-238 headed God is for Real is particularly helpful almost as pre-evangelism, speaking to uncommitted people, even atheists or agnostics, who, brought to the end of their tether by a health crisis, pain or chronic illness, come to a healing service. Gradually, bringing out the contrast with other religions, the Glennon’s teaching encourages them to move towards the God who can be known; “People with a need – some kind of sickness, hang-up or addiction – it may be something they have not even admitted to anyone else, want to know if God can help them. I say that this is exactly what the Christian God offers to do.” (P. 233.) 

Whatever brings us to seek healing, or to minister it to others, we can affirm, as in the prayer on P. 167, “Thank you Father, that in your word we find the answer to all our needs. We accept your provision now. Through Jesus Christ.  Amen.” 

Review by Peter Ravenscroft, AM  

Professor of Palliative Care, University of Newcastle

Spiritual and emotional distress is a common feature of terminal illness.  People often struggle with questions such as “why me” or “does life end with death” or “how do I live these last days of my life?” or “can I be healed?”  Answers may come in many forms, but for one who seeks to know what the Bible says and how to implement it in practice, this is a book well worth reading.

It is formatted in a year of daily readings, but some of the readings continue over several days.  Each reading has a heading, a Scripture reading, a key thought and a short prayer.  This makes it very suitable as a daily devotional book that can be shared with a person who is ill or for a person who is interested in some insights into the Christian perspective on healing.  I would have found it useful if there had been a list of topics in the front or an index that might be used for finding selective readings.

Cannon Jim Glennon (1920-2005) had an impressive ministry to people throughout the country.  Although I did not hear him myself, I do know people who found his ministry supportive and helpful.  Zillah Williams has done an excellent work of compiling and editing Jim Glennon’s sermon notes that were widely distributed.  In particular, she has made them into a cohesive collection.  They will serve to continue his work and to be valuable in assisting people to find some new directions in their searching for answers.