Healing as transformation and restoration: A ritual-liturgical exploration

Abstract

Illness is a reality that affects all people, and healing is the main reason why people attend worship services in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Ritual Studies scholar Ronald Grimes, illness is a social reality; it is socially imagined and constructed. Healing in the church is something that many believers experience, also in the context of worship and liturgy. In order to explore such healing as it occurs in liturgy a research project was undertaken making use of both empirical work and a literature study. The aim of this research was to take the light off of direct pastoral care and investigate how the liturgy affects individuals within the congregation with regard to healing. A praxis-theory cycle was followed in the research, and a preliminary liturgical theory for praxis was developed based on the insight from the empirical study and ritual theory that healing through worship entails either transformation or reconciliation.

“Lest We Forget”: A Postapartheid Perspective on Remembering in Liturgy for Healing and Justice

“…Healing, from a pastoral care perspective, can take many forms including but not limited to reconciliation, restoration, and/or transformation (cf. Scott & Wepener, 2017), whilst also understanding that liturgy can, and does, “provide a safe space for people to remember and narrate traumatic experiences” (van Ommen, 2019, p. 204). In terms of the traditional form of Remembrance Day, which typically honors any and all British soldiers that lost their lives during any recognized conflict, there may be a significantly lesser need for healing than in the context of postapartheid South Africa for example.…”

“…Journeying from subjects to citizens, to quote Ramphele, points toward healing as transformation. As discussed by Scott and Wepener (2017, p. 4), transformation usually requires a momentous metamorphosis which is associated with and defines a rite of passage. However, transformation can also be experienced as an “open and on-going process” (Scott & Wepener, 2017, p. 4).…”

“…As discussed by Scott and Wepener (2017, p. 4), transformation usually requires a momentous metamorphosis which is associated with and defines a rite of passage. However, transformation can also be experienced as an “open and on-going process” (Scott & Wepener, 2017, p. 4). In the example shared by Scott and Wepener (2017, p. 4), there is still a metamorphosis; however it was a “slower process as a result of continual ritual practice in the form of weekly worship.” This necessary process could be referred to as a journey that concludes with people being at a place or state from which they cannot return: liberated citizens.…”

“…However, transformation can also be experienced as an “open and on-going process” (Scott & Wepener, 2017, p. 4). In the example shared by Scott and Wepener (2017, p. 4), there is still a metamorphosis; however it was a “slower process as a result of continual ritual practice in the form of weekly worship.” This necessary process could be referred to as a journey that concludes with people being at a place or state from which they cannot return: liberated citizens. Once this has been achieved, the focus can be shifted from “remembering for healing” to “remembering to prevent” which will be described and discussed next.…”

“…From a Ritual Studies perspective, transformation involves a “momentous metamorphosis” that alters one’s identity and social positioning (cf. Scott & Wepener, 2017, p. 4; Bell, 1997; Grimes, 2000). Transformation then, when considering rituals and rites of passage, is the “transportation of a person from one state of being to another” from which they are unable to return (Scott & Wepener, 2017, p. 4).…”