[Magdalen] Morton Kelsey, a mentor in healing

[Grace Cangialosi]

Yes, Sally, I think Morton Kelsey is pretty widely known here, at least in Episcopal circles.  He was a priest and the author of a number of books.
He also led workshops, and I had the good fortune to attend one at the Church of the Saviour-an ecumenical church--in D.C. He always asked to have a woman concelebrate to the Eucharist, and I got to do that at the two services. The thing I remember most is that he requested non-alcoholic wine. The C of S only uses grape juice, so I'm not sure which he ended up using, but we talked about that, and he explained that he always insisted on the non-alcoholic wine, even in Episcopal churches, out of concern for those who might be struggling with addiction.

His books include "The Other Side of Silence: Meditation for the Twentieth Century" (which I loved), "Dreams: a Way To Listen to God," "Companions on the Inner Way: the Art of Spiritual Guidance," "Healing and Christianity," and a number of others. I think his writing was somewhat supplanted by Henry Nouwen's. I remember him as a gentle, kindly man.



> On Apr 23, 2015, at 1:02 AM, sally.davies at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Our church has organised a seminar on healing this week, presented by
> Alexanter Venter from the Vineyard Fellowship who does a lot of lay
> training in this area.
> 
> We were off to a good start last night - friendly, relaxed presenting
> style, and interesting scholarship behind it as far as I can tell with my
> own limited knowledge.
> 
> He mentioned the difference in worldview between Western and Eastern,
> especially in terms of what we can know and whether this is more based on
> experience/relationship or more in objective knowledge/rationalism.
> 
> For me, it's a very key issue because it comes up all the time in the
> course of our work; and as a trained health professional working in a
> medical environment but also with an interest in "wholistic" understandings
> of health and healing, I feel very caught in the midst of it - especially
> considering that many of our cultures here in South Africa are very much
> not in the "Western" mindset.
> 
> I am decidedly not amongst those who will routinely rubbish "Western
> rationalism" because I find (in Western contexts at least) that forays into
> the other worldview can have unintended and often dangerous consequences.
> But nor can we dismiss the other framework, not least because it's the
> typical framework of all Scripture as well as many Christian Saints and
> scholars from that day to this.
> 
> Along the way, the presenter mentioned an American priest called Morton
> Kelsey (I think that's the name) whom he credited as a mentor and an
> inspiration in the ministry of healing.
> 
> He's also worked alongside John Wimber for a season, which must have been
> an amazing experience (he did a very funny impression of an
> African-American worship leader singing "Cain killed Abel with the leg of a
> table" which he'd actually heard during his time in the USA).
> 
> I was wondering if anyone here knew Morton Kelsey or knew of him?
> 
> Sally D