Valparaiso University ValpoScholar Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers Institute of Liturgical Studies 4-17-2007 Rituals of Care: A Look at the Church's Ministry with the Sick Lizette Larson-Miller Church Divinity School of the Pacific Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/ils_papers Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Larson-Miller, Lizette, "Rituals of Care: A Look at the Church's Ministry with the Sick" (2007). Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers. Paper 9. http://scholar.valpo.edu/ils_papers/9 This Conference Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute of Liturgical Studies at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at
[email protected]. Rituals of Care: A Look at the Church’s Ministry with the Sick by The Rev. Lizette Larson-Miller, Ph.D. Nancy and Michael Kaehr Professor of Liturgical Leadership and Dean of the Chapel Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA on the occasion of the Institute of Liturgical Studies, April 17, 2007 Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana I had an interesting experience last month writing an article on Christian healing for a journal of medicine. The parameters of the requested article were a bit vague, and as I prodded the editor with questions I realized just how much I was in un-chartered territory. The familiar concepts (or, more to the point) the familiar assumptions that are part of an insider conversation theologically and ecclesiologically were missing, and I found myself having to carefully spell out the focus of what I thought might be helpful to discuss in a journal read solely by health professionals.