UNIT 3B: PASTORAL AND ASCETICAL THEOLOGY

72: Healing and Deliverance

Note: This lecture with its three appendices is quite long and is intended as a resource for
reflection and practical implementation. The audio lecture podcast on Ancient Faith Radio
covers pages 1-14 and 20-22.

For the Orthodox Christian, the confrontation with both physical and spiritual illness
requires healing and deliverance of both the body and the soul of each person. The
demarcations between what is physical and what is spiritual, what is of the body
and what is of the soul, what is healing and what is deliverance have been drawn at
different points in different ages. Even today there is still considerable
disagreement within both the wider Christian community and the explicitly
Orthodox Christian community about the practice of healing and deliverance, as
well as the theology of illness.

There are no easy answers to these ambiguities of demarcation and shifting cultural
attitudes. Each Orthodox Christian should exercise their free will in deciding how
to approach healing and deliverance, but hopefully their decisions will be informed
by prayer and a critical awareness of the experience and perspective of Jesus, the
early Church, the saints, the wider contemporary Christian community and the
Orthodox Church today.

1. Christ the Great Physician

Jesus began his public ministry with a combination of teaching, preaching and
healing. As St Matthew phrases it:
Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and
every kind of sickness among the people. The news about Him spread
throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering

1
 with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He
healed them. Large crowds followed him…. 1
The unity of this initial three-fold ministry in which teaching and preaching and
healing was taking place constantly was to be typical of the ministry of Jesus, as
was the attention that he attracted. Of particular importance was the manner in
which the body, the mind and the soul were healed together.

Jesus was indeed implementing the advice of Proverbs 3:5-9:

Trust in God with all your heart,
and do not be excited by your own wisdom.
In all your ways make her [i.e. wisdom] known,
that she may make straight your ways,
[and your foot will not stumble].
Be not clever in your own eyes,
but fear God and turn away from every evil.
Then it will be a healing to your body
and treatment to your bones.
Honour the Lord from your just labours,
and offer him of your first fruits of righteousness….2
Jesus was also demonstrating that He himself was the Word sent from the Father,
healing and delivering people when they “cried out to the Lord in their trouble
(Psalm 107:19-20).”
In the story of healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, St Matthew indicated that
the power to heal which Jesus exercised was a direct fulfilment of the prophecy
given in Isaiah 53:4 of how the suffering servant would bear “the griefs (or
“sorrows”) and “sickness” (or “pain”) of the people of Israel:

1 Matthew 4:23-24; cf. 9:35.

2 Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright (Eds.), A New English Translation of the Septuagint
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 625; trans. of the Psalms by Johann Cook. Full
translation of Septuagint (OT) from Greek to English available free online at:
www.ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/
2
 When Jesus came into Peter’s home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in
bed with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up
and waited on Him. When evening came, they brought to Him many who were
demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who
were ill. This was to fulfil what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: ‘He
himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.’

Here, as often in both the Old and New Testaments the causes of illness, whether
natural or spiritual, are not indicated nor perhaps known, but stress is placed upon
the reality of the healing that has been effected by the power of God. There is often
a deep sense that the very act of turning away from evil (Proverbs 3:7) opens the
person to healing, because of a general awareness in both the Old and New
Testaments that “diseases often result from sinful living.”3

If Jesus was to be recognised as the Messiah, it was imperative that He be seen to

heal the sick. This was what the people of Jesus’ home village of Nazareth expected;
and the people were outraged when Jesus told them:
No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself!
Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as
well.’ And He said, ‘Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his
hometown.’4
By pointing out to the Israelites in Nazareth that he would not be healing them, just
as Elijah and Elisha had not healed their own people, but strangers, Jesus was telling
them that were living in a sinful manner (Luke 4:25-30). Intriguingly, this phrase
that Jesus quoted as a proverb, “Physician, heal thyself,” does not appear anywhere
in the Old Testament, but must have been part of the oral tradition at that time.
It has come to mean that one should consider one’s own faults, rather than criticize
others.

3 Note on Isaiah 53:4 in New American Standard Bible, p. 1,031.

4 Luke 4:23-24
3
At this time when Jesus had been healing many people outside of Nazareth, John
the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus to find out if Jesus really was the
Messiah. The reply from Jesus was:
Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised
up, the poor have the Gospel preached to them. 5
Jesus was telling John and his disciples that “the clearly observable evidence”
indicated that the ministry of the Messiah predicted by the prophet Isaiah was now
happening.6 That evidence was primarily acts of healing. This was an early example
of evidence-based evangelism. Both John and Jesus knew that an important sign of
the coming of the Kingdom of God was that healings would happen, primarily for
the Israelites.

If you were living in Galilee early in the first century, you would have come to know
that there was this strange man from the obscure village of Nazareth who was
wandering around the area, often sleeping rough and healing Israelites. That was
His main activity—healing Israelites, first in the synagogue in Capernaum (Mark 1:21-
28), then Simon Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31), then anyone ill “in the whole
city” of Capernaum (Mark 1:32-34), then in “synagogues throughout all Galilee,
preaching and casting out demons” (Mark 1:38-39), then the leper who humbly told
Jesus “If you are willing, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40) and then the paralytic
whose friends broke open the roof and lowered the stricken man down to Jesus
(Mark 2:1-12).

As St Mark makes clear in his Gospel, it was only after all of these healings that
Jesus began to call His disciples (Mark 2:14 f.) and heal on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-
3.6). Soon Jesus would send the twelve disciples out with “authority over unclean

5 Luke 7:22.
6 See New American Study Bible note for Lk 7:22.
4
spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of
sickness” (Matthew 10:1). The disciples were told to preach, with a primary
instruction to say: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Matthew 10:7-8). There is no doubt that Jesus
saw Himself as engaged in a war with Satan, whom He described as “the strong
man” who must be “bound” before his house could be plundered (Mark 3:27). As
Mark reports after the very first healing in the synagogue in Capernaum, the people
were “all amazed”, by this “new teaching [given] with authority! He [Jesus]
commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him” (Mark 1:22-27). Today we
can share that amazement at the power from God that Jesus demonstrated in many
healings. So that is the perspective of Jesus: He healed to indicate that the Kingdom
of God had come among us, that the kingdom of Satan had been bound, and that
we needed to recognise this change in spiritual authority in order to gain physical
and spiritual health.

The ultimate form of healing that Jesus offered humanity was to conquer death, to
link humanity to eternal life (John 6:50). With the healing of Lazarus, which
provoked the high priests to seek the death of Jesus, the extent of the authority
that Jesus possessed became clear (John 11). Through His crucifixion and
resurrection—which must be considered as a unity—Jesus indicated that he was
going to prepare a way for us (John 14:2-3). That way was essentially that our
physical bodies would, at least for a time until the Second Coming, become spiritual
bodies. The healing that Jesus offered in first century Palestine remains available
to us today.

2. The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Church

How did the early Church continue to exercise this authority to heal which Jesus
had demonstrated in His life, death and resurrection? Jesus sent out both the twelve

5
(Mark 6:7-12; Matthew 10:1-15; Luke 9:1-6) and the seventy (Luke 10:1-20) with
specific orders to heal the sick. All of these disciples found, often to their surprise,
that they had considerable power over both physical and spiritual sickness. After
the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the risen Christ appeared to the eleven
and concluded His commission to them with the words that they would “lay hands
on the sick and they will recover” (Mark 16:18). These apostles continued to pray
for specific people in need, such as the lame beggar at The Temple, who asked for
money, but to whom Peter (with John) replied: “Look at us! I do not possess silver
and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—
walk! (Acts 3:4, 6).

Furthermore, Peter made it clear to the Israelites who gathered round him that this
healing had not taken place by his “own power or piety” (Acts 3:12). Rather, faith
in Jesus Christ was responsible:
…on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has
strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes
through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.7
It was this healing that next day concerned the Sanhedrin “as to how this man has
been made well” (Acts 4:9), but the Jewish authorities simply noted “that a
noteworthy miracle has taken place” (Acts 4:16); and the early Christians were
much encouraged to extend their “hand[s] to heal” (Acts 4:30).

This God-given power that Peter was exercising in the Temple precincts excited
much attention in Jerusalem “to such an extent that [people in Jerusalem] even
carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when
Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them;” and people from
near-by cities “were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted
with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed” (Acts 5:15-16). Clearly, in
Jerusalem, the Apostolic Church was continuing the practice that Jesus had

7 Acts 3:16
6
implemented of healing those who were sick either spiritually or physically. Then,
as Peter began to travel in his ministry, he was instrumental in healings to Aeneas
in Lydda (Acts 9:32-35) and to Tabitha in Joppa [Jaffa] (Acts 9:36-43), as was Paul
to the lame man at Lystra (Acts 14:8-11), to many in Ephesus (Acts 19:11-12), to
Publius and others in Malta (Acts 28:7-9), and to Eutychus in Troas brought back to
life after falling asleep and dying from a fall from a window (Acts 20:8-10).

These many examples make it clear that Paul Meyendorff is right to stress that
“healing lies at the very centre of the Church’s ministry.” 8 However, as Dr
Meyendorff points out, both the healings of Jesus and those later in the early Church
are linked to faith and repentance and “must always be seen in the context of Jesus’
ministry, which is to reconcile the world with God.” 9 Just as “the healings of Jesus
often aim[ed] to reintegrate the sick person into the community of faith,” so the
Apostolic Church performed healings “as signs of the kingdom” with “a focus on the
life of the community, on the Church as the body of Christ.…” 10 The early Church
certainly recognised that:
The very purpose of the Church is to heal us, to restore the rift between God
and humanity which is caused by our sin and leads to death. This is achieved
precisely when we are united to one another and to God in the body of Christ,
which is the Church. 11
Thus to place an excessive stress on individual miracles of healing (whether of body
or soul) is somewhat misleading, because the Church as a community seeks to heal
ALL of its members.
As will be considered in later sections of this lecture, many of the Church’s
sacraments, especially baptism/chrismation and the Eucharist, have important roles
to play in this process of healing. The early Church recognised the importance of
these sacraments, but in the book of James, probably (along with Galatians) one of

8 The Anointing of the Sick (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir Seminary Press [SVSP], 2009), p. 13.
9 Meyendorff, p. 15.
10 Meyendorff, pp. 16-17.
11 Meyendorff, p. 19.

7
the earliest books of the New Testament, emphasis was placed on how the elders
of the Church were to pray for the sick, anoint them with oil, and to then be
confident that “the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick.…”
(James 5:14-15). As Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky points out, what is being
affirmed here is not “a special ‘gift’ of healing”, but rather “a definitive form [and
norm] which was to enter into the custom of the Church.” 12

There is little information about precisely how this Anointing of the Sick (or Rite of
Unction) was carried out in the Apostolic Church, but it was an act of some
significance. The earliest evidence about the use of healing oil in the Post-Apostolic
Church is found in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (c. 170-c. 236) in which
the bishop prays:
O God, as you make this oil holy, bestow your holiness upon those who are
anointed with it. This is the oil with which you have anointed kings, priests,
and prophets; grant that it may bring comfort to those who taste it, and health
to those who use it. 13
Unlike the position for both baptism and the Eucharist, in the Post-Apostolic Church,
there is “no evidence of a formal liturgy of anointing the sick,” but the oil blessed
in church (probably after the Eucharistic service) was most likely “taken home, kept
in the ‘medicine cabinet,’ and used as needed.” 14 Medical terminology was often
applied to penance and confession, because of the view that: “The task of the
confessor is to apply the proper medication to heal the penitent from his or her
sin.” 15 St Serapion, a fourth-century Egyptian bishop and friend of St Athanasius who

12Orthodox Dogmatic Theology: A Concise Explanation, 3rd ed. (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska
Brotherhood, 2005), p. 308. Note that Father Michael Pomazansky acknowledges some holy people
do exercise “the gift of healing” as a sign that “the Church glorifies [them] in a special way.”
P.317.

13 Cited by Meyendorff, p. 33.

14 Meyendorff, pp. 36, 34.
15 Meyendorff, p. 40.

8
had earlier been a monk and companion of St Anthony 16 collected prayers over the
oil, one of which concluded with the affirmation that blessed oil was “a medicament
of life and salvation, unto health and soundness of soul and body and spirit, unto
perfect well-being”. 17 In the context of healing, it is important to note that the
Hebrew word, “Messiah”, and the Greek word, “Christ”, both mean “the Anointed
One.”

It was this search for what Sister Benedicta Ward has called “the full life of the
Spirit of God” or what St Serapion called “perfect well-being” which prompted a
significant number of Christians—viewed by Romans as “atheists because they did
not worship the gods of the [Roman] city”—to leave the cities and move into the
desert itself or monasteries on the edge of the desert.18 Among these committed
monks and ascetics, their striving was more for deliverance from demons than for
healing.19 For example, the struggling young monk Moses, who was afraid to return
to his cell, was taken “out on the terrace” by his mentor, Isadore, and told:
‘Look towards the west’; he [Moses] looked to the west and saw hordes of
demons flying about and making a noise before launching an attack. Then he
[Isadore] said, ‘Look towards the east’; he [Moses] turned and saw an
innumerable multitude of holy angels shining with glory. Isadore said, ‘See …
Those who are with us are more in number than those that are against us.’ 20
Moses then “gave thanks to God, plucked up his courage and returned to his cell”.
The same challenge confronts us today in “the cells” of our homes and places of
work, but we have lost much of the awareness of demons which was assumed by
those who chose to live in the desert or its edges, rather than in the cities.

16 St Anthony, in his will left “one of his two sheepskin cloaks to Serapion and the other to
Athanasius”. F. L. Cross & E. A. Livingstone (Eds.), Dictionary of the Christian Church (Peabody,
MA: Hendrickson, 2007), p.1,484.
17 Prayer Book of Serapion, cited by Meyendorff, p. 34.
18 See Benedicta Ward, “Introduction,” The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

(London: Penguin, 2003), pp. viii-ix.

19 See the numerous references to demons in Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers:

The Alphabetical Collection (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984).

20 Ward, “Introduction”, p. xiv; The Alphabetical Collection, p. 138.

9
3. The Testimony of the Saints
Like those Christians who chose to live in the desert, the Church Fathers were
deeply aware that both people and places required deliverance from demons and
evil spirits. There was a general awareness that “gifts of healing” could be given by
the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9) 21 and that the bodies of saints would often be
preserved incorrupt for centuries (although these bodies were not embalmed in any
way), as a sign that they had in some way conquered death. 22 In a retreat on
“Sacraments of Healing”, Metropolitan Kallistos has reflected that “our vocation is
to spiritualise the material, without thereby dematerialising it;” and healing is an
important part of this process of making God’s presence shine through both the
human body and the world.23
The challenge posed by Metropolitan Kallistos is substantive and personal: “How
am I to understand my unity as a person? What models do I have when I think of
the healing of my total self?”24 His response is to turn to the Patristic model
whereby the microcosm of the human person mediates with the universe, as

21 The New American Standard Bible (NASB) notes that the emphasis on “gifts” in the plural “may
suggest different kinds of illnesses and the various ways God heals them” p. 1,678.
22 See Joan Carroll Cruz, The Incorruptibles: A Study of the Incorruption of the Bodies of Various

Catholic Saints and Beati (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1977). An early example documented with
firm evidence is that of St Cecilia, the patroness of musicians, who was killed in Rome in AD 177
(pp. 43-46). St Bede relates in Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (Book 4, Chapter XIX)
that when the grave of St Etheldreda (630-679) was opened sixteen years after her death, in the
presence of the doctor who had tried to save her, not only was the body incorrupt, but the doctor
found that “the incision which I had made, healed up; so that, to my great astonishment, instead
of the open gaping wound with which she had been buried, there then appeared only an
extraordinarily slender scar” (quoted in Cruz, pp. 50-51). Thus God’s power to heal can extend to
the bodies of those who have died after living holy lives.

Visitors to the “Sacred Made Real” exhibition of Spanish painting and sculpture at the National
Art Gallery, London, 21 October-24 January 2010, will recall seeing a life-size representation of
the body of St Francis of Assisi (d. 1226), which was found completely incorruptible standing up
in his tomb 223 years after his death. The astonishment of those who found the standing St Francis
is on p. 25 of the exhibition catalogue and on p.13 of the 30 pages of the downloadable pdf: “It
was a strange thing, that a human body, dead for so long before, should be in that manner in
which it was: for it stood straight up upon the feet…The eyes were open as of a living man, and
moderately lifted up to heaven.”
23 “Glorify God with Your Body”, In Communion: Journal of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship of the

Protection of the Mother of God, Spring 2001, p. 9.

24 Metropolitan Kallistos, p. 8.

10
proposed by Origen (c. 185-c. 254) and St Gregory Nazianzen, the Theologian
(c. 329-c. 389). In an important sense [and I quote] “the great universe is not the
world around us, nor the galaxies light years away from us. The great universe is
the inner space of the heart which incorporates the material universe.” 25 The
healing of the total self takes place only when we recognise that “we need, if we
are to be truly human, to come to terms with our own body—with its rhythm, its
mysteries, its dreams—and through our body then to come to terms with the
material world.” 26

St Athanasius (c. 296-373) insisted that Adam and Eve “were endowed with a
corruptible nature”, yet they were created “for incorruptibility.” 27 This possibility
of incorruptibility was “due solely to divine grace”, or as St Athanasius phrased it,
Adam and Eve “were of a corruptible nature, but by the grace of participation in
the Word [they could] escape the condition of their nature [since] because of the
Word present with them, the corruption of their nature could not approach them.” 28

25 pp. 9-10.Metropolitan Kallistos notes that: “The fact that we are degrading the world around
us in a very alarming manner shows a terrifying failure to realize our vocation as mediators…. Our
vocation is …to render the world transparent—diaphonic, or rather theophonic—to make God’s
presence shine through it [i.e. the world].” p.10.
26 Metropolitan Kallistos, p. 10. For a contemporary scientific presentation on the importance of

the body, see Guy Claxton’s Intelligence in the Flesh: Why your mind needs your body much more
than it thinks (London: Yale University Press, 2015).
27
On the Incarnation of the Word, V.1, 2; cited by Jean-Claude Larchet, The Theology of Illness,
trans. John & Michael Breck (Crestwood, NY; SVSP, 2002), p. 20; originally published in French as
La Théologie de la Maladie (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1991). It should be explicitly recognised
that the story of Adam and Eve is part of “spiritual history” and “does not belong to the time of
sensible realities (chronos).” Therefore, “the teaching of Tradition about human origins is neither
more nor less compatible with our present knowledge of human palaeontology than is the faith of
the Church in the Eucharistic transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ
with the findings of chemistry, or faith in the Ascension of Christ with the findings of physics and
astronomy. In each of these cases, we are dealing with two different modes of apprehension that
cannot be reduced one to another. Each concerns different modes of being and becoming. Faith
and spiritual knowledge correspond to a domain in which the laws of nature are transcended and
to a mode of existence that is, in the proper sense of the term, ‘super-natural.’” Larchet, p. 23
n.
28 V.1-2; cited by Larchet, pp. 21-22.

11
Although the Fathers supposed that “this primal condition was similar to that of
angels,”29 it is important to recognise that:
… since man was created with freedom, whether or not he preserved this state
of grace depended on his free will. It was his responsibility to remain in a
condition of incorruption and immortality which grace bestowed upon him, or,
to the contrary, to lose it by rejecting that grace. 30
That same possibility—that same necessity to decide whether to accept grace—
applies to each of us today, just as it did to Adam and Eve. To what extent do we
choose to heal our total selves “by the grace of participation in the Word”?

It is the very possibility that we can live today the life of Christ, rather than the life
of Adam and Eve, that is the Patristic model of healing. In formulating the two
natures and one person of Jesus Christ, as adopted by the Council of Chalcedon
(451), St Leo the Great (d. 461) explained the manner in which spiritual and material
realities come together to frame the prospect of healing:
The great mystery of the Incarnation is that true man is in the God whom no
suffering can touch, and true God in the human flesh that is subject to pain
and sorrow. By this wonderful exchange man gains glory through shame,
immortality through chastisement, life through death. For unless the Word of
God were so firmly joined to our flesh, that the two natures could not be
parted even in death, we mortals would never be able to return to life. But
when the Lord became man and died for our sake, death lost its everlasting
hold over us; through the nature that undying in Jesus Christ, the nature that
was mortal was raised to life. 31

29 Larchet, p. 22; citing St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis, XVI.1.

30 Larchet, pp. 23-24; citing Saints Athanasius, Maximus and John of Damascus.
31 Sermon XIX on the Passion, cited by Anne Field, OSB, The Binding of the Strong Man: The

Teaching of St Leo the Great (Ann Arbor, MI: Word of Life, 1976).
12
As St Leo, recognised, achieving this “exchange” between Christ and the sinful
nature of humanity, 32 required a confrontation with and a binding of the devil, “the
strong man” of Luke 11:21-22.

This spiritual battle that takes place against evil, both in the person and in the
world, requires, as St Ignatius (c. 35-c. 107) phrased it, that we “let [our] baptism
serve as a shield.” 33 That is why at the beginning of the service of baptism, there
are three exorcisms of the devil, after which the catechumen (or sponsor for an
infant) is challenged three times to respond “I renounce them” to the question: “Do
you renounce Satan and all his angels and all his works and all his service and all his
pride?” 34

The exorcisms and the challenges and responses are necessary, because it is
essential for every Christian to “put on the full armour of God, so that you will be
able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:10). However,
throughout the ages, and certainly today, many Christians have been puzzled as to
what it means that:
… our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual
forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.35
The reading from Romans 6:3-11 in the service of baptism and chrismation is
inserted to stress that:

32 The Methodist missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (now OMF), James
Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), built his theology and his life around what he termed “the exchange
relationship”—that it is possible to exchange our fallen human nature with that of Christ. See Jim
Cromarty, It is Not Death to Die: A New Biography of Hudson Taylor (Fearn, Scotland: Christian
Focus Publications, 2001). Hudson Taylor was convinced that: “Many Christians estimate difficulty
in the light of their own resources, and thus they attempt very little and they always fail. All
giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and
presence to be with them.”
33 Ignatius to Polycarp, 6, in Jack N. Sparks (ed.), The Apostolic Fathers (Minneapolis MN: Light

and Life, 1978), p. 118.

34 Isabel Florence Hopgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church

(Englewood, NJ: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, 1996), p. 271-274.

35 Ephesians 6:12.

13
 We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might
be destroyed, and that we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For He who has
died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with him.
Unquestionably, Paul Meyendorff is right that baptism “is the sacrament of healing
par excellence.”36 But precisely how is this confrontation with and rejection of the
devil to lead to “newness of life”?

4. The Contemporary Christian Scene: Seeking “a Monastic Sense of Ease”

There are many approaches to healing and deliverance within contemporary
Christian communities. A good starting point is the talk, “The Health that Conquers
Death” that Archimandrite Vasileois, Abbot of Iveron Monastery, Mount Athos, gave
to a medical convention in Thessaloniki. 37 The Abbot began by telling the doctors
that he experienced what he called “a monastic sense of ease” and “took courage”
for his encounter with the doctors when he realised that Hippocrates, the father of
medicine, viewed “spiritual and physical being and health … as a whole” in the
context of each person’s search for purity and holiness. 38 The Abbot suggested that
the search for holiness “has to do with the sacred relationship [of each of us] with
God as a precondition for purity of life.” Precisely because of this personal search
for holiness, the implication is that:
So the whole of your life, with its pains and its joys, is a study of yourself, a
cultivation of yourself. It is a study of [humanity] as a whole and of the science
of healing. You sacrifice the whole of your life, you bind it, in order to live its
deeper meaning and manifest that meaning, as a blessing, by your art (your
medical knowledge), and ultimately to interpret it by your very presence. You

36 p. 21.
37 Montreal: Alexander Press, 2004.
38 Abbot Vasileios’s opening words were: “I don’t know why I was asked to say a few words at

this medical convention. Nor do I know why I was persuaded to accept the invitation. When,
however, I approached Hippocrates ….” p. 7.
14
 go forward with awe toward God, toward yourselves, towards other people
and the relationships between you.39
That challenge applies just as much to each of us as it does to any doctor. Each of
us needs to “bind” certain parts of our lives “in order to live its deeper meaning
and manifest that blessing.” We do that by going forward “with awe” toward a
deeper understanding of four entities: God, ourselves, other people and the
relationships between us. We seek to transform physical and emotional illness into
spiritual blessings.

How can we do that? Three approaches are helpful—from (the Anglican) Dr Kenneth
McAll’s Healing the Family Tree, from (the Baptists) Frank and Ida Mae Hammond’s
Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance, and from (the Roman Catholics)
Matthew Linn, SJ, Shelia Fabricant [Linn] and Dennis Linn’s Healing the Eight Stages
of Life.40 None of these approaches to healing and deliverance inflicts any attitude
or precondition upon another person, but each encourages a person to exercise
insight and free will in seeking to become a whole person and to draw closer to God.
The demarcation between deliverance and healing is often ambiguous, but Dr McAll
and the Hammonds’ are primarily concerned with deliverance, the Linns’ with
healing. The manner in which Christians can understand and heal their family trees
is outlined at the end of this lecture in Appendix 1, deliverance and spiritual warfare
in Appendix 2, and healings within the eight stages of life in Appendix 3. All three
of these approaches outlined in the appendices can be carried out within an
Orthodox Christian perspective on healing and deliverance.

Within this broad ecumenical perspective, it should be noted that there is

considerable danger in relying on the charismatic movement with its “baptism of
the Holy Spirit” and “born again” experience as a foundation in itself for healing

39p. 8.
40The respective publishers are (London: Sheldon Press/SPCK, 1986) for McAll, (Kirkwood, MO:
Impact Christian Books, 2014) for Frank and Ida Mae Hammond, and (New York: Paulist Press,
1988) for Linn.
15
and deliverance. As John Warren Morris has explained, “the theological basis for
Pentecostalism and its daughter, the Charismatic movement, is found … in the
teachings of John Wesley [who] … taught his followers to believe in a ‘second
blessing’” after one’s initial acceptance of Christ. 41 This approach leads to “an
undue emphasis on personal religious experience as an end in itself” so that one’s
“spirituality becomes self-reliant and highly individualistic.” 42 The late Metropolitan
Philip, former Head of the Antiochian Church in the United States, has written that
“what we seek is not an ‘experience,’ but God himself.” 43

There are significant reasons why the charismatic movement is not a helpful
influence for Orthodox Christians. Wesley’s ‘second blessing’ is contrary to the
Orthodox dogma that “the believer receives the Holy Spirit immediately after
baptism through chrismation”, that is “through the Church, not merely as a result
of an individual desire to receive the Spirit of God as the charismatics teach.” 44 As
Morris explains:

41
The Charismatic Movement: An Orthodox Evaluation (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press,
1984), p. 6. John Warren Morris notes that: “Pentecostalism began in earnest on New Year’s Day,
1901, at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. There, the students of Charles F. Parham, a
Holiness preacher, had spent the fall term searching the Holy Scriptures for the marks of the
‘second blessing’ taught by Wesley … In Houston, a black Baptist Holiness preacher, William
Seymour, joined the growing revival. Seymour carried the movement to Los Angeles in 1906 where
at the Azusa Street Mission the phenomenon gained national publicity. Within a few years several
independent Pentecostal churches such as the Assembly of God, the United Pentecostal Church,
and others arose. Characterized by highly emotional services, the Pentecostal bodies all teach
that one must receive the ‘second blessing,’ which they call the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit,’ and
which is verified by the ability to speak in tongues” (pp. 6-7).
42 Morris, p. 21.
43 Metropolitan Philip Saliba and Father Joseph J. Allen, Out of the Depths Have I Cried (Brookline,

MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1979), p. 8; cited by Morris, p. 16. For an extensive development
of this theme, see Father Dumitru Staniloae, The Experience of God, Vol. 1: Revelation and
Knowledge of the Triune God; Vol. 2: The World: Creation and Deification; and Vol. 3: The Person
of Jesus Christ as God and Savior, trans. & ed. Ioan Ionita & Robert Barringer (Brookline, MA: Holy
Cross Orthodox Press, 1994, 2000, 2011).
44 Citing Father Dumitru Staniloae’s Theology and the Church (Crestwood, NY: SVSP, 1980), Morris

presents the following penetrating analysis: “The charismatic division between Christ and the
Holy Spirit is a reflection of the influence of the filoque clause on Western Christendom. Due
to the influence of the Roman addition to the Symbol of Faith, Western Christians have
neglected the Holy Spirit and have even at times implied a subordination of the Holy Spirit to
the Father and the Son. This had led to an artificial separation between Christ and the Holy Spirit
that is the basis for the charismatic insistence on the necessity of two separate spiritual
experiences, one becoming a Christian, justification; and the other, the reception of the Holy
16
 By implication and practice Neo-Pentecostalism espouses an
essentially Protestant ecclesiology that defines the church as a formless body
of believers united by a common desire to follow Christ. At the same time,
the movement ignores or rejects the great tradition of Orthodoxy and instead
champions the beliefs and practices of a small sidestream of American
Protestantism. Thus, the ultimate source of authority for Neo-Pentecostalism
is not the common experience of the Church throughout the ages, as Orthodox
Christians believe, but one’s emotional experiences through the Charismatic
movement. Indeed, the movement ignores the great questions of doctrine and
attempts to unite Protestants,
Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians into what is essentially a new
pseudo-church.45

The crux of the problem that Orthodox Christianity has with the charismatic
movement is:
According to Orthodox dogma, the Church is not merely a loose association of
men and women seeking a closer relationship with God. It is the mystical body
of Christ, filled and guided by the Holy Spirit, that actually unites men [and
women] with God. 46
Some charismatics do recognise that their fellowship in Christ does not constitute a
Church, but the lines between fellowship and Church are often blurred.

A further difficulty with the charismatic movement is that its roots and fruits are
much constrained by the limitations of many forms of Christianity in the United
States:

Spirit, baptism of the Holy Spirit. This Western division between Christ and the Holy Spirit is found
in Romanism [sic] and more traditional forms of Protestantism such as Anglicanism and
Lutheranism which separates baptism from confirmation, the Western equivalent to chrismation,
into two different experiences, one taking place in infancy and the other during adolescence”
(p. 32) [emphasis added].
45 Morris, pp. 12-13.
46 Morris, p. 11.

17
 The ecumenical nature of the Charismatic movement which attempts to
deemphasize one’s doctrinal beliefs, and the very real differences between
the churches by drawing all, regardless of personal beliefs, into a common
experience is a new form of the American civil religion of doctrinal relativism
in the name of toleration. At the same time the implied promise of instant
spirituality by charismatics is a reflection of the concern of contemporary
American society for immediate self-gratification. 47
While it was a good Brit, John Wesley, who sowed the seeds of the charismatic
movement, its fruits, both good (e.g. drawing nominal Christians to a deeper faith
in Christ) and bad (e.g. fudging doctrinal beliefs with relativism), have been
experienced world-wide. On balance, it is not appropriate for Orthodox Christians
to approach healing and deliverance primarily from a charismatic perspective. 48

Having looked briefly at some of these different approaches to healing and

deliverance within contemporary Christian communities, which ones can lead to “a
monastic sense of ease”? The answer will differ among individuals and among
Christian communities. While some Christians may find understanding and healing
their family trees or a church-oriented experience of deliverance very helpful,
others will not find this necessary. While some may find a Christian interpretation
of the eight stage of life very helpful, others will also not find this necessary. Links
with the charismatic movement are especially problematic. 49

47 Morris, p. 37.
48 Roman Catholics have also begun to recognise some of the dangers inherent in a charismatic
approach to healing. See Léon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens [1904-1996], A Controversial
Phenomenon: Resting in the Spirit (Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1987). For example, one priest
who “practised this newly-discovered method of healing occasionally, for a few years, at priests’
retreats,” found that if he lay hands on fellow priests, they often fell to the floor, but he
abandoned this practice because “today he feels that the power in question is a natural psychic
force which might sometimes, and exceptionally, be used by grace but ought not to be ranked
among the supernatural charisms” (p. 31). As a bishop, Cardinal Suenens himself sought to
exercise pastoral oversight over the charismatic movement and to prevent “the supernatural from
deviating into supernaturalism” (p. 80).
49 Cardinal Suenens concluded that “the bishops, as the spiritual guides of the People of God …

have a “duty to invite the Church’s best theologians to offer and share with Christians of good
will the treasures of wisdom of our mystics and of the great spiritual tradition of Western and
Eastern Christendom. The gifts of the Spirit, like the moral virtues, must be lived not in the
18
St Paul offers a helpful guide in relation to the resurrection of the dead: “It [the
body] is sown a physical body. It is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:43).
Two rather different interpretations are possible for this Biblical text; and both are
relevant to healing and deliverance. First, Paul can be viewed as exhorting us to
prepare to move from an earthly to a spiritual life, when he concludes: “Just as we
have borne the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly”
(1 Corinthians 15:49). Such an interpretation is perhaps excursive—a bit off Paul’s
main point, but still helpful in that if some specific practice of healing or
deliverance empowers us to move from physical or emotional illness to a spiritually
grounded “monastic sense of ease” then that practice is appropriate for that person
and that Christian community in the framework of appropriate Orthodox Church
doctrine.

A different interpretation of Paul’s words from Abbot Vasileios is also illuminating:

Ultimately, not even bodily health saves us; and not even illness destroys us.
It is our good fortune to acquire the health that is made perfect in weakness
(cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9) and the life that in death becomes eternity—to live
in Christ Jesus, the life that has sprung up from the Tomb and continues to do
so. Then we enjoy both this life and the next, which has already been given
us liturgically. 50
The Abbot’s interpretation is perhaps equally excursive, but he has caught an
important aspect of the Orthodox approach to deliverance and healing—its
sacramental quality.

5. Healing and Deliverance: An Orthodox Sacramental Perspective

abstract, but in the concrete mobility of particular situations. In this respect we are called to a
renewal which, springing from the source, the Holy Spirit, adapts itself to the nature of the soil
and the diversity of the terrain” (p. 79). The Cardinal was trying to affirm “spiritual tradition”
while still accepting the call to “renewal” which was being promoted by the charismatic
movement. Whether this is possible will be considered further in Lecture 85: Christian Education.
50 “The Health that Conquers Death,” p. 21.

19
Just as the sacramental role of baptism and its link with deliverance is emphasized
in the Orthodox perspective, a similar stress is placed on the role of the Eucharist
and its link with healing:
Humanity is created to be in communion with God, and the Eucharist is the
realization of this communion. And true healing, as we have seen, is precisely
the restoration of communion with God, the restoration of the proper
relationship between God and humanity. Every time we receive communion,
we receive the grace of healing. As with baptism, this healing affects the
entire person, with salvation, our entrance into the kingdom, as its ultimate
goal.51

The liturgies of St John Chrysostom and St Basil the Great both contain numerous
petitions for the healing of the sick. Of particular relevance is the litany of
thanksgiving after communion from the Liturgy of St Basil (which was the regular
Sunday liturgy until the tenth century and is now used primarily during Great Lent
and Feasts of St Basil):
We thank you, O Lord, for the participation in your holy most-pure, immortal
and heavenly mysteries, which you have granted us for the good and
sanctification and healing of our bodies. 52
Clearly, Christ’s healing ministry continues when we participate in the Eucharist.

In addition to Baptism and the Eucharist, a third key aspect of the Orthodox
approach to healing is the sacrament of confession. In The Forgotten Medicine: The
Mystery of Repentance, Archimandrite Seraphim Aleksiev (1912-1993), a Bulgarian
monk and theologian, sets out why confession is an essential preparation for
receiving the Eucharist and drawing near to Christ. 53 His theme follows St

51 Meyendorff, p.24.

52 Cited by Meyendorff, p. 25
53 Wildwood, CA: St Xenia Skete Press, 1994.
20
Augustine’s Confessions: “Thou makest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until
it reposes in Thee.” Father Seraphim’s key point is:
We can save our souls only in two ways: either by not sinning at all, or by
repenting from our sins. Since among men [and women] there are no sinless
ones, if we want to be reconciled with God Whom we anger with daily
transgressions of His holy will, there is only one thing left for us to do: to
repent sincerely and openly [and show that repentance by going to a priest
for confession]. Otherwise, we will not see the face of God, because nothing
impure will enter the radiant heavenly city. 54
Powerfully, he reminds us of the words of St Mark the Ascetic in Volume 1 of The
Philokalia: “We are being condemned not because of the multitude of our evils [or
our sins], but because we do not want to repent.” 55 Few Christians today are aware
that their crucial problem is not their past (or present) sins but their refusal to
repent.

Thus the sacrament of confession “can rightly be called ‘the Forgotten Medicine’
because it heals the person from sin.” 56 Father Seraphim’s “Rules for a Saving
Confession” conclude with a quite practical summary:
We see then what the rules are for a saving Confession: first, before we go to
the confessor, we must examine well our conscience; second, when we are
with the priest, we must confess sincerely, with a broken heart, and without
shame and excuses; third, when we leave the priest, we must carry out our
penance, put an end to the hostility [to any other person], give up our impure
life, and return that which is not ours. 57
However, he warns that:
Those who confess without feeling, coolly and formally, do not receive benefit
from Confession. Superficial, cold, and slack confession does not save.

54 p. 27.
55 p. 24.
56 p. 23.
57 p. 57.
21
 Humility, brokenness of heart, tears, and deep regret for our having been
friends with the demons and in enmity toward God, are needed.58

Furthermore, the sacraments of the Eucharist and confession are inexorably linked,
because receiving communion is “a two-edged sword…. Only those who have
confessed beforehand benefit from it. Those who approach it carelessly are greatly
harmed” 59 (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:27-31). Although this emphasis upon confession
before each Holy Communion is quite Slavic and not essential within other Orthodox
traditions, the link between confession and communion is sound: “Confession cleans
the sinful wound of the soul, and Holy Communion puts ointment on the wound.” 60

The sacraments of marriage and holy orders are often not linked to healing and
deliverance, but it is argued in Appendix 3 below that finding one’s vocation is an
important part of the healing that Christ wants each person to experience during
their lifetimes. In that context, either marriage or holy orders may empower
personal healing and deliverance; however, another sacrament that is highly
significant for healing and deliverance is the Rite of Anointing of the Sick. It is
appropriate then to conclude this lecture with a brief description of its purpose,
theology and importance in a parish setting.

The full 60-page Rite of Anointing of the Sick, as well as a 10-page Abbreviated Rite
of Anointing, have been set out by Paul Meyendorff in The Anointing of the Sick. 61
In the full contemporary rite, an abbreviated short cathedral vigil and psalms similar
to those used at the conclusion of matins have been linked to a blessing of oil, an
anointing, absolution (in which the Gospel book is placed over the heads of those
who are sick) and a dismissal. In Greek practice, the most common celebration of

58 p. 64.
59 pp. 68-69.
60 p. 69.
61 (Crestwood, NY: SVSP, 2009).

22
the Rite of Anointing is primarily on Holy Wednesday in Holy Week;62 and in Slavic
practice the Rite is rarely performed because it is viewed as a harbinger of death;
however, now in North America and Western Europe there are different traditions,
and “for the most part, the understanding of the sacrament as extreme unction has
been replaced with a broader understanding that it benefits all who are sick.” 63

The theology of the Rite of Anointing confronts important questions about the
nature of suffering, the significance of sin, and the Christian understanding of
physical and spiritual illness. The Orthodox perspective is not that “each of us is
guilty of Adam’s sin, and thus that each of us deserves punishment,” but rather:
The Orthodox see the fall as a kind of infection that has, through original sin,
spread to all humanity, and, through humanity, to the whole world. In each
of us, the process of disease, decay, and ultimately death begins from the
very moment that we are conceived. When we sin, moreover, we contribute
to a process that is already underway in each of us. This is the state of the
world in which we live, and this is the sad reality that the Son of God came to
overcome. Ultimately, the result of Adam’s fall [and] the result of our own
fall when we choose sin, is alienation—alienation first of all from God, but also
from others, from the world, and even from ourselves. This is something we
experience in our own lives, sooner or later. 64
Thus the experience of sickness has both a spiritual and a physical dimension: “Just
as sin can cause sickness and death, so also sickness can lead to sin.” 65

62 Meyendorff notes that in Greek parishes this single service is often viewed as “a replacement
for confession ….[especially] in North America, where private confession is all but unknown in the
vast majority of Greek parishes . . . because Greek faithful in Greece typically confess to a
monastic elder, and not to their parish priest. Unlike Greece, America has few monasteries, and
this has led to the virtual disappearance of confession among Greek Orthodox Communities.” p.
56.
63 pp. 61, 92.
64 p. 69.
65 For further study of the theology of illness and healing, see Jean-Claude Larchet’s The

Theology of Illness (Crestwood, NY: SVSP, 2002).

23
In the Rite of Anointing we pray for both physical healing and for spiritual healing
which is linked to forgiveness:
As part of the spiritual healing, we pray for the reintegration of the ailing
person into the body of the Church, into the fullness of life, whatever the
ultimate course of the physical disease. This is because the ultimate aim of
Christian healing is nothing less than the restoration of full communion with
God, which is the aim of all human existence. The ultimate goal is the kingdom
of God—that is the meaning of salvation. 66
Within this framework of seeking salvation, and within the Rite, “physical and
spiritual healing are woven together so closely that it is impossible to distinguish
clearly between them”, nor can healing and forgiveness be separated. 67

Meyendorff stress that the Rite of Anointing is “a cosmic event” in which “sin,
sickness, and death are conquered, made powerless through the operation of Christ
and the Holy Spirit.” 68 However, the very limited implementation of the Rite at
present throughout the Orthodox world requires substantive renewal at the parish
level which should begin with an awareness that “it is the responsibility of the entire
Church,” not simply the pastor, “to care for its ailing members.” 69 Visiting the sick
and shut-in, bringing the infirm to church, holding services in long-term care and
nursing facilities are all viable options that help empower the priest to lay hands on
the sick and anoint them. 70 The crux of the challenge is for “the Church to gather
wherever the sick may be, to break through the isolation” and alienation of many
aspects of contemporary life, and to trust in the power of the sacraments to heal,
spiritually and physically.71

66 Meyendorff, p. 78.
67 Meyendorff, pp. 80-81.
68 p. 83.
69 p. 93.
70 p. 95 f.
71 p. 97.

24
For Orthodox Christians, both lay and clerical, who already live the sacramental life
and want to deepen their closeness to God, Abbot Vasileios offers the following
advice on how to become “real doctors;” and this same advice applies to how to
become “real Christians”:
Suppose you reach the certainty that trust in Him, who is love alone, saves us
even when it seems we that we are done for; He is with us, even when it
appears that He is abandoning us. Suppose you reach the point of not finding
fault with anyone or with anything that happens in your life. Suppose you
thank God for everything, the pleasant and the unpleasant. Suppose you
realise that it is from the unpleasant and painful things that the strongest
consolation comes. Suppose you accept from your heart the words of St
Gregory Palamas where he says that everything, not excluding even death, is
good—everything except sin. Suppose that, like St Isaac the Syrian, you feel
joy kindle in your heart when you think of death. Then you are real doctors
[or real Christians], and you enjoy your life and are a comfort to others. 72
May this deeper understanding that we share as Orthodox Christians about the
possibilities of healing and deliverance empower us to grow as Christians, to live
within God’s will for each of our lives and to be effectual servants of the Lord and
others.

Appendix 1: Deliverance through Healing the Family Tree

In Healing the Family Tree the starting point of Dr Kenneth McAll is that:
Many emotional problems have their roots in a purely biochemical imbalance
which requires medication, and this can be remedied easily enough when once
identified, although it is not always easy to discover. But many deep emotional
hurts need a different kind of therapy and the supportive love of a Christian
community. We cannot ignore any means by which the full healing of an
individual can be achieved.73

72 Archimandrite Vasileois, “The Health that Conquers Death.”

73 (London: Sheldon Press, 1986), p. 5.
25
From this starting point, he outlines three forms of illness that can be caused by
“the possession syndrome:”
A relationship between two people, begun happily and voluntarily on both
sides, may reach a point at which one partner becomes passive and totally
dependent upon the other. Frequently the passive partner is unaware of the
loss of his [or her] own identity and eventually is completely unable to break
away from the other’s control. This state has been termed the “possession
syndrome”.… It is essential to make a differential diagnosis in each case [of
the possession syndrome] and to classify the possession syndrome into one or
more of [three] defined categories. The bondage of the living to the living is
the most obvious to diagnose. The bondage of the living to the dead, whether
to ancestors, to those not related, to still-born aborted or miscarried babies,;
or to those who once inhabited a particular place now occupied by the living,
can present considerable difficulties in diagnosis. The bondage of the living to
occult control is, perhaps, the most dangerous evil to unravel. 74
Within this framework of first seeking medical remedies and listening to how a
person is hurting, deliverance is effected in three steps: “First, it is necessary to
cut the known bond to the controlling person, alive or dead, then to forgive
wholeheartedly, finally, to transfer control to Jesus Christ, making any essential
environmental changes to support these steps.” 75

Dr McAll is following Orthodox Christian guidelines in his focus on praying for the
dead in the tradition of the early Church fathers. 76 He stresses that whenever
appropriate any indication of occult forces from within or outside of family trees
should be dealt with by deliverance through the Eucharist or exorcisms of the church

74 pp. 6-7.
75 p. 7.
76 He cites the examples of Tertullian, Origen, Ephraim, Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, Basil,

Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory the Great. The conviction of St John
Chrysostom is noted: “When that awe-inspiring sacrifice lies displayed on the altar, how shall we
not prevail with God by our entreaties for the dead?” (Homily 3 in Ephesians and Philippians n. 4).
pp. 89, 93.
26
of the patient. 77 Furthermore, there is a firm warning that it is “in absolute
contravention of God’s law … to make direct contact with [the dead].”78 We pray
for the dead, not to the dead, referring “them to the Lord for him to deal with.” 79

Ideally, deliverance occurs with the support of a committed Christian spiritual

director familiar with how spirits, both evil and good, operate. However, individual
Christians, preferably with prayer support, can break the hold of an evil spirit on
their own lives. A good place to begin is to draw up a family tree 80, reflect on that
tree with appropriate family and/or friends, then identify persons for whom to pray
at a Eucharist. The key message that Dr McAll seeks to communicate is: “The
celebration of the Eucharist where Our Lord is always present is the central act in
the process of deliverance and healing.” 81 Any point in the family tree where a
relative has died and not been prayed for (especially abortions, stillbirths and
miscarriages), any criminal acts, any lingering resentments linked to persons either
dead or alive, any persons or situations where there has been or still is great fear—
all of these points require healing and deliverance. Then a decision is made about
whom to invite to the Eucharist—with an attempt made to “try to have the living
persons who need prayer actually [present] so that they can ask for guidance and,
most importantly, learn how to continue to pray on their own at future
Eucharists.” 82

There may or may not be dramatic events, but simply having a Eucharist in the
church tradition of the suffering person consistently leads to healing:
Healing comes to the patient through a commitment to Jesus

77 pp. 70, 84.

78 p. 97.
79 p. 97.
80 “The core of our thinking as we draw up Family Trees for the Eucharist must be an active, ever-

present readiness to listen so that we may become more aware of our Lord taking his next
immediate steps in our lives (Gal 2.20) [“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I
who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me”], p. 43.
81 p. 12.
82 p. 22.

27
 Christ as his loving release is accepted…. In all cases of bondage the best
efforts of psychiatry should be utilized to integrate the personality, but it is
essential that they are used in conjunction with prayer and the Eucharist
service which has the power both to break the destructive bondage and to
form life-giving bonds with Jesus Christ. 83

In Dr McAll’s view there are “four distinct stages or movements in the manifestations
of [God’s] healing power which correspond to different prayers” that are offered:
(1) in praying “Deliver us from evil” from the Lord’s Prayer and in taking communion
“old covenants with the evil one” are broken; and we “enter into the New Covenant
with God;” (2) in the many prayers for forgiveness throughout the Eucharist,
“through Jesus Christ we not only forgive the dead but we ask them to forgive us;”
(3) in placing the paper with the family tree on the altar with the elements of bread
and wine, the life of Christ comes to each person prayed for, living or dead; and (4)
with the final blessing and the laying of hands “on the heads of those who are
especially seeking healing … the minister may make the sign of the cross (sometimes
with oil) on their foreheads, thus focusing the healing of Jesus Christ.” 84 This
approach may not appeal to all Orthodox Christians, but it has brought healing to
many persons for many years.

Appendix 2: Spiritual Warfare

In Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance, Frank and Ida Mae Hammond
urge that both “the church and the individual believer must get beyond the concept
of personal deliverance to the concept of spiritual warfare against … the spiritual
hosts of wickedness in heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). 85 Their approach is based
upon the conviction that “deliverance is a process” and that “sin opens the door for

83 p. 21.
84 pp. 22-34.
85 Frank and Ida Mae Hammond, Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance (Kirkwood,

MO; Impact Books, 2016), Foreword.

28
demons to enter” a human being; and those demons must then be identified and
thrown out.86

The Hammonds’ approach is Biblical, grounded in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down
strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ.
Their focus is primarily on the necessity of personal prayer and worship, linked to
the conviction that: “Before the Kingdom of God can ever become a reality in your
life or mine, the forces of hell that beset us must be faced and overcome.”87

Pigs in the Parlor is quite American, written by a couple from East Texas, with close
links to the charismatic renewal. However, its approach is quite practical and
straight-forward focused on such issues as how demons enter a person, how to
determine the need for deliverance, steps to deliverance, retaining deliverance and
intercessory prayer warfare. The ministry of the Hammonds’ was deeply influenced
by the British pastor and Bible scholar, Derek Prince,88 who himself exercised a
powerful ministry of deliverance. It is the prayer of Derek Prince that is used,
insisting on confession and renouncing of sins, and stating firmly: “I forgive all
others as I want you to forgive me.” 89 Reliance is placed on the verse from Acts
2:21: “Whosoever that calls on the name of the Lord shall be delivered”90 and the
person seeking deliverance (or those acting on his or her behalf) pray:

86 p. 57.It is noted that demons often operate in groups; and some 53 common demon groupings
are identified, such as the controlling demon of jealousy is often linked to envy, suspicion, distrust
and selfishness.
87 p. 150. [Page numbers are drawn from an earlier edition.]
88 See Derek Prince, War in Heaven: God’s Epic Battle with Evil (2003); Blessing or Curse: You

Can Choose (1998); and Stephen Mansfield, Derek Prince: A Biography (2005). All three books are
published by Derek Prince Ministries in Baldock, Herts.
89 Hammonds’, p. 107.
90 Derek Prince has translated the Greek word, sōzō, as “delivered,” rather than “saved”. Young’s

Analytical Concordance translates the meaning as “to make or keep sound or safe”. Peter is citing
29
 I call upon you now. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, deliver me and set
me free. Satan, I renounce you and all your works. I loose myself from you, in
the name of Jesus, and I command you to leave me right now, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.91
It is appropriate to raise the question: Is such an approach Orthodox?

There is a strong tradition of deliverance and exorcism in both the Apostolic and
Post-Apostolic Church, as noted in the main text of this lecture. However, many
Christians today of all denominations are not as aware as members of the early
Church were of Peter’s warning: “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). An important underlying
principle has been succinctly stated by the 5th century hermit, St Mark the Ascetic:
He who has been baptized into Christ has already been given grace. But this
grace acts in proportion to the degree that he follows the commandments.
Although this grace never ceases to help us in secret, it lies in our power, in
our will, to do or not to do good. 92
The Orthodox perspective is often to link spiritual warfare with a personal search
for purification from the passions of gluttony, unchastity, avarice, anger, dejection,
listlessness (or envy), self-esteem and pride. 93 In this perspective, “since the
forgetting of God is the ultimate cause of the passions, their healing must begin
with faith.” 94

Joel 2.32: “Then everyone who invokes the Lord’s name will be saved” in which the Hebrew word
is (palatah) ‫פל׳טח‬which the NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament translates as “delivered
one”, so Derek Prince’s personal translation appears to be sound.
91 Hammonds’, p. 107.
92 St Mark’s Texts for Those Who Think to be Justified by Deeds, cited in The Teachings of the

Holy Fathers on the Passions, (Richfield Springs, NY: Nicodemus Orthodox Publication Society,
1986), p. 41.
93 See Dumitru Staniloae, Orthodox Spirituality: A Practical Guide for the Faithful and a Definitive

Manual for the Scholar (South Canaan, PA: St Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary Press,
2002), pp. 77-118.
94 Staniloae, p. 81.

30
Father Dumitru Staniloae focuses on healing rather than deliverance, but he does
note with approval the analysis of Diadochus (mid-5th century) on how the Holy
Spirit makes the “small shadowy attacks (baits) of the demons evident, but also
weakens them, by this holy and glorious light.” 95 Father Dumitru also notes St Mark
the Ascetic’s advice on the danger that “as soon as [the mind] leaves the heart, it
allows the devil to attack and … get to the place where [the mind] welcomes his
evil whisper.” 96 While Father Dumitru acknowledges the need for “the chaining of
demons,” his solution to conflict with the devil focuses primarily on meekness and
humility.97 Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky is more explicit in insisting that in
Orthodox tradition “the origin of sin comes from the devil;” and the New Testament
is clear that “Satan and the evil spirits are constantly attracting people to evil,”
and “the evil spirits rush into the souls and even into the bodies of men [and
women].” 98

The manner in which the battle with the passions involves spiritual warfare with
demons has been traced in considerable detail in Unseen Warfare.99 This work of
Lorenzo Scupoli, a Roman Catholic priest, originally published in Italy in 1569, has
been thrice edited for Orthodox Christians—for Greek readers in the eighteenth
century by the Athonite monk, Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, for Russian readers
in the nineteenth century by St Theophan the Recluse, and for Western readers in
the twentieth century in three books by Jack Sparks. 100 Thus for some three hundred
years, Orthodox Christians have been urged to follow the advice of the monk from
Mount Sinai, St John Climacus (c. 570-c.649) to “flog the foes with the name of our
Lord Jesus,” and to pray and to partake of the Eucharist. 101 Although Scupoli’s

95 p. 164, citing On Spiritual Knowledge 29.

96 p. 164, citing On Baptism, PG 65.1016B.
97 p. 180.
98 Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, pp. 153-154.
99 London: Faber & Faber, 1952.
100 Victory in the Unseen Warfare; Virtue in the Unseen Warfare; and Prayer in the Unseen

Warfare (Ben Lommond, CA: Conciliar Press, 1993, 1995, 1997).

101 pp. 114, 225. See also Father John Mack, Ascending the Heights: A Layman’s Guide to the

Ladder of Divine Ascent (Crestwood, NY: SVSP, 2000).

31
treatise in its numerous editions sees spiritual conflict as a continuing process in
the life of every Christian, it is certainly concerned with healing and deliverance.
An icon portrays vividly the human battle with demons as linked to The Ladder of
Divine Ascent which:
… depicts many people climbing a ladder; at the top is Jesus Christ, prepared
to receive the climbers into Heaven. Also shown are angels helping the
climbers, and demons attempting to shoot with arrows or drag down the
climbers, no matter high up the ladder they may be. Most versions of the icon
show at least one person falling. 102
It should be noted that none of these three cited Orthodox sources—Fathers Dumitru
and Protopresbyter Michael and the edited Father Scupoli—deal explicitly with
deliverance, although there is considerable concern with the role of evil spirits and
the necessity for healing.

The difference with the approach of the Hammonds’ and Derek Prince to a
traditional Orthodox perspective is essentially one of terminology. What the
Hammonds’ call “deliverance” the Orthodox would generally call “exorcism.” The
three exorcisms which begin the Orthodox sacrament of baptism are quite explicit:
The Lord layeth thee under ban, O Devil … I adjure thee by God … Be thou
under ban.… Fear, be gone and depart from this creature, and return not
again, neither hide thyself in him (her), neither seek thou to meet him (her),
nor to influence him (her), either by night or by day….

O Devil … [God] doth command thee, with all thy confederate hosts to depart
hence, from him (her) who hath been newly sealed in the Name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, our true God.

102 See: http://orthodoxwiki.org/The_Ladder_of_Divine_Ascent

32
 O Lord of Sabaoth, 103 the God of Israel, who healest every malady and every
infirmity: Look upon thy servant; prove him/her and search him/her, and root
out of him/her every operation of the Devil. Rebuke the unclean spirits and
expel them, and purify the works of thy hands… 104
Thus the contemporary practice of deliverance is essentially an attempt to ensure
that the exorcisms of baptism are fully implemented in the life of an Orthodox
Christian.

In the Chrismation which follows baptism, the opening prayer from the priest
includes: “Keep him/her in thy sanctification; confirm him/her in the Orthodox
faith; deliver him/her from the Evil One and from all the machinations of the
same. 105 It is only after this prayer that the newly baptised person is sealed with
the gift of the Holy Spirit—an important point in the context of exorcism and
deliverance, because the evil spirits are thrown out before the Holy Spirit is then
called into the person—a practice that should be followed in all exorcisms or prayers
of deliverance in all Christian traditions. Furthermore, in both the Gospels and in
Acts there are many explicit examples of healing and deliverance (or exorcism), as
in Acts 19:12 when the handkerchiefs (or aprons) of Paul were “carried from his
body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.” Thus the
approach of Pigs in the Parlor is in keeping with Orthodox tradition, especially in
the context of exorcism.
=========================================================

Appendix 3: Healing the Eight Stages of Life

103 “Sabaoth” means “armies” or “hosts” and is cited in Isaiah 1:9, Romans 9:29 and James 5:4
as well as elsewhere in the OT.
104 All three exorcisms are drawn from Isabel Florence Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy

Orthodox-Catholic Church (Englewood, NJ: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, 1996),

pp. 272-273.
105 Hapgood, p. 281.

33
In their book Healing the Eight Stages of Life and numerous other studies, 106
Matthew Linn, SJ, Dennis Linn and his wife, Shelia Fabricant Linn, have linked the
work of the psychologist, Erik Erikson, especially his The Life Cycle Completed, 107
to their faith as Christians and their confidence in the power of prayer. As the Linns’
explain, Erikson’s emphasis upon striving for mature social relationships (rather
than sexual fulfilment) offers a framework in which childhood hurts can be healed
within a process of lifelong human growth “with ever new opportunities to discover
gifts of loving.” 108 For the Linns and for many other Christians, “the Holy Spirit is
always renewing us and leading us to a fuller life;”109 and this “fuller life” is
enhanced by the healing of childhood hurts.

Erikson suggests that there are eight stages of life in which key conflicts must be
faced and resolved to live life fully:

110
Stage and Age Crisis to Be Faced Virtue to Be Gained
1. Infancy(until age 2) trust vs. mistrust Hope
2. Early childhood (2-3) autonomy vs. shame & doubt Will
3. Play age (3-5) initiative vs. guilt Purpose
4. School age (6-12) industry vs. inferiority Competence
5. Adolescence (12-18) identity vs. identity confusion Fidelity
6. Young adult (19-35) intimacy vs. isolation Love
7. Adult (35-65) generativity vs. stagnation Care
8. Old age (after 65) integrity vs. despair Wisdom

106 1988. All books, New York: Paulist Press. See also their Sleeping with Bread: Holding What
Gives You Life 1995), Good Goats: Healing Our Image of God (1994), Healing the Purpose of Your
Life (1999) and Simple Ways to Pray for Healing (1998).
107
New York: W. W. Norton, 1982.
108 Linns’, pp. 14-16.
109 Linns’, p. 15.
110 See Linns’ p. 23 and Erickson, pp. 32-33. For each stage, Erikson links the conflict to a “radius

of significant relations” i. e. 1=Maternal Person; 2=Parental Persons; 3=Basic Family;

4=Neighbourhood, School; 5=Peer groups and outgroups; models of leadership; 6=Partners in
friendship, sex, competition and cooperation; 7=Divided labour and shared household; and 8=
“Humankind” or “My kind [of people].”
34
Strikingly, if we fail to resolve some crisis at one stage of our life, we can still
experience healing later “to the extent we let [our hurts] be touched by
unconditional love.” 111

The theology underlying this approach to healing is that of Romans 8:28: “We know
that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called
according to God’s purpose.” For the Linns’, the implication is clear: “God has a
special purpose for each of us, and … God will use our hurts and mistakes to
accomplish that good purpose.”112 This is in keeping with the Roman Catholic
theologian, Bernard Häring’s idea that “it is only when we grasp our unique identity
that we can make a fundamental option for God’s will in our lives.”113 The
contemporary Presbyterian author, Frederick Buechner, suggests that we find this
unique personal vocation, this “place God calls you … where your deep gladness and
the world’s deep hunger meet.” 114

This approach to healing requires considerable personal reflection on one’s

strengths and weaknesses. The Linns stress “the examen” or “examination of
conscience” (linked to the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola), in which a
person or a small group end the day by lighting a candle, becomes “aware of God’s
loving presence” and ask two questions about the day: “For what am I most grateful?
For what am I least grateful?” 115 As Matthew Linn explains, the aim is highly
practical:

111 Linns, Healing the Purpose of Your Life. This perspective in which problems can be faced and
resolved after they have long been present is also relevant in the context of personal relationships
at work when “the problem itself became the catalyst for the creation of even greater trust” as
people tackled “the issues head-on and worked through the difficult problem in a way that
restored confidence…. Transparency is an essential tool in this process”. See Stephen M. R. Covey
and Rebecca R. Merrill, The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2006), pp. 305-306.
112 Healing the Purpose of Your Life, pp. 64-65.
113 Cited in Healing the Purpose of Your Life, p. 18.
114 Cited in Healing the Purpose of Your Life, p. 32.
115 Linns, Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life, pp. 3, 6-8, passim.

35
 I need the examen to help me notice not only what goes wrong but also what
goes right. Each night I first get in touch with what I am grateful for from the
day and I give thanks. Then I ask what I am not grateful for, I name it, feel it,
and appreciate that I am not denying it and God is with me in it. Healing
occurs to the degree I welcome all my feelings and let myself be loved in
them. In this way I honestly acknowledge pain and I take in love. Then I can
usually fall asleep with a grateful heart. 116
There is the further benefit that whatever one is “thinking about when falling asleep
continues to be processed in [the] unconscious during the night” and is often
resolved by the morning. 117

The manner in which the Linns have taken Erikson’s understanding of the life cycle
and placed it within a Christian perspective is attractive. However, their reliance
upon the examen as a means of guidance in finding one’s personal vocation is
somewhat subjective. For those interested in reflecting further on the question of
how to find their personal vocations, the eight essays gathered by Ann Mitsakos
Bezzerides in Christ at Work: Orthodox Christian Perspectives on Vocation are most
helpful.118 The Linns’ would certainly agree with her definition that “vocation is
one’s ongoing and unique way of being in the world that is a response to Christ’s
call to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and one’s neighbour as
oneself.” 119 There would also be general agreement in many Christian communities
with the Orthodox perspective that vocation is “our response to God’s initiative in
first creating and loving us, and in offering his only begotten Son for the salvation
of our souls” and this “response of love … engages the entire being: heart, soul,
mind and strength.” 120

Bezzerides adds:

116 Linns, Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life, p. 10.
117 Linns, Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life, pp. 11, 65.
118 Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2006.
119 Bezzerides, “Introduction,” p. 10.
120 p. 10.

36
 …God-given vocation is borne out in community because it is a response to the
call to love the neighbour. Vocation must entail discovering how each of us
will uniquely love our neighbour: both the neighbour within the same socio-
economic or faith group, and also the neighbour that is not of the same ‘tribe,’
ethnic group, socio-economic class or geographic region—especially the
neighbour in need…. The ongoing process of discovering this unique response
requires careful, ongoing discernment that may be guided well by the
Orthodox cycle of feasts and fasts, and prayer, repentance, confession and
Communion, all of which invite us to a rich life in Christ…. 121
This confrontation with “the neighbour in need”—whether the need is physical,
emotional or spiritual—can be linked to the sacramental life, which then helps
Christians to find their unique personal vocations.

Whether any of the three approaches to healing described in these appendices work
for a particular person—either as a healer or in being healed—is essentially a matter
of experience. Each approach is sufficiently Biblically-based and Orthodox that each
can be tasted and tested, preferably with the support of a pastor or friend. Just as
one icon speaks to one person and another icon communicates to another person,
so personal healing and deliverance are unique experiences that we each can mould
into our own relationships, prayer lives and sacramental opportunities.

121 p. 11.
37