Written by Rev. Melinda McMahon | National Director of SOMA Australia
Greetings to all SOMA Missioners,
Perhaps you have had moments when the Lord
cuts into your thinking and suddenly you have
clarity of vision and a renewed sense of purpose.
One such time for me was at my first SOMA National Directors’ meeting in August this year.
It seemed like a new season for SOMA. Rev. Henry Blair had commenced as International Coordinator with SOMA UK and Rev. Andrew Allan-Johns, SOMA International Chair, had received advice that SOMA US was reluctant to participate in SOMA International missions. The prospect of this later separation evoked concern and deep regret. So, Rev. Andrew called us to pause in listening prayer, to be guided by the Spirit of God as to how we should proceed in this new season.
It was during this period of quietness that a scene from a movie, titled, “7 Yards. The Chris Norton Story”, I had watched a few weeks earlier, flashed before me. Chris Norton, a young footballer, had become paralysed from the waist down after a life-altering tackle. He was told by his doctors he would never walk again.
Immediately I saw the connection between the movie and the current state of the global Anglican communion.
Are not the legs of Christ’s Anglican body inflicted with paralysis, suffering such serious nerve damage, that her ability to walk and run is impaired?
The scene before me served as a reminder of the words a SOMA leader received in the early days of the formation of SOMA. He had heard Jesus’ cry,
“I weep over my broken body. When one part of the body is in pain, the other parts do not feel the pain …”[1]
It was precisely the pain of simmering friction within the global Anglican Communion in 1978 all those decades ago that prompted a prophetic word to form a ministry that would release the Holy Spirit to tend to the nervous system of the Anglican Church.
However, it was not the scene of Chris Norton’s paralysed body that the Spirit quickened within me. Rather it was the occasion when Chris awoke one morning with a noticeable sensation in his big toe.
So marked was the tingling that his body pulsated with a sense of hope and anticipation. Could it be true? Would God be so gracious as to do a work of healing in his body? Might it be possible that his dream to walk his fiancé down the aisle in the coming months come true?
And so it was. Hope fuelled faith, faith birthed perseverance, and after seven years of agonising physiotherapy, Chris’ dream became a reality.
In our current situation we might well ask:
How might the Spirit use SOMA to tend to the nerve damaged body of the Anglican Communion in this season?
Over the past five decades SOMA teams have fulfilled their calling to be the means by which the Holy Spirit brings healing, reconciliation, renewal and revitalisation, to the body of Christ, and especially to those in most need.
SOMA teams are, many ways, like the nerve fibres which bring the Holy Spirit’s healing and restoration to different members of Christ’s body.
The scene quickened by the Spirit enabled me to glimpse the significance of SOMA International continuing its missions across the world. Perhaps our continuance in bringing teams of Anglicans from various diocese to minister together in the power of the Spirit, might serve as a ‘tingling’ of hope to those of SOMA US, that the Lord Jesus would have his people continue sending His healing and restorative power to all members of the Anglican communion.
Is the Lord calling SOMA to be the fibres connecting the various members of Christ’s broken, injured body?
From its conception, a core value of SOMA has been its reliance on intercessory prayer for the release of the Spirit’s power throughout the body of Christ.
This call for prayer was highlighted at the most recent National Director’s meeting, when there was resounding agreement of the need for prayer to resume its rightful priority. To that end, National Directors were challenged to raise up intercessory prayer co-ordinators in each of their home countries.
However, Jesus taught us that there are situations when prayer alone may not be sufficient, when prayer needs to be accompanied by fasting. For prayer and fasting enables the Lord to teach us humility, to inspire us towards justice, to release us from oppression, and to enrich our sense of generosity (Isaiah 58:6-10)
The Lord’s promise is firm to those who fast in prayer:
“You will be given water when you are dry
and your strength restored.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like an ever-flowing spring. (v11b)
Is not this the very season when the body of Christ needs her strength to be restored and her innermost parts to be healed?”
In a recent conversation with John Wyndham, author of “From Everywhere to Everywhere: The Story of Sharing of Ministries Abroad”, I was reminded,
“Intercession is the foundation upon which SOMA’s ministry and mission are secured … in fact mission and ministry are the two legs that make it run.”
So, let’s keep running and praying that the body of Christ might be nurtured and maintained as mission teams go forth across the world to build up Christ’s body.”[2] During this Advent season of expectation of our Saviour’s return, let us “keep watch” and “be alert and pray for the coming of your Lord”. As SOMA Missioners who have responded to the call of the Lord Jesus, let us continue to be the fibres through which the Holy Spirit brings healing and restoration to our broken world. Yours in the power of the Spirit, Rev. Mel
[1] From Everywhere to Everywhere, John Wyndham, page 23.
[2] John Wyndham, From Everywhere to Everywhere, page 136-137.