Healing Liturgies for the Seasons of Life

Rating:
Summary: Healing Liturgies: a major new and innovative worship aid
Review: Healing Liturgies is a novel and extraordinary contribution to protestant worship in an area that has long been overlooked. It would be well if this book found its way into the pews of all of our churches as a way of centering the full spectrum of experiences and emotions that we experience as we traverse the seasons of our lives.

Dr. Evans has done an exceptional job in researching, editing, amending and adapting source material from traditional as well as original sources and melding these into a schema that brings a unity and vibrancy to the whole. Its major contribution, however, is in enabling the whole of our congregations to reach into the souls of its individual members, share the joy of joyful moments and share equally the terrible sorrow that attends the tragedies that are a part of all of our lives.

In assembling these many liturgies, Dr. Evans provides a wholeness that gives balance to lives highs and lows of life and gives meaning to both. This, it seems, is the missing ingredient in much of our contemporary worship.

She provides us sections on childhood, early to middle adulthood, late adulthood and the older adult in which poignant events are highlighted in each section, with commentary, reflection and liturgies that can be used in worship or as springboards for communal discussion.

Healing liturgies provides new perspectives on issues such as life altering illnesses, disabilities, mental illness, addiction, domestic violence and sexual abuse. It offers resources for use during hospitalization, general healing services and a multitude of specific conditions or diseases. It also addresses the "broken world" focusing on community needs, prejudice, criminal justice and the need for communal reconciliation.

This wonderful resource is highly recommended for pastors and for congregations.